'Ensconce', the 4th (standalone) volume in the 'Kindred Spirits' series is now for sale!
Life isn't easy when you're 10. Especially when you're an orphan on a new planet with alien classmates, a psychopathic teacher and a universe addicted to red weed.
A hundred years on from ‘Province’ and peace
feels much easier. Even The Agrosians have become less aggressive. Well,
slightly. The discovery of red weed, a new substance mined from all eleven
inhabited planets, by unscrupulous adults spells bad news though – for the
universe in general but specifically for the group of eleven children who have
been sent to a new international school on Orpheus. They all seem to have
something wrong with them, but not everything was meant to be cured and some
things can never be, certainly not with red weed. New girl Robin fears her
dyspraxia will stop her getting any friends, but when her friends are an
introvert invertebrate Camalosian who never speaks, an insecure Belobrat, a
cynical Habridat, a Glabdiharbit with multiple phobias, a Doosbury Giant with
an eating disorder, a polite Agrosian, a co-dependent Clandusprod, an
unbeliever Mrasianart, a Maggrumph bully and a Mekkion who keeps blowing
emotional fuses she feels less out of place than she did on Earth. Though their
teachers want to keep them enclosed in their Great Hall the children want to
explore the universe, starting with the first ever International Games that’s
just taking place on Decreeta. Will the children learn to get along? Can they
trust any of the adults who seem to get stranger every day? Who will listen to
them if they can find out what’s going on? Will they survive corruption,
shuttle-flights, ice planets, burning buildings, bombs, pyramid sellers,
Doosbury Operas, their own teachers and the scariness of approaching adulthood
in one piece? More than just another novel, ‘Ensconce’ is yet another mad house,
a love song to childhood and the hope that one day if adults actually stopped moaning
and listened to their off-spring then it might just save us all.
Plus which alien are you? Agrosian, Belobrat, Camalosian, Clandusprod, Doosbury Giant, Habridat, Magrumph, Mekkion or Mrasianart?Take our quiz here