Book of the Week, ISTORICA, Wildvine Book 2

Wildvine Series
Book 2
Fantasy

From Writers Exchange

“Maybe you have another gift awakening,” Jayra said.

“Huh?” Khyber turned so fast on one heel, she nearly knocked herself off both feet as she stared at her mother. Where had those words come from? If Jayra was had tapped the parent-child bond, Khyber should have felt it.

The kl’resti, Twist-Feather, chuckled and spun like a corkscrew through the air above the picnic grounds in the Logon town park. She shifted through the rainbow three times before coming to rest on the teen girl’s right shoulder. Her butterfly wings folded into her back and she took on the feathery cat features that seemed to be her favorite shape.

“You’ve been restless since we got to the park,” her mother said.

“Don’t frighten her,” her father, Kyle said, coming up to the picnic table with an armload of blankets to put on the ground.

“What’s to be frightened of?” Khyber grinned, immediately relaxing, and shrugged to launch Twist-Feather back into the air. “Being an Istorica is boring.”

“It’s a headache,” he corrected with a grin for his wife. He shuddered in exaggeration and turned to head back to their truck.

“Make up your mind,” Jayra said, sticking her tongue out at him, earning a chuckle from their daughter. “It can’t be boring and frightening.”

Book of the Week, ISTORICA, Wildvine Book 2

Wildvine Series
Book 2
Fantasy

From Writers Exchange

Khyber was Istorica for the exiles--the one entrusted with remembering all their history, everything they learned. Despite the support of Grandmother, Dayree, she felt she had let down her family by not being able to step between worlds and take the exiles home.

She had many gifts, but it was her talent for telling stories that offered the exiles a chance to reach out and find others with Talents, lost on Earth. However, enemies had followed the exiles to Earth, and the only way to protect her family, her village, was to live separated from them, under a false name. 

For the sake of the exiles, Khyber would do whatever it took...and in the process found her way home.

Off the Bookshelf: 13 TREASURES, Michelle Harrison

Tanya can see faeries. She has the second sight. She doesn't know why or how.

Problem: the fairies are doggone mean. They cause problems, they do things to her she has to lie about to cover up, because no one else can see the faeries, no one believes in faeries. She's turning into a problem child.

When Tanya's mother can't take it anymore, she ships the problem child off to the country, to the family estate. Florence, Tanya's grandmother, doesn't want her there.

Finding out why Florence doesn't want Tanya around takes until the end of the book. The proud old woman has some pretty awful, painful secrets and fears. Meanwhile, odd things are happening. Fabian, the boy who lives in the house, seems to be both nemesis and ally. Then there's the odd old woman, Mad Morag, who some people say is a witch. And the catacombs where people have gone missing,disappearing altogether. And the mystery of a 14-year-old girl who disappeared 50 years before, who is tangled up in the lives of everyone in the house. Because she's still 14.

There is magic and curses, broken promises and and liars and schemers. When Tanya sets out to help someone who is unfairly accused of a horrible crime, she steps into a trap that has been waiting to close on her since the day she was born. Will she escape? Will she survive?

Do I have to say it? Read the book! It's one of those quiet books that get you tangled and drawn in before you know it. Read it in big chunks. Reading just a chapter at a time won't do.

Book of the Week, JA'HANNA, Wildvine Book 1

Wildvine Series Book 1
Fantasy

From Writers Exchange

"Ha!" Neelian shrieked, as she popped out of thin air onto the gravel of the trail. She lunged, off balance and disoriented for a precious two seconds.

Dayree spun sharply left, when common sense said to turn right and leap onto the trail.

Neelian fell to her knees on the place where Dayree should have been. Her triumphant cry turned to a yelp of pain.

Dayree's skin tingled on her left arm. She turned, sensing power at work like when her father created an illusion solid enough to hold in her hands. Neelian appeared only three steps away. Dayree twisted back toward the trail, putting all her strength into her legs. Neelian let out a shriek, echoed by her brother and cousin as they stumbled onto the gravel path and lunged at Dayree.

She leaped out of their way and threw herself straight at Neelian.

Dayree wished she could Skip, just once. Anywhere away from here. To her parents' suite. To the Council's chamber, to prove to them she did have Talent. To the forest gate. Even twenty steps away, to startle her enemies and give her time to flee.

Neelian yelped and her arms automatically closed around Dayree as their chests collided.

The world went blank for a heartbeat, then reappeared, with the sunlight at a different angle and brighter. The smells were no longer of green, moldering forest life but flowers and stone baking in the hot afternoon sunlight.

Neelian collapsed to the grass, retching, shaking, her wheat-toned skin like alabaster. Dayree staggered backwards a few steps, straining to find Noris and Miklan before they attacked.

Her hand touched iron bars. She turned, stumbling, and stared at the forest gate.

Ten steps into the outer gardens, Dayree could think clearly enough to wonder how that had happened. The forest gate was nearly ten minutes' walk from the spot on the trail where the three had ambushed her. Neelian had only enough strength and control to Skip from one floor to the next in the Clan House, and that effort left her breathless and dizzy for a good ten-count. How had they Skipped so far?

Book of the Week, JA'HANNA, Wildvine Book 1

Wildvine Series
Book 1
Fantasy

From Writers Exchange

Another stick snapped. Leaves rustled. Her hunter was clumsy. Her cousin, Kedrin, said the overconfidence of one's opponents was often the best weapon to turn against them.

Branches rustled, off to her left. Between her and the trail. She paused and pretended to examine a skinny, prickly little plant with one long stem, one blossom and only four leaves.

In that pause, only six or seven seconds at the most, she heard more movement. Branches rustling, the scratching sound of thorns on cloth, twigs snapping underfoot. When the faint, almost non-existent breeze died for a few seconds, she even heard breathing.

More than one person followed her, making clumsy attempts at stealth. They were all together in one place. No one had thought to separate to surround her.

She was too far from the gates to call for help. Dayree whispered a prayer to D'hune and straightened from her pretend examination of the plant. She stretched her arms to the sky and forced a yawn. Let them think she was tired and not paying attention.

Too bad the stealth games her cousins taught her had to be used against her own clan, rather than the Tobrizz or other enemies.

Book of the Week: JA'HANNA, Wildvine Book 1

Wildvine Series
Fantasy

From Writers Exchange

In multiple worlds, universes and dimensions of reality, there are tales of Hub Worlds, where many different realms can meet and intersect. Some travel between worlds through the power of the mind and Talents born into the blood, while others are chosen through vision and prophecy and step between worlds with the power of talismans. None can go to the others' worlds, except when they meet in a Hub World.

Wildvine County, somewhere in the United States, is that pivotal point where the travelers from

multiple worlds and universes meet.


Dayree was born to a powerful family in the Taksearhe Clan. She was expected to have strong Talents, yet her gifts never emerged. Mocked by some, ignored by others, she took the opportunities offered to her and explored other gifts, becoming a craftsman and then a teacher. In the process, she found her soulmate, Jayx.


Years later, when their village was threatened by rebels who wanted to control their world, Dayree's gift awakened, enabling her talented cousin to evacuate the entire village to safety--stepping through the vortex between worlds, to a planet called Earth.

Book of the Week: NOVA VENDETTA #2: The Truce

Commonwealth Universe

Downfall Era/Era I

The Sorendaal/Pirate novels

From Writers Exchange

“What’s been going on outside?” Niall finally asked, when the hubbub finally calmed down and people went back to their bunks, got in line to use the sanitary cabinets now that there was hot water available, or gathered at the other table groupings to talk. Kimber and Sureena and the leaders of the prisoners in the other compartment joined the command team and Dr. Hallbar. It was time for a serious conversation, to finally get facts and decide what they could do.

“All clear, Doctor.” Selendon’s voice came through the medical insignia pin on the doctor’s collar. “Tell them whatever they want to know. It’s the only way we’re going to survive.”

“Tell me, Commodore,” Niall said, struggling to keep his voice calm, though it still felt like his throat had been scraped with sand, “did you authorize--“

“Absolutely not. And you should know that the ship punished those skabblenaqs before we even knew what was going on.”

“How?” He met Dr. Hallbar’s gaze, saw the shift to bleakness mixed with something like weary horror.

“Everything that could go wrong in the room where they conducting their questioning,” the doctor began.

“This is no time for niceties, Dru,” Selendon cut in. “Call it what it was, torture, plain and simple. The ship turned everything backwards in the room. We’re still trying to untangle the programming, figure out if it was a cascade failure on a massive scale, or this ship of … it’s our ship, not mine any longer.” A gusting sigh came through the connection, buzzing a little. “Our ship might just be sentient. Somehow. An angry, confused, hurting, frightened child, lashing out at the ones who hurt its friends. Or maybe even part of its consciousness. Who knows? We have no access to any of the research, any of the theories or science behind what the researchers were doing when they built the ship. Too much was either lost or deliberately destroyed and hidden.”

Book of the Week: NOVA VENDETTA #2: The Truce

Commonwealth Universe

Downfall Era/Era I

The Sorendaal/Pirate novels

From Writers Exchange

At the end of twelve days, Niall was escorted to the captured RA ship -- expected. The cargo bays had been modified into dormitories, and all the former crew of the Nova Vendetta were housed there -- also expected. The section where Niall was left contained almost all of his command crew -- not expected. He hadn’t identified anyone by name, but then again, Selendon also hadn’t asked about any of his tribe.

Everyone wore clothes similar to his. Simple, long tunics and loose trousers and shipboard-boots with magnetic plates in the soles. Dark cloth in blue, green or brown, with the silver sensor threads woven into a loose square over their hearts. Niall looked around the dormitory room with bunks for thirty and found an unoccupied bunk. He assumed it was unoccupied because the sleeping sack was still rolled up on one end, unlike the other bunks. Most of them had bags hanging from the support posts, just like the bag given him when he was finally dismissed from Selendon’s office for the last time. There were a few personal items in his bag, retrieved from his prison quarters. He assumed everyone else had been given the opportunity to find something they valued, to take to their next point of incarceration.

“They fixed the engines,” Nesta said, approaching him.

“Their mistake.”

“They’re listening,” Doc said from a bunk two rows away.

“We’ve had bigger challenges.” Niall sat down and settled the bag at his feet. He closed his eyes and felt the rumble of the engines coming up from the deck, through his boots. Flickers of his hallucination-dreams came to him, and he shivered deep inside as he imagined the Nova Vendetta had welcomed him home.

Book of the Week: NOVA VENDETTA #2: The Truce

Commonwealth Universe

Downfall Era/Era I

The Sorendaal/Pirate novels

From Writers Exchange

Niall and his crew were just centimeters away from freedom, escaping in the stolen starship they had christened the Nova Vendetta. Then disaster struck, paralyzing their ship. Retaken as prisoners, they found themselves transported on the very ship that had been their ticket to freedom.

Then the unthinkable happened: experimental technology and a risky gamble put the ship under their control. The escaped prisoners headed for the furthest reaches of known space, determined to stay free at any cost.

Labeled rebels and pirates and criminals, they held to the principles that had let them survive and stay Human during their time in prison. To the outlying colonies slowly being abandoned by the disintegration of the Central Allied Worlds, the crew of the Nova Vendetta and its slowly growing fleet of allies were heroes in the truest sense of the word.

Then the revolution reached out to threaten Niall's homeworld. It was time to go home. He had to protect Sorendaal, even if it meant giving himself into the hands of the very people who wanted him dead.

Off the Bookshelf: SOMETIMES THE MAGIC WORKS, Terry Brooks

The subtitle is: Lessons from the Writing Life

In case you've been living under a rock for the last forty years, Terry Brooks is the author of the Shannara and Landover books. He's been compared to Tolkein -- all other comparisons don't really matter, do they?

I remember reading Shannara in college, with the incredible Brothers Hildebrandt illustrations. The glory days when I was buying every book I could afford from the Science Fiction Book Club.

Yes, this book is about writing. I love seeing inside other writers' heads, getting glimpses of their struggles, the processes they go through, the breaks they got and didn't get. Brooks offers some insights and wisdom applicable to all writers of fiction, no matter what genre you love or loathe. It's a shorter book compared to some of the massive explorations of other writers' careers and minds and journeys that are on the market. Easy to digest, but a lot of "writerly nutrition" packed into it.

Read it. You'll be glad you did.

And when I get my to-be-read skyscraper whittled down a few million pages (yeah, that big!) I'll have to pull out the first books of Shannara and Landover and read them again, and see how different they are, now that I've had a glimpse through the eyes of the wizard behind the words.

Book of the Week: NOVA VENDETTA #1: The Injustice

Commonwealth Universe

Downfall Era/Era I

The Sorendaal/Pirate novels

From Writers Exchange

“End the suspense already,” Garen said, reaching as if he would take the box from Niall’s hands.

The other four laughed, mostly because Garen was usually the one who tormented the others by making them wait for news or to find out the latest rumors or which professor was taking interns and apprentices.

“All right.” Niall pulled out the multi-tool his professor of field service had given all the graduates. In a moment, he had slit the outer sealed skin. The box was held shut with straps that he cut in a moment.

Inside were small translucent green cubes.

“Old-style video cubes,” Garen said, picking one out of the box. He turned it over between his hands. “I think I know where you can find a player.”

By the time Niall, Amber and Garen tracked down a machine that would play the cubes, they had lost the other two friends, who professed sleep interested them more than video cubes. The trio ended up in one of the machinery archives. They were just as amazed as the archives keeper that there were more than a dozen of the obsolete display and playback units in storage. One cube was marked, “play this first,” so they did.

“Hello, son.” Gaellon Encardi smiled from the screen, looking even more battered and worn and browned from thin ship shielding than he had the last time Niall saw him -- when he was twelve Standard years old. His Exploration Corps uniform looked new enough for all his badges and insignias and honor citations to be crisp and clean and bright. That meant he was heading out for another long-range mission. The elder Encardi specialized in finding habitable planets and clearing them for colonization. If there were any conditions that would threaten the security and success of a colony, especially the health and reproductive ability of the colonists, he could identify it faster and with more accuracy than most others. It made him a valuable asset to the CAW’s colonization efforts. If the truth were ever admitted within the Niallon household, it gave him an excuse to stay away from Sorendaal and his wife’s family, the dynastic leaders of the colony.

Book of the Week: NOVA VENDETTA #1: The Injustice

Commonwealth Universe

Downfall Era/Era I

The Sorendaal/Pirate novels

Niall Encardi heard the news of the coup at the beginning of the final lecture in MERAH, before graduating as a doctor from the Merkator Medical Academy. His classmates spread the rumors and speculations in harsh, rapid whispers, punctuated by curses, as they waited for the team of professors to step up to the lectern in the center of the lecture amphitheater.

The timing of the news struck Niall as symbolic and ironic. The new regime called itself the Restoration Alliance, and had been threatening the entrenched government of the Central Allied Worlds for nearly three years now with strong backing from the Set’ri, who insisted on “purifying” the Human genome. Their dogma included sterilizing all “defective” genetic variations, and making slaves of any humanoid race that didn’t match their narrow, exclusive criteria. 

MERAH stood for Medial Ethics Relating to Augmented Humanoids – meaning Wrinkleship pilots, Khybors, and all the lesser mutations and variations that had come about by accident or as byproducts of the tinkering of generations of scientists. The ones who couldn’t reproduce were safe, and perhaps to be envied. The Set’ri didn’t care about them. The ones who could pass their augmented genetics on to their children -- especially Khybors -- or whose tangled genetic side trips could show up in future generations of their family line even if they themselves didn’t or couldn’t reproduce -- such as Wrinkleship pilots -- were their targets.

Book of the Week: NOVA VENDETTA #1: The Injustice

Commonwealth Universe
Downfall Era/Era I
The Sorendaal/Pirate novels

From Writers Exchange

Niall Encardi was ready to graduate after long, intensive years of medical training, and go home to the colony world of Sorendaal. His life-long dream was to be a healer and help the people led by his uncle, the governor. 

The revolutionaries who overthrew the current government of the Central Allied Worlds had other plans. When the homeworlds of Niall and his classmates didn't immediately give support and approval to the revolutionaries, the medical students were labeled enemies of the state, and transported to prison.

Despite every effort to stay focused on his first calling, healing and medicine, Niall became a leader, first on a prison planet, then on the prison space station known as the Abyss. Every time the government changed hands, he and his friends and then his allies in the prison society were labeled conspirators and sympathizers and condemned to yet more imprisonment.

By the time the Abyss was attacked, Niall and his people had become a force to be reckoned with. Their goal: freedom, even if meant turning pirate like the falsely imprisoned nobleman who sailed the ancient seas, on a ship called the Vendetta.

Off the Bookshelf: HAVAH, by Tosca Lee

The subtitle is: The Story of Eve.

Should say it all, right?
Umm, no!

One-word reaction when I finally finished reading this (after kicking myself for taking so long to get to it?):  WOW.

Beautiful writing. Beautiful imagery. Intense.

But don't read it just for a compelling literary journey. This is the kind of book that keeps you up late, reading past midnight when you're supposed to get up early because you have a long day of physical activity in the July sun ahead of you. Yeah, that intense.

When you think about it, what could be so compelling about a book that covers a story we all know? Or at least, a story we all THINK we know?

That's the genius and the skill and the gift of Tosca Lee. We all know the bare bones of the story of the first people, the Fall, the Curse. All the slanted variations of the story to fit in with different ideologies and trying to place all the blame on one or the other, or even rewriting the truth -- another way of saying we've been lied to. We all know who is at the bottom of every attempt to change what God said, don't we?

No, this puts flesh on the bones, and tears, and joy, and wonder, and innocence and pain and an aching sense of that oneness that was lost, the tragedy of the destroyed Paradise. This makes Eve's story more real, more understandable, and yet doesn't excuse anyone.

Bravo. And again, WOW.

Book of the Week: THE TALON

A breath of chill, stone-scented air drifted across his face, and Edrian opened one eye to see a thin, flickering beam of light come out of the wall, right where his floor-to-ceiling bookshelves should have been. Oddly, in the soft moonlight spilling through the sheer screens, the bookshelves were almost a meter to the right of where they belonged, and the light came from an opening between bookshelves and stone wall.

“Grandfather?” he whispered, understanding, and sat up quickly. Edrian grimaced as his mattress creaked. He preferred the old-fashioned bedstead, with ropes and natural cloth and fluff-bush filling in the mattress. That would have to change if he wanted to get up without alerting half the building.

“First lesson, my lad.” His grandfather held up the cylinder that produced the soft, flickering glow. It wasn’t a candle or a lantern or lamp, and the source of the light shimmered from gold to green to soft amber-orange and back again, pulsating just enough to be visible.

“The passage or the light?” Edrian asked, once he had followed Elbarto through the opening and the bookshelf slid softly back into place.

“Many things to make up one lesson. And here’s something it takes people their whole lives to realize -- the older you get, the more you realize you spend your whole life learning.” Elbarto handed him the cylinder. “Light without heat. How can that be?”

In the soft glow, a passageway extended in both directions behind the wall of Edrian’s room. His grandfather gestured to the right, where another opening revealed a narrow passageway filled with steps going up and down. They started downward. Edrian studied the light, which was soft enough that he could look directly at it and still see well enough to make his way down the steps without having to wait for his eyes to adjust. That pulsation … was it breathing? He hefted the cylinder. That was liquid surrounding the thing … a living thing?

Book of the Week: THE TALON

“Now,” Elbarto said, turning to look across the wide expanse of flat ground, where Government House perched, a massive, sprawling building that had been the first habitation on the colony world. It had grown beyond that, exponentially, so it was the government offices, the center of learning, the center of healing and science and military activity. And in times of fear, it provided shelter for refugees, both in the multiple layers of building dug down deep into the butte, and even in the caves. “Let’s see what we can do to frustrate the too-obvious minders the Council has set over us, shall we?”

“Booby-traps and bombs and sleeping drugs in their food?” Edrian whispered, leaning closer and glancing toward Government House, as if he feared someone would come running from over six hundred meters away and slap them in restraints.

“Hardly. And not half as much fun. Although some nasty potions in their food to make them sick might be a good idea.” The elderly man chuckled. “Or at least a good start. No, our duty is to defend our colony and our people and most especially our home. It’s a given the Council has called your father and Eryk away to try to … hmm, shall we say … re-educate them? Try to plumb the recesses of their minds and determine their loyalty, if nothing else. And while they’re away, these babysitters set over us, to ostensibly help me act as governor --“

“You don’t need help, Grandfather. None of us need help.”

“Hmm, yes. We’ve done just fine without the Central Allied Worlds for generations, but anyone who tries to convince them of that gets re-educated. We’ll just let them think they’re helping us, and we don’t suspect anything. When they’ve relaxed and become even more oblivious and obvious than they already are, that’s when we strike.”

“And do what?”

“We’ll figure that out when the time comes. For now, though … you’re in charge of protecting the Nightskimmers.”

“What are you going to do?” Edrian asked, while his pulse tripled and he could barely restrain a howl of delight. He had known since infancy that restraint was a matter of survival when it came to the spies the Central Allied Worlds inflicted on them on a regular basis.

Book of the Week: THE TALON, THE ADVENTURE BEGINS

Commonwealth Universe
Colonies
Downfall/Era I

The Talon is, basically, Zorro set on a futuristic, alien colony world. Plain and simple.

Except this masked vigilante rides through the sky on a winged ... well, not a horse, that's for sure!

THE TALON
From Writer's Exchange

It is a time of turmoil in the Central Allied Worlds when the governor of Rensler, his wife and eldest son are forced to attend a "conference" of colonial governors, leaving his youngest son, Edrian, in the care of his grandfather--the former governor--who must now take charge of the planet.

The two begin a secret project: befriending the sentient, nocturnal Nightskimmers.

As Edrian grows up, and unrest intensifies, he learns real heroes sometimes operate in secret, and that his position as younger brother of the next governor requires him to present a false face to the world, against the day when he must strike out on behalf of the colonists if they are to keep their freedom.

When the expected revolution does erupt, Edrian's father and grandfather are taken away, accused of treachery. His older brother flees to the wilderness to lead the rebels, and Edrian and his mother become hostages.

Edrian hides behind his false reputation of being sickly and studious, allowing him to move freely at night, freeing prisoners and striking in defense of the colony. He is only a boy on the verge of manhood, but the Talon's reputation has already taken root.