Lara Morgan

Review by Karen Simpson Nikakis.

The superb cover of this book, with its golden dragon resplendent against glossy black, hints at the terrific tale to come. Crisp prose creates wonderful settings and characters you quickly care about. The narrative moves over finely crafted landscapes of desert, coast and jungle, lands whose people become increasingly enmeshed in a tightening net of events. The female hero Shaan comes together with the male hero Tallis, but a broader group of characters are show more scarcely less important, or less tangled in their relationships.
Lara Morgan uses mythic motifs with skill, allowing them to do their work powerfully. Having frequently read fantasy jam-packed with archetypes largely empty of meaning and purpose, this is a refreshing change. A lot happens in Awakening and much is made plain towards the end of Book One, setting the scene for Book Two. I'm looking forward to the next installment of this story with great anticipation. show less

The second book in The Rosie Black Chronicles, Equinox is the next thrilling installment in Rosie Black's continuing fight against the insidious corporation, Helios.
500 years in the future, the world is a different place. The Melt has sunk most of the coastal cities and those left are divided into the haves and the have nots. Rosie has had it tough and it's just getting tougher. She thought she'd dealt Helios a massive blow last time, but they are back badder than ever. A new threat has show more been discovered in the north but with her dad locked away and Pip gone, who can she turn to for help? And how many more sacrifices will she have to make to destroy Helios for good? (taken from Good Reads)

I found it took a little longer to get in to the book, and it was slower and had less impact thank Genesis, but teenagers will love it. It has well developed characters and plot, leaving me looking forward to book 3. show less

'Five Hundred Years Into The Future' and the world has changed. Society is segmented into the 'Centrals', those living with all the conveniences money can buy, the 'Bankers', those living on the banks of the river and barely getting by, and the 'Ferals', those who live wild with nothing but there wits to sustain them. Though different in many ways they all have one thing in common, anyone of them is susceptible to the deadly MalX, get bitten from the wrong mosquito and there is no cure only show more death.

Living on the banks, Rosie knows all to well the dangers of MalX.She watched her mother die from the disease, the mutated strain that Mother Nature threw down upon the world. That was why she was always careful in her expeditions to the old city, the dangers not being enough to keep her away from her explorations, besides the items she found she sold and they desperately needed the money. But when she found the box, the dark blue metal box with its distinct and somehow familiar icon stamped onto the lid, she knew what she had found was special, what she didn't know was just how many lives were going to be lost because of what she uncovers inside.

Pip wasn't always a feral, all but homeless with only his wits and a fear of the deadly MalX to drive him. He may be nothing but a feral now but was smart and he had a plan for the future, besides being a feral had its advantages too. He was all but invisible to the world and could therefore go places, find out things that others could not, and others were willing to pay for skills like that, others that were restricted by there place in society. Pip got by on the jobs his bosses gave him, but when asked to go after a girl and a box, he had no idea just how life changing that task would be, and not just for him.

Genesis takes you on a journey from the banks of Newperth through the blackness of space all the way to the Genesis colony on Mars. Having triggered a chain of events that will spark an explosive revelation, Rosie and Pip are drawn deep into a mystery that leaves death in its wake. Through the many layers of deceit and deadly encounters they will uncover a truth but at a great cost. For Rosie it was only ever about saving her family, for Pip is was about loyalty to the only family he had left, but when both are betrayed and hundreds of innocent lives become at risk it becomes about surviving long enough to expose the truth. show less

This was non-stop action and the twists and turns made the story interesting and constantly unpredictable. The only criticism I would have is that Morgan loves her characters so much that she has difficulty letting them go and so the plot is longer than it needs to be. Otherwise a great, enjoyable read.