The Cloud Hunters

In a world where water is scarce and deadly jellyfish swim through the sky, mollycoddled teenager Christien dreams of excitement and danger. When he meets the exotic and alluring Jennie and her family of Cloud Hunters, he becomes determined to fulfill that dream.

About the Author

Alex Shearer (born June 25, 1949) is a British novelist.

Shearer was recognized as a television scenario writer at age 29 after having produced over 30 works. He was active as a writer for television, movies, theatre, and radio (including plays for BBC Radio 4) for 14 years, and then devoted himself to becoming a novelist.

His maiden work was The Dream Maker (1996). It was especially popular as a children's adventure novel, and he was highly esteemed as an internationally bestselling novelist. In Britain, he had a place among young adult genre reviews, but his work extended beyond into various genres. Shearer himself has said that he hates genre divisions (February 2, 2009, during a talk show in an Ikebukuro bookstore). He also finds it appealing to continually challenge himself by creating new concepts rather than writing series novels.

Perhaps it's also due to his origins as a scenario writer, but he come to specialize in adopting trivial events which occurred at home and such as his themes and delving into them deeply. Also, he writes quickly, having written The Great Blue Yonder within three weeks (mentioned on the same talk show). He writes at a pace of two books a year, and has already had over 25 titles published.

His 2003 novel The Speed of the Dark was shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. The Greatest Store in the World was adapted into a television film by the BBC. His novel Bootleg was adapted for a television series by the BBC, and later adapted into manga and anime under its Japanese title Chocolate Underground.