Emissary
by E.B. Brooks
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GENRE: Science FIction
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BLURB:
Two Worlds. One Future.
Ewan O’Meara is no stranger to death: in recent months, he’s found his way to limbo at least once per week, much to his parents’ concern. It’s a necessary price for getting experience to become the greatest adventurer his homeland of Veridor has ever known, but the overbearing Veridian Church has him pinned down, soaking him for the penance gold to unlock his stats each time he respawns. And because the Church’s ancient war put an end to both the godlike Gems and the epic quests they once bestowed, Ewan has no better alternative.
That is, until he encounters a young woman fleeing arrest from the Church’s soldiers. At first glance, Treanna Rothchild needs it: she’s clueless about Veridian life. But she has other skills that defy Ewan’s understanding, and she knows things. Unsettling, seditious things the Church wants kept secret at any cost.
And she’s in Veridor to raise an army, to fight an enemy only she can see.
Risking both life and soul, Ewan follows Treanna where no Veridian has ever been and there is no respawning. But for him to have a chance at making a real difference in the strange, harsh world she reveals to him, he must first come to terms with it. Especially as he and Treanna discover how much it has in common with Veridor—and how much they depend on each other to survive.
New-adult science fiction, wrapped in gaming and fantasy around a hopepunk core, Emissary is an immersive, thought-provoking adventure with a little teen romance and a lot of heart.
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Excerpt:
Tree broke contact, then looked at the others. “I’m taking command. Samuel, move Nathan to cover by the lift. Put his feet up, and keep pressure on that wound. We’ll throw down a kit once we can.”
Sam hesitated but nodded, then knelt to scoop Nathan up.
“Love,” Tree said, locking hard, frightened eyes on Ewan. “You’re with me. Loot the corpses. We’ll disguise ourselves, then retake the camel and retreat.”
“What about Gabe and Vincent?”
“They’ll escape with us, if they’re quick enough.”
Ewan swallowed. “Yes, ma’am.”
She darted off to one of the bodies, and he stepped over to the robed figure he’d impaled, thinking a bloody gash in his outfit might be less of a giveaway than a giant frapping hole. But when he pulled the robes free, he knew with a sickened jolt that blood was the least of the differences in appearance.
The man’s copper-skinned face was scarred all over in what was obviously a deliberate, artistic pattern, as though he’d mistaken a knife for a pen. His nose and ears were pierced through with bits of metal, with hair and beard braided and bound in wire that could have come from the ruin’s walls. His muscles were lean and hard, far better fed than should have been possible for someone from the Wastes. Even in death he had a feral air about him, a lingering lethal intent that had Ewan half expecting him to leap out of the sands again.
His hand still clutched a gun, hardly bigger than a tablet. Ewan reached for it, hesitated, and left it to retrieve his thrown sword.
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If you could have one paranormal ability, what would it be?
Astral projection is so ridiculously useful, but it’s also foundational for so many other skills. These days, the ability to make a philosopher’s stone would be handy, but I’d probably go with the ability to teleport (or fast travel, in gamer terms). Is that paranormal?
What is one thing your readers would be most surprised to learn about you?
I’m not sure. I don’t advertise a ton about myself, but I don’t exactly hide it, either. I’m a scientist and a philosopher, a polytheist and a gnostic, a homesteader and a woodsman, a gamer, an animal lover, a husband and a father. I’m sure at least some of those would catch any one person who “knows” me by surprise. Which is funny, because I feel like all of these weave into my books, in one form or another.
When writing descriptions of your hero/ine, what feature do you start with?
I tend to start with mindset, which translates to posture, expression, mood. From there, it’s a matter of the usual physical descriptors: skin tone (I worked hard in the second edition of Emissary to avoid the pitfall of white-as-default), hair color and style, eyes, voice. I remember trying to describe Ewan through his own teen-heroic self-image, which felt funny but did help show off his character.
Are you a plotter or a pantster?
More of a plotter than a pantster, but I do leave room for characters to surprise me. After all, if one person can change the course of history, surely a character can do the same in a story!
Did you learn anything from writing this book? If so, what?
I learned how to write, haha! Seriously, I did. I’d never attempted anything so ambitious on the creative writing front before Emissary, and all my writing before that was in scientific papers and the like. I let myself just go with it and be terrible at first, but I soaked in skills and material. It was funny to go back for revisions and see how the writing improved from part to part.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
E.B. Brooks lives in the southeastern USA, where he splits his time between writing, research, and homesteading. He enjoys building fictional worlds, real houses, and landscape models, but he’s most at home with his wife and children, and their many, many pets.
Website: http://ebbrooksfiction.com/
Twitter: @EBBrooksFiction
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG2vFKJoCSoJaP6qCECwPIA
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19919752.E_B_Brooks
The StoryGraph: https://app.thestorygraph.com/authors/d82b9abb-6a6a-48a7-8563-a84689316df7
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/e-b-brooks-df6155fb-c7c4-4568-b612-ac5ae2eeb86b
Buy Links (Amazon): https://www.amazon.com/stores/E.B.-Brooks/author/B087D6C88X
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