Hopepunk – CIRCLE OF ORIGIN

The River Against the Sea

“Like the Black Company by the writers of Adventure Time.”

Essimore Darkenchyl has horns, eats hearts from time to time, and may or may not keep secrets for the god of death. But right now, all she wants is to use her college degree to be the best bureau crat in the Blessed Agency of Shipping Coordinators, the biggest trade company around.

Essie’s trouble starts on her very first trip—to the island chain of the Pyrinnays, where two governing factions are in a power struggle in the aftermath of a devastating hurricane. Her new boss, Captain Winnie Conilto, conveniently forgets to mention he’s the cousin of the king of the Peace Faction, the current group in charge. Since someone just murdered the king, and Captain Conilto has taken his widowed queen and a political prisoner on board his ship, this is a big, big problem.

With the head of the War Faction hunting them, Essie, the captain, and the rest of the crew have to navigate the war-torn islands and find a way to deliver their “cargo” safely to port without bringing the rage of an entire army down on their heads.

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Three Kinds of North

Leave a Comment / Brandon Carter

A distant future. A recovering world.

Remnants of a shattered moon traverse the skies, memorials to an ancient and nearly-forgotten conflict. In an isolated northern land, society is overseen by the reclusive, all-female, Guild of Dawnsingers, which holds a monopoly on advanced learning. Life seems peaceful and well-ordered. But are the Dawnsingers as benevolent as they seem? What secrets are they hiding?

And what really lies beyond the mountains in the East?

Orphan Jerya unexpectedly finds a home in the Dawnsingers’ Guild, but her new life turns sour. Soon she finds herself struggling to reconcile the exhilaration of learning with her growing doubts about the very basis of the Guild’s rule. Ultimately she faces an agonising choice which could utterly change her life, and the lives of her two most trusted friends.

Award-winning outdoor writer Jon Sparks turns to speculative fiction in the first book of the genre-stretching Shattered Moon series.

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The Cords That Bind

Leave a Comment / Brandon Carter

Don’t seek the truth. It already seeks you.

After Eka and his new friends help secure an uneasy truce with the humans, their lives are irrevocably changed. He and Rana share a strange energetic link, putting him in constant jeopardy. A difficult choice looms before him. He can choose to trust his village’s Crowned Ones and undergo an experimental training to explore his unusual connection with Rana.

Or, he can hope his past attempt to star beam when Rana was in danger was a fluke that will never again happen and risk dying if it does. Seeking the truth of their connection seems the obvious choice, but ever since his cousin’s unexplained death, Eka has struggled to trust his village’s Crowned Ones. His mistrust becomes the least of his problems as he uncovers an even greater threat.

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The Calling

Leave a Comment / Brandon Carter

The Calling: Humanity’s wake-up call. Answer it or face extinction.

When Bleu’s little sister shows symptoms of the deadly Sickness, a strange vision directs him to leave humanity’s subterranean haven and seek the cure on Earth’s glacial surface. Joining the expedition team, Bleu expects extreme temperatures, not a surface ruled by ingenious predators.

Rana and her fellow star beings have co-existed with Earth’s top carnivores since the humans disappeared. But when her peers transform into Crowned Ones, the final stage of star being development, she fears remaining Uncrowned like her parents. To prove her worth, she undertakes a dangerous mission—contacting the hostile and nearly extinct humans.

But Rana’s plan backfires, and Bleu’s team retaliates. As war with the more advanced star being civilization looms, both Rana and Bleu separately seek a way to save their people.

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