books

ANDRA

It is 2000 years into the future and people on earth live in underground cities. Teenage Andra is recovering from a brain graft operation, and something very strange occurs. She begins to see the world from the viewpiont of the boy whose brain was used in tne operation – a boy who died in 1987. Andra feels frustrated by the rigid laws and narrow confines in Sub-city One. She rebels openly and becomes a symbol of freedom to the youth of the city. Together with Syrd, a young computer technician seeking asylum from the hostile country, Uralia, she stirs the young people into open rebellion. Will their quest for a more open and democratic society be a success? ....

THE CROWLINGS

When young Ben Crowling unexpectedly finds himself leader of his clan, his one thought is to build a new life on the land granted to him by the star people. But as time goes on, some are not happy with the traditional ways; Mikklau, his grandson, dreams only of the bright lights and easy money in the big cities, and Linni Crowling, in her turn, is happy with the comfortable life he can provide. But the wheel is completing the circle: no longer can their planet provide for its people, and its enemies grow invisibly in number – until it's too late. Only then does Linni realise what she must do to save her people, and their land, and the way of life she has always rejected.

DREAMWEAVER

The Earth was dying. Patches of lethal algae stained the polluted seas. Acid rain poisoned the lakes and rivers. Local wars laid the land to waste. People were leaving in droves, emigrating across the galaxy to find new worlds on which to settle. Troy was going too, as a junior worker upon the spaceship Exodus, heading for Arbroth, an Earthlike planet in another solar system. He yearned to warn the inhabitants of Arbroth of the devastation that would follow the ship's arrival, but knew no way of doing so. And then he sees Eth - Eth, who has dreamwalked aboard the spaceship from Arbroth, who must carry his warning back to her planet. Only Eth has lost her way; she is fading by the hour. Unable to return, she will die if she stays.... and Arbroth will face destruction and enslavement.

THE DISINHERITED
(titled "The Patchwork People" in USA)

When sixteen-year-old Hugh first meets Helena, he thinks she's an ungrateful cow with a fancy red coat and a fancy suitcase.And when fifteen-year-old Helena looks at Hugh, she's repelled by his tattered appearance and the fact that he hustles for money in order to survive. But as they get to know each other, they discover qualities that draw them together, despite the differences in their backgrounds and the rigid social structure that seems determined to keep them apart. Not until they meet the patchwork people do Helena and Hugh realise that their happiness and their future are all their own making. A small coal mining community in Wales, in a bleak time chillingly recognisable as our own future, is the setting of this powerful, prophetic story.

BEN HARRAN'S CASTLE
(titled "Keeper of the Universe" in USA)

One moment Christopher is on a plane to Greece. The next, he finds himself transported to a castle in a distant nebula. With him are Kysha, a girl from a perfect planet; Mahri, a warrior queen from a primitive world; and a robot servant to look after them. They have been brought there by Ben-Harran, a renegade facing trial for letting a planet die. Only Ben-Harran, of all the Galactic Controllers, has left his galaxy to evolve however it wants. He refuses to interfere, even to keep a planet from destroying itself – as, Christopher realises, Earth will soon do, if Ben-Harran doesn't intercede. In this thought-provoking novel, Christopher, Kysha and Mahri, and even the robot, must face a difficult question: is it right to impose peace by taking away choice?

THE WARRIORS OF TAAN

And the mess and despair they had made of their own world they would make of Taan, as if they had learned nothing from their own history. 'New Earth' they called it, but for its native population it would always be Taan ..... Prince Khian has been raised a warrior, but he must learn that the primitive crossbows the warriors shoot pose littlechallenge to the technology of the Outworlders. It is only with the help of two people – Elana of the sisterhood, and the mysterious Leith – that Khian can rise above his training and see a new way for the planet. But his father, Lord Kamtu, wants revenge; the Outworlders are destroying Taan; and the eternal, elemental Stonewraiths possess devastating power and inscrutable minds.

THE DRAM ROAD

Sixteen-year old Stuart Roper is not what he seems. He doesn't seem to be a murderer, a thief or a London punk on the run. The people of the rural community of Green Edge accept him. They hardly speculate anymore on his mysterious arrival on the Dram Road, half starved and nearly dead from pneumonia. Nor do they wonder why the old sheep-herder, Ted Nelmes, took Stuart in, nursed him back to health and declared that the boy was his grandson. Stuart belongs now, and the old man's grand-daughter April is in love with him. But Stuart knows what he is. And the ghosts of Ted Nelmes long-dead wife and son, watching and waiting, know too. Some day everyone will know and Stuart will have to run again.

THE EARTH WITCH

In this potent novel about man's debt to the earth, Louise Lawrence evokes superbly the turn of the seasons in the hills of Wales and the anguish of a boy swept up in the beauty and the horror of mythical forces.

CAT CALL

Lynn was only the first of the children whom Barry touched with the power of the cat god. He saw hope in the ancient cult. Barry, rebellious and destructive, hoped to make Ginny one of them and win her back from Neil, her new city beau. Yet Neil seemed to understand too much about what was happening in the dull village of Crow Ash. And while Barry could draw the village children under the spell of the cat, it was nearly impossible to reach Ginny. In a horrifying climax which pits Neil, an outsider, and the parents of the village against their children, Louise Lawrence raises disturbing questions about the beast and god in each of us.

CHILDREN OF THE DUST

In a story about an England that has suffered multiple atomic bomb attacks, Louise Lawrence envisions, with acid clarity, what life will be like for survivors of the blast who eventually die from fallout, and for the succeeding generations. A gripping story with pace and contrast, a strong story line, a smooth blending of realistic base and fantasy projection.

CALLING B FOR BUTTERFLY

In a gripping survival story four teenagers, along with a baby and a small child, are the sole survivors of the destruction of a huge space ship. The open ended story is spine-chilling and makes exciting reading.

JOURNEY THROUGH LLANDOR
(first part of Llandor Trilogy)

Chased by Craig and Carrie after school, Roderick stumbles through the forest. Almost instantly the three of them are caught up in events far beyond their control, in a world of terrifying creatures and strange beings where all their accepted standards and beliefs are turned upside down. Befriended by Janine, the elf girl, and many others, the three begin to reassess themselves, discovering new strengths and weaknesses during their flight through Llandor and their encounters with the evil presence of the Grimthane.

THE ROAD TO IRRYAN
(second part of Llandor Trilogy)

Woken from the long, herb-induced sleep by the encroaching presence of the Grimthane, Roderick, Craig and Carrie take to the vast underground caves and passages of the old city of the giants in their attempt to reach Irryan and safety. Led by goblins and a dwarf, they are forced away from the familiar by the vicious shape-changer, Merrigan, and must rush from the dwarfs' stronghold to escape the massive rock trolls. in desperate peril, Roderick acts selflessly to save Llandor.

THE SHADOW OF MORDICAN
(third part of Llandor Trilogy)

Desperate to reach Seers' Keep, Carrie is nevertheless overwhelmed by the peace and enchantment of the land of Irryan. But the opprtunity to settle there vanishes with the appearance of the mysterious White Mage, Gerwyn, who has a thoroughly different destination in mind. Both Carrie and he call upon the elements in their battle for supremacy, but Carrie's power is too new and untried to be a match for Gerwyn's, and soon she and Craig are unmistakably being drawn towards Mordican.

MOONWIND

A haunting sci-fi fantasy in which an earthling falls in love with an astral spirit .... Louise Lawrence powerfully integrates the love story with myths of the moon goddess and the inner struggle between flesh and spirit.

EXTINCTION IS FOREVER

Will the seeds of the death flower -which feed on blood and terror- germinate once more and scatter amidst the pollution, disease and destruction of planet X33...? The world is exhausted of resources and electricity is rationed. What is the force that compels Ewan to leave the city and go up into the mountains to the strange, isolated community of Bryndur...? Can Stephen bring back from the future his videotape of post-holocaust London (a city submerged under water, absent of man, inhabited by a sea people) and so stop the process of events that are to lead to World War III – and extinction....?

THE WYNDCLIFFE

Anna is alone, and despite her fifteen years, she is still very much a child. Her elder sister Ruth, caught up in a world of parties, fashions and boyfriends, ignores her. And her brother Simon, to whom she is devoted, goes to London to study music. Listless and unhappy, Anna takes no pleasure in her family's new home, or in her surroundings. The Wyndcliffe, "a brooding ancient face of sheer stone, dour and grey," matches her mood. Then she encounters John Hollis, a young sympathetic poet. But he died in 1823.

THE POWER OF STARS

Something had happened that night in the woods when the rabbit bit Jane – the night that the stars had lost their gleaming power in a single shattering scream. Jane was possessed by a strange force. Jimmy tried to warn the others that she was dangerous, but they wouldn't listen. Alan was falling in love with her and he didn't want to believe she was controlled by some other beings – that he was falling in love with something that wasn't really Jane. But Jimmy had to make somebody understand before it was too late. Before Jane killed them all.

THE STAR LORD

The Star Lord is a beautiful alien innocent who is stranded on Earth when his space craft is snatched from the skies by the still potent elemental forces which permeate a rugged old Welsh mountain.

SING AND SCATTER DAISIES

The summer Nicky Hennessy is seventeen, he is ready to take off, leave his family and their detested, smug way of life. But he cannot – not when he learns that his favourite aunt, Anna, is deathly ill. She is wasting away, and no one seems to be able to stop it. No one, that is, until Nicky meets John Hollis, the spirit of the Wyndcliffe, through his young cousin Deborah. And Nicky learns of another world – one where John represents a force strong enough to alter Nicky's whole life. Sing and Scatter Daisies is an extraordinary story of a young man who comes to terms with one rebellion, only to begin another.