Welcome to my stop on the LIFER blog tour! Today I have a great excerpt from the book to share with you - and don't forget to enter the giveaway! To follow the rest of the tour, click on the banner above.
Lifer
Author: Beck Nicholas
Release Date: December 16, 2014
Publisher: Month9Books, LLC.
Description:
Asher is a Lifer, a slave
aboard the spaceship Pelican. A member of the lowest rung of society, she must
serve the ship’s Officials and Astronauts as punishment for her grandparents’
crimes back on Earth. The one thing that made life bearable was her illicit
relationship with Samuai, a Fishie boy, but he died alongside her brother in a
freak training accident.
Still grieving for the loss
of her loved ones, Asher is summoned to the upper levels to wait on Lady, the
head Official’s wife and Samuai’s mother. It is the perfect opportunity to
gather intel for the Lifer’s brewing rebellion. There’s just one problem—the
last girl who went to the upper levels never came back.
On the other side of the
universe, an alien attack has left Earth in shambles and a group called The
Company has taken control. Blank wakes up in a pond completely naked and with
no memory, not even his real name. So when a hot girl named Megs invites him to
a black-market gaming warehouse where winning means information, he doesn’t
think twice about playing. But sometimes the past is better left buried.
As Asher and Blank’s worlds
collide, the truth comes out—everyone has been lied to. Bourne Identity meets
Under the Never Sky in this intergalactic tale of love and deception from debut
novelist Beck Nicholas.
Midstride, I stumble, awareness flooding my senses.
I squeeze my eyes shut, protecting them from the rising sun’s glare, and cover my ears to block the whine of distant machinery. I inhale, and grimy smog fills my sinuses and coats my tongue like a thick city soup. There isn’t enough oxygen.
Gasping, I bend at the waist. Fall to my knees and black gravel bites into the tender skin. The plastic shrub I use for support is cool and spongy. I cough up a globule of soot-covered phlegm.
Still short of breath, I climb to my feet with stiff, aching muscles. Where am I?
Better question: who am I?
A glance down tells me I’m male, but beyond that the answers start to form, but slip away before I can grasp them. I’m left with the barest outline of an echo of a memory.
Everything I need to function is there, but ‘me’ is missing. Whoever the hell he was. A nearby sign tells me I’m in a preserved garden. So I can read. I continue trying to assimilate everything. The surrounding walls stretch high above me, bordering a small patch of cloudy sky above. The opening makes me feel exposed. Unsettled. It is a sensation probably made worse by my lack of clothing.
Briefly there’s a woman on an overhead walkway. She is older, wide-eyed at my nakedness, and then gone into one of the buildings. A belated surge of embarrassment sweeps through me, staining the skin of my upper body red and heating my cheeks.
I shiver when the heat fades. The wind chills my hairless skin. I need to find something to wear. In my search, I’m drawn to a clearing in the middle of the garden. Here, the noise is muffled and the metal structures and imitation trees with their plastic scents give way to a huge, dark red, weathered tree trunk, encircled by fortified glass. I look up, way up, to where green leaf-dotted branches stretch out like a twisted staircase to the sky.
It’s alive.
I press a hand against the glass and imagine I can smell its fresh scent. Here and there small lower branches are stunted and shriveled, the glass cage obviously not designed for growth. Shriveled like I’m going to be if I don’t find clothes soon. I shake my head, bumping it against the cool glass. Fine water droplets inside run to the small patch of soil at the base of the tree.
Water.
I need water.
I always wanted to write. I’ve worked as a lab assistant, a pizza delivery driver and a high school teacher but I always pursued my first dream of creating stories. Now, I live with my family near Adelaide, halfway between the city and the sea, and am lucky to spend my days (and nights) writing young adult fiction.
Buy Links:
Giveaway: (5) winners will receive a digital copy of Lifer by Beck Nicholas (Open INT)
This book looks really good!
ReplyDeleteWow! Lifer has a lot going on. I would like to delve deeper into this story. Thank you
ReplyDeleteSounds really great. Thank you for this chance.
ReplyDelete