Michelle L. Levigne's Blog, page 99

Feature: SCOUTS; PRIDE, Chorillan Cycle, Commonwealth Universe

SF from Writers Exchange:


Vidan was again reaching out to the stars: sadder and wiser...and cautious, unwilling to repeat the mistakes of the ancestors. The Commonwealth was born, reaching out to lost colonies and establishing new ones, rediscovering lost technology and how to navigate the star-ways. Many of the lost colonies not only survived but thrived--and they remembered their abandonment and the harsh centuries of the Downfall...
When Miranda dies of the same degenerative disease that killed her father, Ian and their daughter, Kay'li, flee Chorillan to keep Miranda's powerful family from taking the child away from him. Ian returns to the Scout Corps, and Kay'li grows up on board the Leaper ship, Estal'es'cai, seeing first-hand the requirements and the price of true heroism.

Feature: AZULI EYES, Chorillan Cycle, Commonwealth Universe

SF from Writers Exchange:


Vidan was again reaching out to the stars: sadder and wiser... and cautious, unwilling to repeat the mistakes of the ancestors. The Commonwealth was born, reaching out to lost colonies and establishing new ones, rediscovering lost technology and how to navigate the star-ways. Many of the lost colonies not only survived but thrived--and they remembered their abandonment and the harsh centuries of the Downfall...
Scout Captain Ian Fieran cleans up operations after battling a Gen'gineer team that attacked and decimated a small colony. The crime of the colonists? Their genetics didn't suit the exacting standards of the Gen'gineers, who continue the dogma and goal of the Set'ri from centuries ago in their attempt to create the "perfect" Human genome. Captured data leads Ian and his team of Scouts across the galaxy to the Rim colony world of Chorillan, where they hope to track down a Gen'gineer nest.
At the same time, Miranda Riallon, a schoolteacher and daughter of very important members of the Colony Council, worries about one of her students. The boy is an orphan, and she wants to adopt him. However, Ranny shows all the signs of going into Phase--the sensory overload that hits some children near adolescence. No one knows what causes Phase, and there's no known cure. Some fear that the Azuli--sentient canines native to Chorillan--are stealing the children when they escape into the wilderness to ease their discomfort. When Ranny vanishes, Miranda heads into the forests of Chorillan to find him.
She meets Ian and his Scouts. They help her look for Ranny while she helps them hunt down the Gen'gineers. As each side educates the other, they come to a partnership, then friendship. The choices Ian and Miranda make during their hunt will change Chorillan for generations to come.

Off the Bookshelf: COILED, by H.L. Burke

There's been some excitement in the fantasy community over this book -- and well deserved!!

I heard the story talked about on various podcasts and on different Facebook groups, so I was pretty confident buying it.

COILED is lovely.

The simplest description is a re-telling of the Psyche and Cupid legend, and yet .... can I say WOW?

Laidra and her sister, and Calen and his brother are twins -- and more than that, both sets of twins are cursed at birth with what is called a mirror curse. And yet it's not the same curse in that the effects are not the same between both sets of twins. Laidra and Calen, our heroes, are considered the monsters .... and yet that is only physical. The personalities of their twins are truly the "monsters" in the story, and what their parents do to each other, to their children, and the lengths they go to try to break the curse and cure their children ... heartbreaking. And infuriating. I just wanted to reach through the screen and slap some of them. Don't get me started on the creep who put the curse on the innocent babies.

How enthralling is this story? I picked it up late at night, planning to read a couple chapters ... and finally stopped about 2am with dry eyes and about 20 percent of the book left to go. I would have finished it that night/morning, but I needed to get some sleep!

Take my advice and put aside a big chunk of time so you can read from cover to cover. You'll be glad you did.

AVENGER: Star Trek Fan Fiction, Chapter 3

For your reading pleasure.
Now appearing on Wattpad:

https://www.wattpad.com/617012885-avenger-a-star-trek-fan-novel-avenger-chapter-3

Feature: TAKSEARHE, Wildvine Book 6

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 with 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.
Bree has lived with the burden of knowing she's born to be a Taksearhe, the highest level of strength among all the Talents, with the ability to travel between worlds. Yet childhood trauma has blocked her gifts. She knows she travels to other worlds in her dreams yet can't remember where she went or how when she wakes up. The exiles from Rehdonna are depending on her, and she's willing to do whatever it takes to learn what's going on in her brain and dreams to awaken her gifts.
When she joins a dream and sleep study program at Lyndvale University, she's relieved when Dr. Harland, the man her mother is dating, takes her under his wing to protect and guide her. With the help of her roommates and then contacts in other worlds, she learns to awaken and control her gift, but not before she attracts the attention of evil forces that want to use her to open the doorway to Earth.
Bree's wishes come true, but the cost if she takes just one wrong step could deprive her of friends, her heritage, and the soulmate who's reached out to her from another world.

Off the Bookshelf: The JOY SPARTAN Series, by Ruth I Johnson

I remember reading and enjoying these books in the church library when I was in junior high. Funny, but they're almost as old as me ....

Joy Spartan is a PK -- preacher's kid -- in the 60s. A simpler age (allegedly), but still just as uncomfortable and demanding and frustrating and embarrassing for a pre-teen even without the demands of social media. Yeah, everyone still managed to watch every move a PK made, even without the help of the Internet.

Joy and her twin brother Roy got in trouble  with the stuffed shirts at church, as well as with peer pressure and normal problems that still plague kids today. Along the way, they solved a few mysteries and helped straighten out a few troublemakers, and even faced an escaped convict. Being a PK, she got more than her fair share of Bible verses flung at her, but I think she still turned out okay. Read these books for a bit of nostalgia, and share them with your kids, who might just find a trip to the deep dark distant pre-Internet past fascinating.

Joy Spartan of Parsonage Hill
Joy Spartan and Her Problem Twin
Joy Spartan and the Vacation Mix-Up
Joy Spartan and the Money Mix-Up
Joy Spartan and the Mystery in Room 7

Feature: APPRENTICE SOLAR, Wildvine Book 5

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 with 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.
A secret life is just as much a burden as a secret identity...Jori's still recovering from her injuries earned on her first adventure in Unipuri when her college life turns upside down. While losing her pain-in-the-neck roommate is good news, she also loses the good one. Two friends in her dormitory rescue her from the dilemma of taking new roommates, and share their dorm room with her. Nothing in the world can compel Jori to mess up her new dorm situation.
However, she's now living in two worlds, and, as a result, some complications just can't be avoided. Jori enjoys learning to be a Solar, charged with protecting the doorway between worlds. The time differential between the Midworld and Earth is a big help in getting her homework done. She can't always hide her dual lives, when she puts her life on the line in the centuries-long war raging in Unipuri. Especially when she realizes her new roommates have secrets of their own. Even her dreams aren't private anymore.
Enemies of the Solars target Jori and manage to follow her from Unipuri to Earth with their magic, threatening her life and the ones she loves most. She was warned and trained, but at the end of the day, she's still just a college freshman.

Feature: OLD SOLAR'S SHOPPE, Wildvine Book 4

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 with 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.
Jori goes to Willowood College because of a promise her father made years ago when he was a student there. She only has to put in one year and then she can go to whatever college she prefers. When she walks into Old Solar's Shoppe her first day in town, prophecies spoken in another world awaken and claim her.
Lew has already lost one apprentice, and he isn't happy when the dreamstone marks Jori as his new apprentice, but he knows better than to disobey the will of Waetru. Lew and Jori become friends and he teaches her about the world called Unipuri. She believes Lew's stories are just a wonderful, complicated game.Then an ancient evil attempts to reach across multiple universes and force protective barriers wide open. Jori's game becomes more real than anything she has ever known, changing her life forever...if she and Lew survive their first test as master and apprentice.

AVENGER: Star Trek Fan Fiction, Chapter 2

For your reading pleasure.
Now appearing on Wattpad:

https://www.wattpad.com/617012224-avenger-a-star-trek-fan-novel-avenger-chapter-2

Feature: FELIN-RU, Wildvine Book 3

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 with 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.
Daniel is a mystery, found injured, lost, and unconscious on a mountainside after a freak storm. His miracle recovery and then his brilliant mind make medical history. After witnessing the murders of her parents, Wren loses her memory. The trauma in their childhoods unlocks Talents that will take years for them to explore and understand.
Grown, Daniel escapes his university existence and sets out to explore and search for answers to the mysteries in his life. Taking refuge with a school friend's family, he meets Wren, and the two discover an instant bond of mind and soul and heart. Guarded by the mysterious, interdimensional shadow creatures Daniel knows only as the felin-ru, they dare to try to make a life together.