Today,
we're doing something a little different. For our 400th post, I wanted to bring a new release to your attention. S.A. Starcevic, a previous visiting author to the Marie Lavender's Books! blog, has an awesome new book coming out on December 18th. Let's check out the cool details, shall we?
Book Blurb
Superheroes are at war, but not with villains.
As the first
few rumblings of discontent start to make themselves heard, Ethan and
his friends in the Protectorate will have to face their greatest foe,
one who is all around—the public.
Pre-order Links:
And S.A. is giving us an exclusive excerpt of his book!
“On three,” Lara said.
We stood in a loose
formation—Lara, hovering a solid meter off the ground. Gabriella, her
twins swords poised to attack. Zane, his hands crackling. Greyson, the
air whirling around him. And Android, elbow joints bent back to reveal
nozzles. Oh, and then there was me—tensed up, prepared to leap into
battle, trying to pretend I wasn’t shaking like a leaf in a
Katrina-sized hurricane.
Yeah, right. Who was I fooling? I
wasn’t like the others—battle-hardened and uber-professional. I still
had nightmares about facing down supervillains, like when I’d taken on
Lord Manta and almost didn’t live to tell the tale. As hard as I’d
tried, I’d never been able to scrub his face from my memory. I wondered
if I’d ever be able to forget about it. Somehow, I doubted it.
Still, there was comfort in numbers. Between the six of us, we had
enough firepower to blow the roof off the training room. Our opponent?
That would be the giant robot suit with twin plasma cannons strapped to
its shoulders. It looked like something out of a Japanese cartoon or a
sci-fi video game. Behind the controls, Flo wore a crazy-wide grin and a
white lab coat, looking like Einstein’s blonder, prettier, wackier
granddaughter, if he had one.
“One,” Lara said.
Her
blonde hair floated around her like a halo. Zane’s face was as tight as
the bolt-shaped scar ridging his brow. Gabriella might as well have been
striking a pose for a magazine cover. We’d all geared up in our rubber
suits, and I didn’t know about the rest of them, but I couldn’t move a
muscle without squeaking.
“Two.”
Even so, I tried not to
show how badly I trembled. Adrenaline had that effect whether I welcomed
it or not. Up in the control room, General Slade watched over us, his
gunmetal gaze assessing. We couldn’t afford to mess up.
“Three!”
It
was go time. Lara rocketed up and then dived down, fists outstretched.
The giant robot moved with a whir of gears and pistons, slamming a fist
into her and sending her pin wheeling backward. She crashed against the
wall and slid down, managing to slow her descent before dropping to the
floor.
Zane shoved out his hands, hurling twin bolts of
lightning, which sparked against the giant robot’s metal shell like
tinfoil in a microwave. Still, it didn’t make a dent, and a moment
later, the beams snapped off. From the rise and fall of his shoulders, I
could tell he was spent. Damn. We weren’t off to a sizzling start.
That was where Gabriella came in. Like a wraith, she sprinted across
the distance, going in zigzags, dodging and ducking and weaving. The
giant robot twisted around, tried to squash her, but she was too quick,
too nimble. With a few quick jumps, she scaled its torso like the
world’s most agile Everest-climber. She raised her swords, preparing to
sink them into its metal shell, but before she could achieve her goal,
its gauntleted fist detached from its arm, swooped around like a
heat-seeking missile and knocked her off her perch. I winced at the
crunch, but she managed to cavort in midair and land in a crouch. Still,
her scowl showed she was more than a little miffed.
Next, it
was Greyson’s turn. He gestured, and two spinning air elementals
materialized, whirling over with howling war cries. I gave a silent
cheer of support. However, that was when there was a sound like wind
turbines revving up, and the machine’s shoulder cannons glowed
white-green. Uh-oh, I thought. There was an explosion of light and twin
beams obliterated the elementals, but the blast didn’t stop there.
The next few moments happened as if in slow motion. I glimpsed Flo
pounding at the controls, the panic plain on her face as she realized
she was unable to shut it off. And I saw the surprise on Greyson’s face
as the shafts of light swept toward him. He didn’t move. He couldn’t move, like a deer caught in headlights. I thought I could see the reflection of the light in his gaze.
I stepped forward without thinking, bracing for impact. When the beams
hit me, I stumbled. I could feel the atoms whizzing around, like little
bubbles in a tall glass of soda, carbonating my blood. Still, I ignored
the rush it gave me and pushed, pushed, back. I strained muscles I
didn’t even know I had, physical and mental. It was all I could do not
to lose it and self-combust like a satellite crashing out of orbit. That
wouldn’t be helpful.
Without warning, the energy snapped off,
and I was left blinking away the little fuzzy dots and trying not to
pass out. When my vision cleared and I could be sure I wasn’t about to
keel over, I noticed Android standing next to the machine, holding what
looked like a giant aux cord. It took me a second to process what had
just happened. Android had yanked out the power, I realized, and just in
the nick of time. Much longer and I would’ve ended up like Mom’s
Christmas turkey dinner after it’d been left in the oven for too long.
A hiss of static, and General Slade’s voice crackled out of the PA. “Good job, everyone. Nice teamwork.”
A
trap door popped open, and Flo wedged her head out of the machine. Her
hair stuck up at odd angles, kind of like bird feathers, and she looked
frazzled. Still, she beamed. “That,” she said, “was awesome."
Cool! We'll be sure to check out this great superhero story! Congrats on the new book, S.A.!
Readers, you can grab it on pre-order now! :)
About the Author:
S. A. Starcevic wanted to be a
superhero when he was little, but nowadays he settles for the next best thing:
writing about them. You can snag UNTOUCHABLE (signed with Forever More Publishing) at a whole bunch of places.
When he’s not slaving over the other books
in the series, he blogs about writing, publishing and world domination
at Bookshelf of Doom.
Author Links:
S.A.'s Books:
Coming Soon:
Available Now:
