THIRTY-TWO WOMEN. ONE ARENA. A BATTLE TO THE DEATH.
After a long war, corporations have replaced countries. Sports are fought to the death. The most popular game is Last Valkyrie, a live tournament where women kill each other for marriage into a powerful family.
For Nova, living in poverty with her mother and sister is a harsh reality that she cannot escape. But when she is kidnapped and forced to fight on the show, her world changes. If she refuses to fight, the bomb in her head goes off. Now winning means her freedom.
With death lurking at every moment, Nova has no idea if her next fight will be her last. But one thing she knows for certain: only one is making it out alive.
Perfect for fans of Hunger Games, The Selection, and The Princess Trials. You won’t want to put down this exciting page-turner!
Will Scifi is a pen name for an author from and based in California. He loves writing mainly science fiction that touches on themes surrounding modern day culture and society. Outside of writing, he loves going to the gym, theater, watching tv, reading comics and books, and playing video games. He thanks all of his fans for their support and highly encourages anyone who has read his work to always leave a review. Reviews go a long way in helping the author!
My thoughts: with elements of The Hunger Games, this dystopian sci-fi book focuses on Nova, the latest in a long line of young women forced to participate in a fight to the death in The Last Valkyrie. She doesn’t want to be there, but it’s kill or be killed.
As she competes in the televised matches, she’s increasingly angry at the hypocrisy of the society she lives in, where some people struggle to get by and others have all the wealth and power. Her anger grows with each dead woman and when she snaps finally, chaos ensues. Nova isn’t going to toe the line, she’s going to tear it all down.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own
Logan Hall is a Vagrant, one of the disenfranchised living beneath the mega city of New Washington. The Vagrants have to hide from the Company who is rounding all of them up and shipping them to newly discovered planets to work in the mines. That’s what happened to Logan’s father.
Shayna is one of the privileged. She has a chip, a credit disc, and lives in a shiny stainless steel and glass high-rise above ground. Shayna is allergic to corn so she is one of the few above ground people who is not stoned on Sopore. Sopore is a drug found in genetically altered corn. It’s in almost all food. The Vagrants know about Sopore and avoid it.
These two teens from wildly differing environments meet by accident and fall in love. Logan will stop at nothing to rescue his friend Raj, captured and sent to the moon. Together, he and Shayna will follow his dream of finding his father who was sent to work in the mines of Gliess 67.
Logan opened the heavy door to the cold locker slowly and peered out. It was night. He knew only a skeleton crew manned the morgue at night because there was a shortage of qualified help in the cities. There was a shortage of trained workers all over the world. Ever since John Demaris discovered what he named the warp drive after the hyper drive in Star Trek, and space travel to far worlds became a reality, the government had been rounding up every able-bodied man on the planet and shipping them off-world to work the mines of faraway galaxies. That’s where Logan’s father was. He’d been caught and shipped off to what the Mole People called Planet 666, Gliese 667, a brown planet with enough water to maintain life and lots and lots of gold. “Come on,” he said to Raj. “We have to make the pickup in five minutes.” They found hospital scrubs in a cupboard and put them on. Dressed like every hospital employee, the two boys slipped through the dark hallways of the hospital, took the stairs to the ground floor and then ducked outside. Logan led the way around the building to the alley in the back and the row of garbage containers behind the Emergency Room. He shoved Raj behind one marked with a red biohazard tag and squatted down to wait. “What’re we waiting for now?” Raj asked. Logan took out half of a cigarette and lit it with a match he took from a plastic bag. He inhaled deeply and Raj shook his head. “Why do you do that?” “Cause my dad did. He loved a good smoke and so does I. It’s relaxing to me. I get pretty cranked runnin’ through the tunnels and you need a calm head about you to survive.” The glass doors of the ER slid open with a sucking sound and Logan peaked around the edge of the trash container and there she was . . . his angel. “Wow!” Raj breathed. “What a dynamite chick.” “Don’t even look at her, mole. She’s so far above us, she don’t even exist. She’s a vision, an angel from above.” “Well, your angel is toting a white plastic bag. Is that our package?” Logan nodded. When Raj leaned across Logan to get a better look, he accidentally shoved Logan who reached out to catch himself from falling on his face and banged the edge of the container. The angel gasped and looked right into his eyes. She was so beautiful. Her long black hair swung over one shoulder when she bent over to look at him through the clearest brown eyes Logan had ever seen. They were filled with the innocence of the protected, a girl who had never eaten roasted rat or run for her life into tunnels so deep beneath the city you encountered an even worse nightmare, the Worms. And then it hit him. Her pupils were small, her gaze focused. Unlike the majority of the people who lived topside, she looked straight. “Who are you?” his angel asked. Logan stood up and brushed the top layer of filth off his borrowed scrubs. He straightened his back and shoved a lock of dirty blond hair out of his eyes. “I’m Logan. I come from down there.” He pointed to his feet then grabbed Raj by the shoulder. “This is my little buddy, Raj.” She backed up rapidly still clutching the white-plastic bag. “You’re one of them? You live underground?” Logan thrust his well-developed chest out and lifted his chin. “Yeah, we’re not animals you know. We’re people, too.” Shayna Nagata was in shock. All her life she’d been bombarded with horror stories about the people who lived underground. The homeless, the poor, the mutated animals no one wanted would come out of the manholes at night and feed on the children of the rich and privileged. Her parents had drummed it into her head. Never, ever, ever talk to anyone you think does not belong above ground. They have no chips. They have no credit and no job. They kill people like her and steal children away to feed on under the earth. She reached out a shaking hand and touched his arm. It was thick and corded, not like the soft white arm of her father who was a lawyer. “You’re real.” “Yeah, I’m real and you’re not stoned. What’s wrong with you?” She backed away again clutching the plastic bag. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” “Your eyes, doll, you’re not bombed, stoned, high on drugs, you’re not sedated.” Then she understood. “I can’t eat corn. It gives me bumps.” The larger boy who said his name was Logan laughed and elbowed his smaller friend. “She’s gotta be the one person topside besides the doctor that ain’t zonked. How funny is that?” He turned back to her and she noticed his blue eyes were clear, his gaze sharply assessing, and he was laughing at her because she was different. “It’s not my fault.” And then he smiled and she noticed how white his teeth were. He even had big eye teeth and two crooked ones on the bottom. Everyone she knew had perfect, white, dental implants or veneers. “I’m allergic.” “So you can’t take the drug. Your life must be really weird.” She shrugged. “They try to give me pills. I don’t like them.” The entire population was addicted to a drug called Sopore. Sopore was a sedative genetically bred into corn by the chemical giant Monsonta. Corn, corn syrup, corn flour, corn starch, corn everything was in all the food. Shayna couldn’t eat it so she had to eat special food her mother bought. Her parents tried to feed her the pills prescribed by her doctor to make her like everyone else, but she didn’t like the way they made her feel, so she spit them out when no one was looking.
My mother and I started writing young adult and action novels together about five years ago. We work well together because we share many of the same interests. I have a degree in journalism and currently teach middle school in Jacksonville, Florida where I live with my wife and twelve-year old son.
I’m the daughter of a Marine Corps colonel. I lived the military life until I got out of high school. At that point I was a wild child. I got married and moved to Canada where I lived up the Sechelt Inlet, the scene for Spellcast Waters. I lived in a log cabin, with wood heat and a wood cook stove fifteen miles by boat from the nearest town. I’ve moved a lot. Between the military upbringing and just rambling around the country, I’ve moved 40 times.
I lived in Hawaii and worked as a polo groom for fifteen years. I love horses and I paint, and I write. Now I live in the swampland of Florida with too many dogs and my fifteen-year old granddaughter. Life is beautiful. Live in the moment.
My thoughts: this was really good, I felt like I’d only just started it but was actually half way through, that’s how hooked I was. The premise is really clever and the characters are engaging and you’ll find yourself rooting for them.
The idea of a vast evil corporation essentially drugging everyone with a sugar derivative doesn’t actually feel that unrealistic, and I did laugh at the name the authors chose for it, just rearrange a couple of letters. There’s a lot of racing against time and I get claustrophobic so I felt for Shayna when she first encounters all the tunnels and forgotten pipes Logan and his friends crawl through beneath the city. I would not be able to do that.
The ending sets up a new adventure for the next book, and you wonder whether Eddie’s plan has worked and how the Vagrants are going to survive when they’re being hunted by the evil security forces of the corporation and the gangsters they upset. Fingers crossed they’ve got a plan!
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Shadow Bound Souls, blends Science Fiction and classic high fantasy in a steampunk world.
The Sagean Lord has emerged.
While the Wrythen’s influence grows stronger, the Sagean and his power-hungry acolytes, the Court of Dragons, are intent on delivering the gem of souls to the Temple of Ama; where the Sintering Fountain can transform the acolytes into Luminaries.
Meanwhile, the band of heroes find themselves separated in a world starting to tear itself apart. Having suffered a huge loss, Ellaria and Elias must escape the Mainland with the Sagean’s agents pursuing them. When Elias becomes sick, Ellaria decides to hide amongst the Showman’s Traveling Show of Wonders. But their journey is shadowed by darkness and when troupe members turn up murdered, Ellaria struggles to find the killer amongst her company.
Far away in the Warhawk Mountains, the three young rogues are stranded with the Tempest Stone. Aimless about what to do, their paths take a turn when they discover the horrifying magnitude of the Sagean’s return to power, the Scree.
Excerpt A fog drifted amongst the looming masses of tents and travel-crafts. A man stepped from shadow to shadow with a blood-soaked knife. Ellaria could feel him stalking her, but she couldn't see him. A slight disturbance in the grass, a crunch in the dirt, whispered of his position. But the sound was lost in the wind before she could locate its source. Where had everyone gone, she wondered. The entirety of the fairgrounds was empty. With a lantern in her hands, she weaved around the trampled paths through the large field, the darkness of the night yet to give way to the morning light. No matter where she looked, she couldn't find anyone. She heard a sharp ringing sound from the caravan circle, and she rushed from around a carriage house to the center space. At the center was a tall man with a top hat. The soft glow of the surrounding carriages provided only enough light to softly illuminate the fog and patches of the ground, leaving the man mostly disguised. He leaned slightly on a cane and his right hand at his side held a long-curved knife. In succession, the lanterns started to wane and extinguish from behind him. Gradually, each light winked out of existence in a progression toward her and the darkness consumed the circle yard. Her own light held, and she lifted it forward to see. A sinister smile on the pale man was now only a few feet away. She couldn't breathe. She tried to scream, but nothing came out. The man's face appeared, and she almost recognized him, but his eyes were missing. Like they had been burned out of his skull. “Hello, Ms. Moonstone,” he spoke in a smoky voice that sent a shiver run down her spine. “Who are you?” Ellaria said. “Don't you know? Don't you recognize me?” “No.” “What a shame, after so many encounters, too,” he said, and lifted the blade. A reflection appeared in the steel of a man she did recognize: Elias. And the pale man laughed. A dark mocking laugh that made her skin crawl. Her hand trembled and Ellaria threw the lantern at his feet...
A fallen empire, a failed republic, and a frontier of alchemy, magic and machines…
They thought the war was over. That they had given enough, but when an oppressive empire falls, what comes from the ashes, is turmoil and treachery.
Ellaria Moonstone, an alchemist, and a hero of the Great War, has spent the last forty years trying to rebuild. An emissary for the Scholar’s Guild, her life’s work has been in establishing universities throughout the world. But as a former general that led the resistance in overthrowing the Sagean Empire, she has watched as all she fought for has slowly eroded away and with it, her faith in the republic. Now in her mid-fifties her singular focus has been to protect all knowledge for future generations.
When Ellaria is suspiciously requested to attend a meeting in the capitol city of Adalon, she quickly realizes something is amiss and the main governing body the Coalition of Nations may be compromised. When the Peace King of the Free Cities goes missing the plot to overthrow the tenuous republic takes shape, and Ellaria becomes convinced that the entity manipulating the fragile government is in servitude to a new Sagean Emperor. A Luminary with the powers to control energy.
Now the Coalition is intent on hunting down and capturing the man that defeated the last Sagean Emperor. The greatest hero of the war, Qudin Lightweaver. However, Ellaria’s old friend has not been seen in twenty years. With no one left to trust, she sends for help from old allies and expatriates scattered across the chaotic frontier. Once reunited, the aging veterans realize trust between old friends is not what it once was.
Three former war heroes, long past their prime and haunted by their pasts, are all that stand against a dark entity threatening the future. With the currency of souls is in the balance they find their destinies are entwined with a band of young rogues. Together they must stop the return of a dark empire. While each path to the truth is rot with peril, they discover the key to protecting the future resides in the mysteries of the past. The quest for a lost tomb ensues and the recovery of a relic from the time of the unknown ancients, called the Tempest Stone.
The Binding Tempest is the beginning of an immerse saga, of magic, alchemy, airships, and ancient mysteries. A new epic Sci-Fi and Fantasy series that is a classic High Fantasy Adventure injected with Steampunk science. For fans of The Wheel of Time series, Shadow and Bone and the Stormlight Archives.
Enter for a chance to win a signed hardcover edition of The Binding Tempest (International) a Rafflecopter giveaway
Steven Rudy received a degree in Environmental Design and Architecture from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He currently lives in Colorado with his wife and three kids and works as an architectural designer on historic preservation projects and residential projects.
My thoughts: this is an action packed steampunk sci-fi fantasy novel, that picks up right after book one (so read that first). Traversing entire continents the gang are reunited only to be separated again as they seek to stop the evil Sagean Emperor from seizing power and unleashing the Wrythen on the world.
Racing against time and with only the vaguest idea of what to do, not helped by Elias being in a coma for a bit, even Ellaria and Rovan are a bit of a loss, let alone the younger contingent, who weren’t even alive yet last time the Sagean had to be stopped. But with some luck, some help from old friends and new, oh and Tali’s increasingly strong powers, they might just be able to get to the temple in time…or not.
The plot rips along at a break neck pace at times, and there’s a lot going on, new characters, new peoples, gunfights, sword fights, giant monsters, kidnap, murder, some leaping from windows, y’know the usual adventure stuff when there’s a world to save and no one really knows what they’re doing! Great fun, roll on book three!
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own
In an all-too-possible near future, when genetic engineering has become the norm for humans, parents are prepared to take incalculable risks to ensure that their babies are perfect – altering genes that may cause illness, and more… Susan has been trying for a baby for years, and when an impulsive one-night stand makes her dream come true, she’ll do anything to keep her daughter and ensure her husband doesn’t find out … including the unthinkable. She believes her secret is safe. For now. But as governments embark on a perilous genetic arms race and children around the globe start experiencing a host of distressing symptoms – even taking their own lives – something truly horrendous is unleashed. Because those children have only one thing in common, and people are starting to ask questions…
Eve Smith writes speculative fiction – mainly about the things that scare her – which she attributes to a childhood watching Tales of the Unexpected and black-and-white Edgar Allen Poe double bills. Previously COO of an environmental charity, she has an ongoing passion for wild creatures, wild science and far-flung places. Twitter @evecsmith; Instagram: evesmithauthor; Facebook: EveSmithAuthor and http://www.evesmithauthor.com.
My thoughts: Eve Smith doesn’t shy away from tackling big themes and controversial topics, such as this one – gene tweaking and rewriting unborn children’s DNA. With the development of CRISPR technology (the team won a Nobel for it) this has been debated – the idea of removing faults in DNA to eradicate some of the worst medical conditions has generated a lot of concern from the disabled community – if you could ensure your child wouldn’t get cancer or be born with Down’s Syndrome, would you?
Smith has taken this to extremes – Susan has part of her unborn daughter’s removed and replaced so that her husband is now technically the baby’s father. She also has genetic predisposition to addiction and heart problems removed. But once her daughter has got older, other issues start to emerge and it becomes increasingly political.
I felt for Simon, the husband, and Susan’s daughter, Zurel, who have no idea what’s happened and have to deal with the fallout after Susan’s clinic is doxxed and her details are released. Zurel loses all her privacy and she’s the victim, it’s just really sad. She’s only a child and hasn’t got the mental resources to manage all the revelations.
This book raises all sorts of questions and really made me think where I would stand in this sort of situation. I’m fascinated by all of this incredible technology and what it could mean for future humans, as is the author, so it’s something I have done some reading on elsewhere and honestly I don’t know where I fall, it can be really complex. Honestly the book was so compelling a read and so thought provoking I think it really needs multiple re-reads.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
She belongs to me – property rights will prevail. Evie is a near-perfect bioengineered human. In a broken-down future England where her kind has been outlawed, her ‘husband’ Matthew keeps her safe but hidden. When her existence is revealed, she must take her chances on the dark and hostile streets where more than one predator is on the hunt. The Actuality is a gripping, atmospheric speculative thriller from a powerful new voice.
My thoughts: I loved Evie and wanted her to succeed in outrunning those chasing her after everything goes wrong. She might not be human but she felt very human, if that makes sense. She could think and feel and was very afraid but also incredibly brave. I liked Daniels, his kindness and determination to help her as Matthew (who was a bit creepy) would want. I also really like Sola and Toto.
This book is incredibly moving and sad, Evie just wants to be left alone, allowed to live as she always has. A powerful meditation on what it is to be human.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Welcome to the US launch tour for Earth 7 by Summer Whitton and Emily Walker! Read on for details and a chance to win a signed copy of the book!
Earth 7
Publication Date: November 9th, 2021
Genre: Science Fiction/ Action/ Adventure
El is stuck with no way home and no way to apprehend the madman responsible for destroying his own planet. She is close to losing all hope, until her tracker goes off. An ancient artifact has been activated and it can get her off the planet…
…But only if she gets to it before he does.
Archaeologist, Quaid Daniels has never recovered from the humiliation of his last Mayan archaeological discovery. He keeps the downfall of his career in his living room—a mediocre petrified box. When he and his daughter accidentally turn it on and realize Quaid was not crazy, they embark on a journey to redeem his reputation.
This story has answers to the secrets of this planet, ancient technology, and a chosen race billions of years older than the world we know. It’s everything you want in a fast-paced science fiction novel and more.
Excerpt
Quaid put his hands in front of him and pushed through the brush. He was surprised to find they’d arrived in another clearing. There was something on the ground in front of Zoe, covered in brush and dirt. He could make out what looked like a path made of rock. Zoe and Jaxon bent down to start clearing away the debris.
“What is it?” Quaid said. He was cautiously excited. His past trauma with fake artifacts had given him some PTSD when it came to new discoveries.
“It looks to be some sort of floor,” Zoe said. “There are blocks and some of them, well, just come look. There’s a symbol. I’m pretty sure it’s the Mayan symbol for fire.”
Quaid walked over, careful not to trip on some vines strewn across the ground, and looked down at the square slabs of rock in front of him. It did look like a floor. The design Zoe spoke of was shiny, like there was something liquid inside of it.
“Is that…Mercury?”
“I don’t know. It kind of looks like it, but maybe a little shinier. But this is crazy. You would think someone would have found this, exploring out here.”
“How many people do you really think would be out here looking?” Spencer asked.
“A lot, why wouldn’t you want to explore?”
“Because it’s in the middle of a crazy-ass death jungle that no one wanted to venture into,” Jaxon said, sounding as though he had enjoyed this hike about as much as Quaid had.
“How big is it?” Quaid asked. They had cleared an area four blocks wide, but he couldn’t tell how far into the woods it stretched.
“Only one way to find out,” Zoe said.
The four of them worked on revealing more stones and Quaid pulled out his knife to cut away some of the more stubborn vines.
When they were done, they looked down at five more blocks with the same symbol making it six in all. They had clearly found something, but it didn’t make sense. It didn’t seem to tie into the artifact, or the Mayan calendar. The fear he’d been experiencing was replaced with adrenaline now. He found himself intrigued.
“What do you make of this, Zoe?”
“I don’t know yet,” she said, “I’m not sure what kind of element this is. The symbol for fire could be a clue.”
“Maybe it represents something else,” Jaxon said. “Something you’re not thinking of.”
“These look like torches,” Spencer said, pointing at large rock posts on the sides of the floor. “Lucky thing I have matches.” He produced a match box and, removing one, struck it quickly on the side.
“Spencer be careful, we don’t know if there are any sort of traps,” Zoey said.
At that moment, Spencer dropped the match and it landed on the rock beneath him.
A few of the blocks went up in flames and Spencer, despite his agility, barely managed to jump out of the way fast enough. “What the hell?” He yelped, patting his shirt to make sure he wasn’t on fire.
“Magnesium,” Quaid and Zoe said at the same time.
Look.” Jaxon pointed to the block beside the burning one. The liquid substance previously filling the square had drained out and the block lowered into the ground around a single piece of rough stone. It looked like a lever.
“What the hell?” Spencer said again, even more distressed.
Quaid couldn’t help the smile spreading across his face. “Zoe, it’s a puzzle.”
Summer grew up in the small town of Bellingham WA. Soccer was his life until he started his first of 5 businesses at the age of 25. Sci-fi has always intrigued him, like in when he was in high school there was a documentary about crop circles that he thought was compelling.
But it wasn’t till ancient aliens on the history channel and all the information showing up on the internet, that his imagination and thoughts of writing a book or a screen play came to life. He has always wondered; wouldn’t it be cool if there was other life somewhere else in the universe and even cooler if they weren’t out to kill us lol. Summer hopes to bring a whole new way of seeing what could possibly be out there in all that space and he also hopes he brings fun and imagination to many. Because who knows what’s really out there and it is fun to imagine right?
Emily lives on top a mountain and writes a little of everything, creating new worlds and stumbling around in them. She is constantly losing her chap-stick and is obsessed with the color pink. Science fiction has always been an important part of her life since she read her favorite author, Robert Heinlein at a young age.
Her small family consists of her red-bearded other half and an adorable daughter.
For your chance to win a signed copy of the book, click the link below! US only.
Congratulations to author LindaAnn LoSchiavo for winning the prestigious Elgin award for her speculative poetry collection, A Route Obscure and Lonely!
A Route Obscure and Lonely: Poetrylandia 2
Publication Date: December 30th, 2019
Genre: Speculative Poetry
Haunting and harrowing in its portrayal of supernatural creatures, “A Route Obscure and Lonely” explores the road less traveled by restless ghosts, sexually curious aliens, cunning vampires, transgressive angels, regretful mermaids, defiant witches, surly goddesses, mysterious phantoms, fearless fortune tellers, and “goth’s Mr. Goodbar” himself — — Edgar Allan Poe. The boroughs of the dead invite you to approach the gate guarding their abyss.
Come look inside.
House Guest
With measured strokes, I brushed defiant hair, Cascading waves that cancer left untouched. You’d had enough of hospitals, that lack Of privacy, imagining your home Serene, secure, free from intrusive pests.
It would shock you to learn we’re not alone.
At dawn, the presence by the sills crispens, Emerges as the drapes inhale into A phantom shape. Infernal company, Omniscient brakeman, timer in cold hands, Poised, waiting, exhalations nearly through.
Lost in the territory of morphine, Deciding to eject your breathing tubes, You tossed away the life-saving device.
Asleep, I’m unaware — — till ghost commands Arouse me full awake. There’s no choice but To go rescue you, reconnect the air.
Long shadows darken the stairs, that peek-a-boo Behind the hooded cloak. I startle you, Attaching oxygen’s feed properly, Removing you tonight from danger’s ledge.
A grimace rises from the bedding’s edge As if to say, “Not now! I’ll tell you when.”
Native New Yorker LindaAnn LoSchiavo, recently Poetry SuperHighway’s Poet of the Week, is a member of SFPA and The Dramatists Guild. Elgin Award winner “A Route Obscure and Lonely” and “Concupiscent Consumption” are her latest poetry titles.
Forthcoming is “Dark and Airy Spirits” (a paranormal collection of ghost poems), “Messengers of the Macabre” (a collaborative chapbook), and an Italian-centric book, “Flirting with the Fire Gods,” inspired by her Aeolian Island heritage.
She has been leading an SFPA poetry critique group for two years.
Spensa’s life as a Defiant Defense Force pilot has been far from ordinary.
She proved herself one of the best starfighters in the human enclave of Detritus and she saved her people from extermination at the hands of the Krell – the enigmatic alien species that has been holding them captive for decades. What’s more, she travelled light-years from home as a spy to infiltrate the Superiority, where she learned of the galaxy beyond her small, desolate planet home. Now, the Superiority – the governing galactic alliance bent on dominating all human life – has started a galaxy-wide war. And Spensa has seen the weapons they plan to use to end it: the Delvers. Ancient, mysterious alien forces that can wipe out entire planetary systems in an instant.
Spensa knows that no matter how many pilots the DDF has, there is no defeating this predator.
Except that Spensa is Cytonic. She faced down a Delver and saw something eerily familiar about it. And maybe, if she’s able to figure out what she is, she could be more than just another pilot in this unfolding war. She could save the galaxy. The only way she can discover what she really is, though, is to leave behind all she knows and enter the Nowhere. A place from which few ever return.
To have courage means facing fear. And this mission is terrifying.
My thoughts: I have really enjoyed this series, and was excited to read this next book in Spensa’s story.
In this she escapes her captors and enters the nowhere, a strange realm inside reality, where she must learn more about her cytonic abilities and find a way home. She meets new friends, including a man who just might be M-Bot’s original pilot, some pirates and some strange creatures. She learns more about the Superiority and the delvers and about herself too.
This was such a brilliant book, it really advanced the overarching story while also allowing Spensa to act as though she was in one of the adventure story’s her Gran-Gran told her. Although I will choose to ignore her belief that David Bowie isn’t real. I loved seeing more of M-Bot as he became more sentient, and Hosho, and of course the magnificent Doomslug. Cannot wait for Defiant, the next chapter in the tale.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
I’m happy to share this beautifully illustrated novel, Child of Awareness with you all today! Read on for more details!
Child of Awareness (Redeeming Grace Trilogy, Book One)
Publication Date: July 2021
Genre: NA Sci-Fi/ Fantasy/ Illustrated
Intended Age Group: New Adult (targeted at 18+)
Gracie’s fire burns holes in the fabric of spacetime. A friendship with her long-dead sister and unsettling dreams can’t penetrate the dark mystery of her father’s past. If her light can’t illuminate the truth, her father and everything she loves may be lost.
Blending science fiction, fantasy, and family drama, Child of Awareness introduces us to the flawed, immortal Usuriel Family. Called a “masterclass in world building,” this sweeping coming-of-age story weaves in themes of loss, belonging, and first romance.
Trigger Warnings:
Mature language, implied sexuality, violence, self-harm, and child neglect
Excerpt
Chapter 1 – My First Heartbreak
The first time I met my father I didn’t know anything about his history. In fact, I didn’t know he existed until I was old enough to read.
As a young child, I knew little outside of the yellowing paint and peeling wallpaper of my mother’s apartment. Occasionally Mother and I traveled to an outdoor park. She’d push me on the swings, a smile on her gaunt face and her dyed blonde hair up in a messy bun. That was rare. More often, my mother slept during the day and didn’t have the energy to take me places in the daylight. Thus, those stained walls contained most of my world.
Not to say that my mother was unloving. Each day she brushed my hair, tutting at how my wavy red strands tangled.
“My hair was just like this when I was a little girl,” she’d say, running her fingers through its silky length. “And so was my nose – covered in freckles, just like yours!” The warm pad of her thumb would wiggle the tip of my nose and I’d giggle. Her smile lit up my whole world. “Ah well, at least you got your father’s eyes.”
“What was my father like?”
A dreamy look would come into her lined face and she’d pull me into her lap. “He’s very handsome. And powerful. I think you’ll like him.” Her arms squeezed me tight. “One day I’ll take you to meet him.”
That day never came.
Like all small children, the rest of my early years have been reduced to a few bright flashes of color and the smell of old tobacco smoke. The last memory I have of my mother, however, has not faded or blurred with age.
I was about five at the time and home alone in our apartment, playing with a stack of chipped wooden blocks. After a time, I rummaged up a bowl of rice crackers from our pantry. I nibbled the edge of one. Stale, but still edible. Standing on tiptoe, I ran the tap into a battered plex drinking cup we kept near the sink. Bringing my prizes with me to the living room, I grinned at my growing block metropolis on the stained rug.
Voices in the hall. My head shot up.
“Stay quiet and…” my mother had said as she walked out the door, waiting as always for me to fill in the end of the phrase.
“Don’t open the door,” I’d intoned dutifully.
With a smile and a kiss on my brow, she’d left in a cloud of perfume and fake fur.
Her instructions had never been tested before. No one ever knocked. The only time the door slid open was at my mother’s palm. To say I was startled at the loud, sudden rapping from the entrance hall is an understatement.
A spooked rabbit, I scurried toward the relative safety of the bedroom. One scuffed shoe caught the edge of my block tower and it fell in a loud jumble behind me.
Abigail Silver grew up in central Pennsylvania but currently makes her home near Charlotte, NC. She shares a humble, one-story abode with her husband, young son, and two fur children. She holds a BFA from Edinboro University in Applied Media Arts. She has been writing novel length work since high school, which was longer ago than she cares to admit. She grew up immersed in her father’s classic superhero comics and his collection of sci-fi thrillers. As an adult, she is an avid Star Trek and Dr. Who fan. When she isn’t reading, writing, or drawing (which is rare) she enjoys blasting music with the windows down on long car trips.
The colony ship Ragtime docks in the Lagos system, having travelled light years from home to bring one thousand sleeping souls to safety among the stars.
Some of the sleepers, however, will never wake – and a profound and sinister mystery unfolds aboard the gigantic vessel. Its skeleton crew are forced to make decisions that will have repercussions for all of humanity’s settlements – from the scheming politicians of Lagos station, to the colony planet of Bloodroot, to other far flung systems and indeed Earth itself.
Arthur C. Clarke Award winner Tade Thompson makes a triumphant return to science fiction with this unforgettable vision of humanity’s future in the chilling emptiness of space.
My thoughts: this was very good. Inspired by Poe’s The Murder in the Rue Morgue, doctor and author Tade Thompson set out to write a locked room mystery in space. And he definitely succeeded. Trapped on the Ragtime, with passengers in suspended animation, Captain Michelle ‘Shell’ Campion and investigations Fin and Salvo attempt to find out who or what murdered a number of those sleeping travellers. Aided by the arrival of space governor Lawrence, Shell’s Uncle Larry, and his daughter Jokè, they’re in a race against time (and oxygen running out). A blend of traditional science fiction and afrofuturism, this is a clever and innovative novel from an author who is fast becoming a favourite, he’s also great to follow on Twitter.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 