Review
Distinguished Favorite from the 2023 Independent Press Award @GabbyBookAwards
Winner of the Artisan Book Reviews 2022 Book Excellence Award for the science fiction genre
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The story is an honest examination of human character and creates realistic characters and powerful organizations that depict real human conflict. Though flawed, the protagonists are determined, and they fight for their place on Dolvia's savannah despite the challenges they face. The book beautifully shows what can be achieved through unity, and sensitizes readers about the problems marginalized groups face. It aptly portrays women's strength and resilience through the tribal women who work together to save their children during a war zone crisis. --@ArtisanReads
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"This space colonization novel is far more than standard sci-fi; it is a femme-led examination of our societal ills, and a celebration of the strength found through open-mindedness and sisterhood. With diverse narrative voices, remarkably detailed world-building, and a strong coming-of-age theme for characters and communities alike, this is a powerful start to a new series." - Self-Publishing Review, ★★★★★
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BookLife Review ******Editor's Pick, 10/31 issue******
"Dr. Greensboro's development is affecting and multi-faceted, as she forms bonds with lizard-like gualareps (one of many delightful creations) and fields a marriage proposal.
Most striking is Atrium's rich, convincing worldbuilding, as she reveals—with a storyteller's concision but an anthropologist's depth—a host of cultures, species, locales, rituals, and beliefs. Feasts and ceremonies are as thrilling as the accounts of deprivation and colonial cruelty are harrowing. A common thread throughout is the tendency of men with power to rob women of their autonomy, giving an urgent edge to Dr. Greensboro's discovery of her own cause and power."
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"The parallels Stella Atrium draws between the commodification of tribal people and ethnographic feudalism is a stomach-churning piece of 21st-century realism.
As a man of color raising daughters of color, having spent my own entire childhood in a third-world country, I know what living under martial law looks like. I know what the refugee experience feels like. I know what it means to be viewed in a foreign land as 'other' and 'less than'...and Stella Atrium nails it.
The Tribal Wars series is an ambitious undertaking but, based on Book I, it's likely to be a brilliant one." --Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite
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An extraordinary writing style with a blend of intricate world-building, expressive vivid and detailed descriptions and excellent, interesting and some very intriguing characters. Chick Lit Café highly recommends The Bush Clinic.
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The Bush Clinic is an imaginative and deeply thoughtful space opera that surprised me with its depth. Science fiction elements serve to create a fantastic background to contemporary issues people face in third-world countries today and provide creative twists to distill modern issues down into a poignant narrative. Atrium channels the best of Frank Herbert's Dune in the way it utilizes epic fantasy to tell a tale of oppression and colonization. I found The Bush Clinic to be a moving and impassioned story; possibly because I was able to relate to the characters. -- Literary Titan
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It is the mark of a good book when you're so lost in the pages that when you finally look up, you realize you are halfway through the story, "The Bush Clinic" was one of those reads. While it clocks in at nearly 500 pages, chock-full of plot and story, it read faster than some shorter page length novels I've encountered.
Atrium has crafted a series kickoff that leaves readers bracing for more as the characters draw you in and hold you in their unique narratives -- Reader Views
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"Atrium touches upon topics such as the role of women in a war-rooted society, the impact on culture with corporate exploitation of a land and its people. I found myself invested from start to finish and highly recommend it to readers who enjoy thematically rich stories." - Reader's Favorite
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"An emotionally intimate narrative for sci-fi fans, with broad themes that appeal to a mainstream audience too." - Kirkus Review
"The Bush Clinic is vivid world-building at its best, as gripping as it is poignant. A wonderfully well written book for sci-fi fans everywhere. Without shying away from difficult subjects and emotions, the author weaves a tale that is fraught with hard decisions in the face of life's struggles. I would suggest that at the end, readers will ask deep questions about what they want to fight for!" - Books Go Social
From the Author
Stella Atrium is a cynical septuagenarian. She has spent a lifetime exploring female characters for real world reactions to obstacles. Often pushed into submissive and non-verbal roles, women really live in a world of networking among aunties, cousins, wives of husbands, convenient friends and neighbors. This rich world is largely unexplored.
"I grew up with all brothers, so I knew about women from stories and from school. What I found at school wasn't anything like in the stories, so I set out to learn why."
From the Back Cover
On Dolvia, Lt. Mike Shaw demands Dr. Greensboro's doctoring skills at the hospital, forcing the closure of her bush clinic. She witnesses forced labor, forced migration, and the threat of an epidemic from bad water. She sees how tribal women-often wearing burkas-find solutions for saving the children in a conflict zone, and she commits to their cause for Home Rule.
Brianna Miller is an isolated girl-a mixed-blood orphan-among the Dolviet tribes. With the lessons from Dr. Greensboro, the abuse from soldiers, and the sisterhood among victims, Brianna prepares for a future she will choose for herself. But first she must travel offworld.
About the Author
Stella Atrium writes speculative fiction and most recently THE TRIBAL WARS series located on Dolvia in the galaxy's Westend beyond the wormhole. Three novels are published with plans to release the second trilogy in 2024.
Atrium taught at university for 18 years including a course she developed about migration flows that looked at political trends among nations, how personalities can dictate policy, practical impacts on communities, and personal stories of migrants into the USA.
Atrium lives in Chicago, Illinois and continues to teach online creative writing courses.
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THE BUSH CLINIC received an Editor's Pick from BookLife, a 2022 Artisan Book Review award, and a 2023 Independent Press award for Science Fiction.
The second novel titled THE BODY POLITIC also received an Editor's Pick from BookLife, an Artisan Book Review award, and a ReadersView award.
HOME RULE is the title for book 3 released in May 2023, securing an Editor's Pick from BookLife, a Global Books award, a Book Excellence Finalist award, a Literary Titan medallion, and another coveted Artisan Book Review Award for Science Fiction.
TRIBAL LOGIC: Book IV of The Tribal Wars is scheduled for release in January 2024.
Also be certain to pick up Atrium's standalone novel SEVEN BEYOND that won an Editor's Pick from BookLife, and a 2014 Reader's Favorites Award in Science Fiction.
