Book Spotlight: Conclave - Various Authors Part 1/2

 

 

Conclave: A Collection of Science Fiction and Fantasy

Four science fiction and fantasy novellas for young adults.

Blurb:

At Conclave Manor, land-trapped Mermaid Thala Tellurian struggles to accept her privileged life while battling her self-obsessed Uncle in any petty way she can. Isolated and forbidden to delve into her family’s bloody past, Thala longs for change. So, when visitors from a rival pod reveal a hidden agenda, Thala dives straight in. But it’s not until she’s face to face with her family’s lifelong enemy that she realises she’s in terrifyingly unfamiliar waters.

Rowan knew nothing about the secret in his DNA until he found himself on the Terrean team bound for Conclave Seven, the universal Games held every millennia. But on the eve of the Games, knowing he’s a direct descendant of the warrior Spartacus is looking less like a gift and more like a death sentence…

Born into captivity, Doze has spent his life behind the Fence, so when staying there is no longer an option, he takes a chance to see if another life is possible. An experiment on the loose from ConClave Corporation, Doze helps his travelling companions to avoid capture, and discovers that there is no sacrifice too great for freedom.

On the Conclave Pacifica, a spaceship in a fleet heading to a new world, Peach forges an online friendship with Araxi, who is travelling on another ship. But, wildly off course and under pressure for resources, the future of the Conclave Pacifica looks uncertain. Could Peach’s new friend be the answer to her survival?

Bios:

Lee Murray is a four-time winner of the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Science Fiction and Fantasy writing. The author of three novels, Lee has also co-edited five collected works, and her short fiction has received international acclaim.

A freelance writer, Jan Goldie’s novel Brave’s Journey was a finalist in the 2014 Tom Fitzgibbon Award, and her short story was Love Hurts was shortlisted for this year’s Sir Julius Vogel Award.

Piper Mejia’s first published story Lockdown in Baby Teeth: Bite-sized Tales of Terror (Paper Road Press) made the shortlist of the 2014 Sir Julius Vogel Awards. A high school English teacher, Piper is the president of Tauranga Writers, New Zealand's longest-running writers’ group, and the co-editor of four collections of children's writing.

Celine Murray, Conclave’s youngest contributor, was first published at age 7. The author of a collection of prize-winning short stories entitled Seven to Seventeen, Peach and Araxi is her longest work to date.

Excerpt:

This isn’t good. Rowan needs to get out of here. He glances around, but Galileo and the others have gone. He can’t see them anywhere in the crowd. Cursing under his breath, he pushes out in the direction he last saw them, but the horde, sensing violence, moves en masse to create a circle around the combatants. Rowan is shunted bodily to the front, his back to the throng. The crowd pack in, eager for a better view, their stench sickly and stringent. Rowan chokes back a wave of nausea. He’s got to get out.

“Thirty cregals on the Gyptor!” yells a man.

The Gyptor bellows again, approaching the Silicess, its armoured hackles raised in a show of strength. So close, Rowan can’t help cringing. The Gyptor is a formidable sight. Surely, confronted with its rival’s towering form, the Silicess will chicken out? Crawl away? Instead, it shuffles upright on its hind appendage and excretes a pungent white substance. The crowd screams its delight.

“It’s hunkering down,” a Cron screams in Rowan’s ear. “The Silicess is cementing itself to the ground. It’s going to fight.”

“Twenty on the Silicess!”

Hungry for a fight, the spectators chant for their favourite.

“Gyptor, Gyptor!”

“Silicess!”

Shit, things are about to get really ugly.