Early Works Volume One Quotes

“Cholera, that's what got him,' she said, compressing her lips, biting back tears that had ceased to flow long years ago. 'He'd be eighteen now, a smiling beautiful boy, strong and full of life. The disease sucked that strength out of him, but I remember...' She took a deep breath. 'I remember him saying to me in a tiny, quiet voice on the very edge of death, the moments he spent here in the Darkness, though short and painful, were the best moments of his life. He had no regrets.' She looked full at Nella then and her eyes positively glowed with living gold, some inner glory flooding out from the impassioned depths within. They held hands and Nella did all in her power to feel something from the firm grasp of Kassi, but there was nothing. An emptiness she could not understand. A reader reading a blank page. (Lady Snyper - chapter 8)”
― Martyn X Brown, Early Works Volume One

“Greetings, Blue Glass,' came a man's voice from a shadowed archway.

'Greetings,' Springer replied heartily, in spite of his shortness of breath. In the green light Nella could see his forehead glistening with sweat.

'There are four food couriers?' came a suspicious observation. Another man stood off to one side, a misty silhouette holding what looked like a crossbow pointed downwards. He stepped a little closer.

'Volunteer, learning the ropes.'

'Hi,' Nella said in that awkward way she was having to get used to, meeting so many new people in such a short space of time. Her greeting got no response except that the armed man faded back into the mist. She decided to treat this as a good sign. (Lady Snyper - chapter 6)”
― Martyn X Brown, Early Works Volume One

“Having trespassed gingerly across the wooden tiles of neighbouring houses with slow and careful steps, Tam finally paused to catch his breath on the very roof he knew concealed beneath it the pleasant form of Sara Manderby. His heart beat even faster at the thought of the moment to come and he eased his lithe form silently onto the balcony below.

The glass panel he could see was partly open already but inside all was darkness. He crouched by the opening and took in the fragrant warm air that drifted from unseen depths within.

'Sara?' he whispered in a lingering hiss. He paused to listen, heard a rustling sound and a pink light blinked on.

'It's me, Tam,' he announced hesitantly, ensuring the girl did not shriek out at an apparent intruder crouching ominously on her balcony.

'I've been waiting for you,' came the unexpected reply. (Chill - chapter 1)”
― Martyn X Brown, Early Works Volume One

“Nella noticed with grimness the familiar blue painted hand of Dandy on some of the walls and blushed at the unashamed outpourings of affection for the deadly damsel known as Lady Snyper. Really, she thought, could anyone sane pen a line declaring on catching but a glimpse of his beloved it made his heart go hyper? (Lady Snyper - chapter 6)”
― Martyn X Brown, Early Works Volume One

“They departed the auditorium and Nella found herself wandering amidst the devastation and neglect of an abandoned urban landscape replete with rusty corrugated sheets and crumbling plaster. Broken glass glinted among ferns and shrubs and shapeless masses of rubble poured through breaches in sagging walls. Room interiors here and there were exposed to the street and Nella got a strange feeling of intrusion as she passed these wrecked homes, as if peering into the private lives of those who once resided there. She could see faded wallpaper and moulded stonework that once decorated the personal living spaces of the occupants and reflected on those past lives, perhaps now crushed and shaped by the Authority not five miles off. (Lady Snyper - chapter 10)”
― Martyn X Brown, Early Works Volume One

“High up on a precarious ledge, kicking her long legs out over the precipice, Maena Madrullian sat patiently, waiting for the boy whose dreams she had thwarted not ten hours ago, as if nothing had happened. Tam's first feelings on seeing her drove him upwards at a furious pace and it was only when he had reached the ledge she
occupied did he realise just how difficult and dangerous it was for her to have placed herself there. She seemed as fearless as when she climbed that roof ridge two days ago. A grudging respect seeped into him. He could not think of any other girl who would have risked it. (Chill - chapter 3)”
― Martyn X Brown, Early Works Volume One