AustLit

'Trapped aboard the Undying's ancient spaceship and reeling from what they've learned there, scavenger Mia and academic Jules are plunged into a desperate race to warn their home planet of the danger humanity's greed has unleashed. From the mountains of Spain to the streets of Prague, the sequel to Unearthed is a whiteknuckle ride that will send readers hurtling back to earth and leave them breathless until the last page.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'We are the last of our kind. We will not fade into the dark. We will tell our story to the stars - we will be Undying.

'When Earth intercepts a message from a long-extinct alien race, it seems like the solution the planet has been waiting for. The Undying's advanced technology has the potential to undo massive environmental damage and turn lives around, and Gaia, the Undying's former home planet, is a treasure trove waiting to be uncovered.

'For Jules Addison and his fellow scholars, the discovery of an alien culture offers unprecedented opportunity for study... as long as scavengers like Amelia Radcliffe don't loot everything first.

'Despite their opposing reasons for smuggling themselves onto the alien planet's surface, they're both desperate to uncover the riches hidden in the Undying temples. Beset by rival scavenger gangs, Jules and Amelia form a fragile alliance... but both are keeping secrets that make trust nearly impossible. As they race to decode the ancient messages left by the alien race, Jules and Amelia must navigate the traps and trials within the Undying temple and stay one step ahead of the scavvers on their heels. They came to Gaia certain that they had far more to fear from their fellow humans than the ancient beings whose mysteries they're trying to unravel.

'But the more they learn about the Undying, the more Jules and Amelia start to feel like their presence in the temple is part of a grand design - one that could spell the end of the human race...'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Will the secrets of LaRoux Industries finally be exposed by Gideon Marchant, an eighteen-year-old computer hacker and an urban warrior, and fellow rebel and thief Sofia Quinn?

'A year ago, Flynn Cormac and Jubilee Chase made the now-infamous Avon Broadcast, calling on the galaxy to witness LaRoux Industries' corruption. A year before that, Tarver Merendsen and Lilac LaRoux were the only survivors of the Icarus shipwreck, forced to live a double life after their rescue.

'Now, at the centre of the galaxy on Corinth, all four are about to collide with two new players in the fight against LRI.

'Gideon Marchant is an underworld hacker known as the Knave of Hearts, ready to abseil his way past the best security measures on the planet to expose LRI's atrocities. Sofia Quinn, charming con artist, can work her way into any stronghold without missing a beat. When a foiled attempt to infiltrate LRI headquarters forces them into a fragile alliance, it's impossible to know who's playing whom - and whether they can ever learn to trust each other.

'With their lives, loves and loyalties at stake, only by joining forces with the Icarus survivors and Avon's protectors do they stand a chance of taking down the most powerful corporation in the galaxy - before LRI's secrets destroy them all.

'The New York Times bestselling Starbound trilogy comes to a close with this dazzling final instalment about the power of courage and hope in humanity's darkest hour.' (Publication summary)

'Jubilee Chase and Flynn Cormac should never have met.

'Lee is captain of the forces sent to Avon to crush the planet's rebellious colonists, but she has her own reasons for hating the insurgents.

'Flynn is leading the rebellion against the powerful conglomerate that rules Avon. These corporations terraform uninhabitable planets across the universe and recruit colonists with the promise of a better life for their children. But they never fulfilled their promise on Avon.

'Desperate for any advantage, Flynn does the only thing that makes sense when he and Lee cross paths: he returns to base with her as prisoner. But as his fellow rebels prepare to execute this tough-talking girl, Flynn makes another choice that will change him forever. He and Lee escape together.

'The stunning second novel in the Starbound trilogy is an unforgettable story of love and forgiveness in a world torn apart by war.' (Publication summary)

'It's a night like any other on board the Icarus. Then, catastrophe strikes: the massive luxury spaceliner is yanked out of hyperspace and plummets to the nearest planet. Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen survive. And they seem to be alone.

'Lilac is the daughter of the richest man in the universe. Tarver comes from nothing, a young war hero who learned long ago that girls like Lilac are more trouble than they're worth. But with only each other to rely on, Lilac and Tarver must work together, making a tortuous journey across the eerie, deserted terrain to seek help.

'Then, against all odds, Lilac and Tarver find a strange blessing in the tragedy that has thrown them into each other's arms. Without the hope of a future together in their own world, they begin to wonder - would they be better off staying in this place forever?

'Everything changes when they uncover the truth behind the chilling whispers that haunt their every step. Lilac and Tarver may find a way off this planet. But they won't be the same people who landed on it.

'The first in a sweeping science fiction trilogy, These Broken Stars is a timeless love story about hope and survival in the face of unthinkable odds.'

'A chance meeting in a San Francisco cocktail bar sparks an instant connection between two opposites: Ivan, a man with an adventurous dream of finding freedom on the ocean aboard his humble sailboat, and Torre, a city girl with a morbid fear of deep water.

'As their bond turns to love, Torre realizes the only way to keep the man of her dreams is to embark on the voyage of her nightmares, so she waves goodbye to dry land and braces for a life-changing roller-coaster ride that's as exhilarating as it is terrifying.'

Source: Amazon website, www. amazon.com
Sighted: 21/11/2011

'Danzi is not yet 1,000 years old - a youngster in dragon terms. There is much unrest in the provinces. Soldiers are everywhere and the people are uneasy. It is a dangerous time for a dragon to be without a keeper.' (Publisher's blurb)

'The film Rabbit-Proof Fence is based on this true account of Doris Nugi Garimara Pilkington's mother Molly, who as a young girl led her two sisters on an extraordinary 1,600 kilometre walk home. Under Western Australia's invidious removal policy of the 1930s, the girls were taken from their Aboriginal family at Jigalong on the edge of the Little Sandy Desert, and transported halfway across the state to the Native Settlement at Moore River, north of Perth...

The three girls - aged 8, 11 and 14 - managed to escape from the settlement's repressive conditions and brutal treatment. Barefoot without provisions or maps, they set out to find the rabbit-proof fence, knowing it passed near their home in the north. Tracked by native police and search planes, they hid in terror, surviving on bush tucker, desperate to return to the world they knew.

The journey to freedom - longer than many of the legendary walks of [the Australian nation's] explorer heroes... told from family recollections, letters between the authorities and the Aboriginal Protector, and ... newspaper reports of the runaway children.' Source: Publisher's blurb

'A beautiful young woman, Ruth, falls under the spell of an Indian guru. Desperate to rescue her, her family tricks her into returning to Australia, where she is forced to submit to deprogramming. A tough battle of wills ensues.'  (Publication summary)

'When two amateur archaeologists in Australia uncover a hidden high-tech tomb they inadvertently awaken a millennia-old superhuman. Does the beautiful Earani mean to save humanity or destroy it?

'A country farmer uncovers remnants of an advanced civilization that contain a woman, asleep in suspended animation for two thousand years. Upon awakening the woman Earani teleports herself into the office of the Australian Prime Minister and reveals her plans to take over the world – through mind control.

'An advanced civilization from the impossibly distant past is about to be resurrected in rural Australia. What dark secrets does it hold? Is it possible for a man to deny the requests of the world's most beautiful and intelligent woman? To fight a relentless and appealing logic no matter how horrific the consequences?

'It's rare that a novel captures a country's soul. How is it possible that a novel written almost a hundred years ago can speak to us so deeply of things that disturb and torment Australians even today? Out of the Silence is the most perplexing of novels, where during the course of the story your expectations and assumptions are turned 180 degrees.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.