AustLit

'A twist on the age-old question: Are we alone in the universe?

'Kai Astada is a member of the Journer caste, a once-respected class whose members are responsible for piloting passengers and freight across Pedora. Now, however, the Journer wards have been quarantined in a bid to stifle a raging plague that their totalitarian government alleges is being spread by the reckless behaviour of the Journers.

'Two years after graduating from the Lycea, the pilot training academy in Ularon City, Kai is lured by an old friend to the Duck Down Club, an infamous haunt of the lower rank of Journers. Here he is tricked into joining the Resistance, a rag-tag cohort of misfits who charge Kai with the seemingly impossible task of exonerating their caste by disproving the damaging allegations made by the Pedoran government.

'What Kai uncovers in the course of his mission will ultimately turn his world on its head.' (Publication summary)

'Many of us have had the occasional vague suspicion that the universe is not just a massive vacuum with a few specks of burning hydrogen here and there.

'We also have our doubts about the various ‘truths’ we are told at school, or at work, regarding the nature of reality and the power systems which underpin our world. Especially as this ‘truth’ appears to have been created to serve the wealthy and powerful.

'Some are prepared to fight – to lay down their lives if necessary for the one chance to reveal the lies lurking behind the so-called “truth”.

'Not Mitch Kuiper though: a man of simple tastes and little ambition, who would rather drink beer and watch sport with his best mate Cam than involve himself in the struggle.

'Unfortunately, fate has other plans for Mitch as he finds himself drawn into a galactic war in which he has become a key player.' (Publication summary) 

'Imre is a Dancer of the White Pavilion. As a follower of Aurelia, the Whore, one of the seven companions who accompanied la Relojero (the clock maker) to Tierra Mej³r, she is also a courtesan in training. When Imre falls when performing the Dance of a Thousand Steps, a dance that has been performed every year for the past five hundred years, she believes she has disrupted the will of the Pattern and is now responsible for the disasters befalling her world. Called to the Citadel by the taciturn Principe Thaniel, she is certain she is about to be punished for her mistake.

'But when she arrives, Imre finds the prince is both more and less than he seems. Now, while trying to adjust to her new life in the Citadel and dealing with the hatred of Senor Grath, the Principe Regente's Adviser, Imre must discover why Thaniel is yet to be named king.

'Meanwhile, the Brotherhood, a suspicious sect, tightens its grip over the rotting, rusting metal city, Cuidad mas Grande - The Grand City - from their pedestal in the sky. Even as Imre finds her heart and loyalties torn between the Prince and his Adviser, it is clear that the sect is determined to prevent Thaniel from taking his throne.' (Publication summary)

'When the body of a young heiress is found and her baby, ripped from the still warm corpse, is taken; the woman's half-brother swears to bring those responsible to justice. It is a task that appears almost impossible until years later when he discovers the child's name, Raven.

'Now, in a post-apocalyptic world, Raven lives on the edge of society, earning her living immersed in the electronic chatter and detritus of a future, drowned world. And then Ceriful crosses the boundaries, bringing the slipstream in his wake.

'Ceriful – sometimes demon and sometimes angel, but always dangerous – a being from another reality, part fantasy, part product of those who still dream, and oh so enticing. Ceriful needs Raven to restore his realm, and he brings with him a promise. Now Raven's decision will either save his world, or hers.

'But when the fantastic becomes real, people die!'(Publication summary)

'With the defeat of the Greater Gorgone, Kazari has survived her first ordeal as a Hunter. But the battle left both her body and mind scarred. As Kazari’s training intensifies, the nightmares that haunt her sleep threaten to overwhelm her.

'Kazari has learned a great deal as a Hunter and Dancer, but she is still the only one who can sense when a demon from Beyond – a gorgone – is nearby. And as the Lady’s followers prepare themselves for war, it becomes clear that Kazari will become one of the Lady’s greatest weapons – if she can overcome her own fears.

'But the threat to Albatar is rising – and evil lurks in surprising places' (Publication summary)

'Some things cannot be mended with baling twine.

'The silence of the drought  has settled across remote Paddle Creek Station since Clayton’s older brother died. It is a death Clayton can’t remember, and one that his parents won’t discuss. Worse still, Clayton can’t mention his brother’s name without upsetting his father who insists everything will be okay once it rains again.

'As if hearing his call, a fox-like spirit called Waringa appears. It informs Clayton there is a demon lurking in the dust storms on their farm who holds the rain spirits hostage. Desperate for rain to return, Clayton follows Waringa’s advice, but as Waringa guides Clayton towards his final battle with the demon, he unearths more than just dust on their sheep station. His quest brings his whole family closer to the abandoned homestead where his brother died; and Clayton begins to uncover raw wounds, and hidden memories begin to surface.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'Mikhal knows his friends, Jake and Keira, are hiding something from him. He’s got his own problems, though – he’s failing pretty much everything at school, he just punched his best friend, and all he wants to do is play his guitar.

'When Sharna Devon is assigned to tutor him, he can’t think of anything worse. Until his mum decides he needs to help out with her charity work. But soon he and Sharna are dragged into the mystery Jake and Keira are working so hard to conceal. Cari is still trapped between the worlds, and Cassidy Heights is in terrible danger. It seems this unlikely group of friends are the only hope that balance between the worlds can be restored.

'It’s not going to be easy. What exactly does Mikhal’s music teacher know about Shar, the City of Silver Light? And can they stop the boundaries between the worlds eroding before it’s too late?'

Source: publisher's blurb

'Kazari was called by the Lady to become a Hunter, to defend Albatar against the gorgones. But can she master her Gifts in time to save her family?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'After eighty years of total war the remnants of humanity on the Nayarit Line struggle to survive in their sealed domes, surrounded by radioactive wastelands. Now, in the last, desperate years of the war Commissar Traek arrives at Chiqu, a small research facility on the west coast of North America, to investigate a case of possible treason. But the treason is far worse than even he suspected, and as the domes begin to fail and the Empire falls, he finds himself transported from his dying world to a parallel Earth. An Earth that is totally unprepared for the technology of the invading Nayarit. An Earth that will demand from him one final sacrifice.'

(Source: publisher's blurb). 

'A long time ago, Rab learned the secret of the planet he calls home. Now, after years of enslavement under the Feathers, Rab considers an escape with Cloud, hoping to find refuge with the few surviving Top-Siders who still live free in the west. But there have been dire warnings of a new breed of predator in the skies and the Kun, leader of the Feathers, has deployed his human captives to fortify the settlement's defences.

'When the child of Rab's adopted son disappears and the Kun's settlement comes under siege, an unlikely friend surfaces and events are set in motion that will shatter perceptions and radically shift the course of the future.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Stephanie Anders, Protector of Souls, has met her hardest task yet: saving the soul of someone she hates —her ex-husband’s best friend. After having accidentally sold his own soul Stephanie must now journey to Hell to recover it. There’s just two problems: how does she get there, and then how does she get out again before she becomes a demon?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'In the early 1800’s, in an English country lane, gentry meets gypsy and far reaching events are set in train. Love, betrayal, deceit and death leave a mystery to be solved, as the richness of gypsy life thrives on the borders of the luxury and power at the command those well born.' (Publication summary)

'Ten years ago Rab learned the secret of the planet he calls home – and lost the young girl he’d vowed to protect; traded for a sweater, a set of gloves and a second-hand pair of boots. Since then, he’s wandered the barren surface alone searching for her, returning to the tunnels only when hunger, exhaustion or the inconstant seasons offer him no choice. When a freak accident occurs during the harvest, the death of an old friend finds Rab agreeing to abandon his search and guide Fin, now a tunnel-dweller, and Cloud, a former captive of the Top-siders, back to his old village to deliver a macabre and precious cargo. Although reconciled to honouring his word, Rab is convinced that their reckless journey south will tell him nothing he doesn’t already know and that the secret he has dutifully guarded all these years is in no danger of being exposed. He is wrong.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'OneWorld is a planet orbited by thousands of satellite cities, and home to 23 billion humans. A place where governments, police forces and law courts compete for business within a wholly privatised system; where murder, rape and torture are merely extra items on your insurance policy; where a corporation owns the license for time; and where scientific fact has been replaced by ‘consumer information’. In OneWorld, every product wirelessly links to the ‘grID’, and people spend most of their scheduled ‘waketime’ moving through various overlapping realities via their grID visors. But now the precarious balance of OneWorld is tipping as the largest of the global corporations launches the next phase of networking: One Network, or ‘ON’. By the time Youren Cartouche, a copywriter working on the advertising campaign for ON, and Constantin Zann, an advanced bio-mechanical detective investigating the strange murder of a human girl, both uncover the truth, they will be fighting for their very existence within a reality disintegrating around them.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The new-found alliance of Starlyne and human has fought back, but the Garsal invaders are relentless in their desire to conquer Frontier. Once again, Shanna, her fellow cadets, and their starcats find themselves on the front-line. But even as she and the other cadets begin to master their new skills tragedy strikes, and all of Shanna’s resolve is tested as she discovers there is even more at stake than she’d ever believed possible. As Garsal attacks on Watchtower and the other human settlements intensify, the cadets and Patrol Ten are sent on a mission to infiltrate the Garsal ship. But even as Garsal attacks increase, factions start to appear within the seemingly implacable foe. Now, as Patrol Ten and the cadets begin their mission to free those slaves with the knowledge that may enable the alliance to strike back, Frontier’s future seems increasingly uncertain.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'A protracted volcanic winter has devastated Earth and left only isolated pockets of survivors. With food becoming scarcer and the air growing toxic, Rab sees just one chance for survival: a perilous journey north in search of a fabled city that was rumoured to be one of the many staging areas where ships were launched, ferrying vast numbers of the people of Earth to a salvation planet. But Rab didn’t count on being forced to take along the last three children from his dying village.

'When one of the children breaks his leg, they are rescued by the hostile and sceptical Sunny, and taken by her to an underground refuge where she, her grandfather, and other refugees survive in comparative luxury. But it is a luxury teetering on the edge of collapse, and when Sunny’s grandfather begs to join Rab’s party, Sunny, to Rab’s dismay, insists on coming with them. Leaving two of his party behind Rab heads north again. With him is Gift, the young girl from Rab’s village, Sunny’s grandfather and Kix, the old man’s ancient horse, the last of its kind. Leading the way is Sunny, antagonistic and prickly. Years ago, Sunny had been the lone survivor of a similar quest.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.