Lucy Turns Pages: 2022-07-03

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Do you like science fiction books? Here are some awesome sci-fi books by indie authors that you should check out! For more books, see my indie books page!

Level One

Level One is the first book in the series of the same name.

Knights of Lectum promised to be the ultimate escape for players looking to dive into a unique, Fantasy world. However, not long after the game went online worldwide, a problem appeared with the NIM device that created the neural link that transports players into Lectum. In days, millions of players were trapped inside of the game, with only one hope for escape: Beat the Game.

One year later, a man going by the name Prakuza online and looking from the outside desperately reaches across illegal lines to abandon his mundane life to join the worry-free life inside of Knights of Lectum. Of course, even paradise has its own dark clouds and silver linings. In the case of Lectum, while the world is free of the responsibilities of the day-to-day, the reflection of reality is in several cases too accurate, most notably when it comes to pain. Death is something that human beings were never meant to live through, and the agony of it threatens to break Prakuza and the other players' minds.

In response to coming violently up against this truth that the rest of the world isn't aware of for those suffering inside of Knights of Lectum, Prakuza resolves to assist others in their quest for escape. To do this, he'll have to reach out, break through his own insecurities, and make friends along the long process towards victory.

Free on Kindle Unlimited

These Violent Nights

Once upon a time, inhabitants of another world tore a hole through the universe and came to Earth. They called themselves Suriias, and rivalled humans in knowledge and skill with one great exception: they had magic.

War followed. Humanity lost. And three hundred years later, humans are on the brink of extinction.

Orphans Thorn and Thistle live in hiding. They are the last of their families, the last of their friends. They scrape by, stealing to survive and living on the streets or hiding in sheds. But even under the brutal regime of the Suriias, there are places where humans can mingle in secret with magical sympathisers, and one night Thistle gets an unexpected offer of marriage from a Suriia with high standing and friends in all the right places. For Thistle, it’s a chance at safety and comfort; for Thorn, it’s a chance to find the ones who killed her parents.

And so the pair move into the capital city of Courtenz. An urban monstrosity of magic and might, false friends and flying cars, drones and death tolls, the new city promises a fresh start – and new love – for both.

But if there’s one thing Thorn knows for certain, it’s that dreams can swiftly turn into nightmares.

Free on Kindle Unlimited

A Touch of Death (The Outlands Pentalogy Book 1)

A thousand years in the future, the last of humanity live inside the walls of the totalitarian Kingdom of Cutta. The rich live in Anais, the capital city of Cutta, sheltered from the famine and disease which ravage the rest of the Kingdom. Yet riches and power only go so far, and even Anaitians can be executed. It is only by the will of the King that Nate Anteros, son of the King’s favourite, is spared from the gallows after openly dissenting. But when he’s released from prison, Nate disappears.

A stark contrast, Catherine Taenia has spent her entire life comfortable and content. The daughter of the King’s Hangman and in love with Thom, Nate’s younger brother, her life has always been easy, ordered and comfortable. That is, where it doesn’t concern Nate. His actions sullied not only his future, but theirs. And unlike Thom, Catherine has never forgiven him.

Two years pass without a word, and then one night Nate returns. But things with Nate are never simple, and when one wrong move turns their lives upside down, the only thing left to do is run where the King’s guards cannot find them – the Outlands. Those wild, untamed lands which stretch around the great walls of the Kingdom, filled with mutants and rabids.

Free on Kindle Unlimited

Dust & Lightning

In the near future, humans have gone beyond simple space travel. By the year 4054, multiple solar systems are inhabited, and taking a spaceship is as commonplace as taking an aeroplane.

Unfortunately, not everything about the future is so advanced. The central planets, led by Earth, have risen high at the expense of cheap labour on distant worlds. Dissent is widespread and arrests are common. Sometimes prisoners are released; sometimes they disappear without a trace, sent to labour camps in other solar systems.

When Ames Emerys receives a letter telling him that his brother Callum has died en route to the remote planet of Kilnin, he takes the first ship he can off Earth, desperate for answers. But the secrets Ames uncovers prove far more dangerous than he could have imagined.

And trouble isn’t far behind.

Free on Kindle Unlimited

Ground Zero: The Day The Sky Fel

The world is under invasion from the skycendelvins. The interdimensional beings are building gates, assimilating individuals, and preparing for a takeover. No one realizes this except specific individuals in the government.

The agency hasn't informed Ana of the planned invasion. She is a homeland security agent sent to Mr. And Mrs. Leonard Turner's house to investigate Mrs. Turner. Julianne Turner is a national security threat. Leo falls in love with Ana. His wife hasn't allowed him to touch her for two years and indecently visits other individuals. Leo Turner initiates a divorce and tells Ana he wants to be friends and eventually marry her.

Ana has a dream and later sees a vision of San Francisco exploding. She tells Leo she is an agent sent to watch Mrs turner. The next day they explore Mrs. Turner's quarters only to discover many strange objects and several dates marked in a calendar for September 20th "financial breakdown" and 28th "skyfel."

Two weeks later, Ana and Leo go to Williams to purchase Ana's childhood home. They come home to the letter stating Mrs. Turner is not human. It advises her to disengage immediately. Leo and Ana leave.

They visit the field office the next day, and Mr. Abbott discloses information about the skycendelvins and the plan to destroy the gates to save humanity from the takeover. The self-destruct mechanism is more potent than any bomb humanity has developed. Soon Leo and Ana are in a race against time to escape ground zero before the bomb flattens the San Francisco Bay Area.

The Wake of Manadar (The Thelenic Curriculum Book 1)

Strive not for power, but for control. Power without control is nothing, control without power is a beginning. - First Book of Thelen, first stanza.

The civil war that has riven the Empire of the Thelenic Curriculum for five long years nears an end. Besieged in Manadar, their final fortress, the surviving twelve Royalist Magisters hatch a desperate plot- to break the walls of reality itself and turn the power of another universe against the Lily College.

Unknown to the Twelve, that universe is home to Operative Amanda Devereux, and the most highly-advanced dimensional research facility on Earth. When the Royalists’ magic touches the cutting-edge science of The Office, the results are apocalyptic. Of the Twelve and their bastion, there is no trace.

But in the crater that lies in the wake of Manadar, Amanda Devereux stirs, a cybernetic infiltration agent hurled into a world she could never have imagined- a world that has never seen anything like her.

Science-fiction and fantasy collide head-on in the first novel of the Thelenic Curriculum: The Wake of Manadar.

Free on Kindle Unlimited

The Third Mirror (The Thelenic Curriculum Book 2)

Magic and technology entwine and clash in the sequel to The Wake of Manadar.

The sole survivor of a magical catastrophe that flung her into a strange new world and annihilated two cities, Operative Amanda Devereux is gradually finding a place for herself in the Empire of the Thelenic Curriculum. Unknown to her, the repercussions of the Disaster of the Wake are still unfolding.

The vast empire of the Daxalai schemes to bring the eastern lands under their benevolent dominion, the Dragons of the Parliament brood and plot, and the enigmatic Whales of the Blue Council deliver a cryptic warning.

Meanwhile, her devious new employer has a grudge against one of her few real friends and her own relationship may be nothing more than a magical side-effect. And still, the warning of the Whales persists.

“There was a third mirror....”

Free on Kindle Unlimited

The Flybown Crusade: The third novel of the Thelenic Curriculum

“My hand is open, as is my heart.”The traditional greeting of the people of the Dendaril Hegemony still holds true centuries after their realm was founded. But what was once a warm promise of friendship is now feared by those few who know the true nature of the Dendaril. To the Free Tribes, they are the Fly Lords, bearers of the affliction known only in ancient songs as The Woe. To the Magisters of the Lily College, they are the thralls of the Shrive-Ticks, symbiotic insects that bring health, strength and peace of mind to those they infest at the cost of their entire identity. Now, after a millennium of silence, the Dendaril are moving. To face them in battle unprotected is to become them, and there is nowhere to run. To Magister Thalia Daran, who fears herself responsible, falls the task of enlisting the aid of the Royal Knights of Abelia, whose sealed battle-armour and Golem automata are immune to the parasites. But the Abelians killed her father, and he himself was responsible for the death of the previous king, a fact Queen Tondarin II has not forgotten. Thalia's ally, the dimensionally-shifted Operative Amanda Devereux, searches for hidden secrets that may hinder her as much as they help. Meanwhile, the fiercely independent Free Tribes face a stark choice between allying with a hated enemy, or losing themselves to the Woe forever. And in the Empire of the Thelenic Curriculum, Arch-Chancellor Derelar Thane finds troubling questions about his spy-master that must be answered.Magic and technology, love and hate, the weight of history and the march of progress combine in the third novel of the Thelenic Curriculum, The Flyblown Crusade.

Free on Kindle Unlimited

The Fire in the Wind: The fourth novel of the Thelenic Curriculum

“And for many years the new star shone just like the old one, until one day it started to go yellow, but that is another story.”
Legends of Thelen and the Patrons

It should be victory. It should be the dawn of a new age of peace and reconciliation. The Dendaril have fled in full retreat, the Winnowing Ague that has plagued the Kingdom of Abelia for centuries has been brought to an end, and Magister, Mighty One and Royal Knight have exchanged cordial words and bled in common cause for the first time since the Foundation Wars.

It is none of those things.

In ending the Ague, Amanda Devereux may have destroyed the Kingdom of Abelia. In repelling the Dendaril, the Free Tribes have been ripped apart, fully half their number lured into the service of an ancient, inscrutable Master. And concealed by it all, lurking unnoticed in the aftermath of war, a woman long-since discarded as worthless by the powerful wrestles to control a power none of them could possibly imagine. Some call it the Wild Burn. The Daxalai call it the heiran. But it falls to Delys Amaranth, the mute Swordmaster, to give it the only name that truly describes it.

The fire in the wind.

Free on Kindle Unlimited

The Magic Circle

Forty years ago, nuclear war devastated vast swathes of the world. Since then, the remaining countries strived to rebuild and grow stronger. Continents formed The Peace Accords, an agreement that cut all contact with each other to prevent such a war from ever happening again.

Three strangers—an art student in Paris, a Russian spy, and a South African programmer—find their lives intertwine as magic returns to Earth. Guided by the mysterious Celestials, they must choose how they use this force in a fight that will determine the fate of every single living thing on the planet.

War of the Submarine

World War III begins in an unexpected way. Commander Alex Coleman thought his career over when he got sent to Armistice Station, an underwater megastation where you can buy everything except success in the U.S. Navy. But when a French-Indian alliance tries to push the United States out of the Indian Ocean, he's right in their path. He never set out to be a hero, because heroes don't explode coffee creamer fireballs or hijack cruise ships--but hey, conventional submariners rarely make history.

First 3 episodes free!

Cardinal Virtues (War of the Submarine Book 1)

The future is here—and war will follow.

2037: Underwater exploitation has changed the world. Every nation wants territory, and the race for resources on the ocean floor is on.

Commander Alex Coleman thought his career was over when he got sent to Armistice Station, an underwater megastation where you can buy everything except success in the U.S. Navy. Here, he waits for retirement, doling out sodas and supplies while keeping an eye out for and unruly sailors—hardly the things the Navy sends you to do when you’re a submariner on the fast track.

But things aren’t quiet in this underwater amusement park. French marines arrive with Indian Navy support. Both nations want the United States out of the Indian Ocean, and Alex, along with his eclectic band of castoff sailors, is the only one standing in their way.

Alex sure as hell doesn’t want to be a hero—because heroes don't explode coffee creamer fireballs or hijack cruise ships—but the shooting’s started, and he’s got a job to do.

Meanwhile, an American carrier strike group steams though the Straits of Malacca. Commander Nancy Coleman’s USS Fletcher (DDG 155) is on point, keeping an eye out for Chinese submarines that might stop her ships from arriving in time to aide Taiwan. But when a trigger-happy admiral shoots at the wrong nation’s submarine, she finds herself in the middle of a shootout that might be the first act of World War III.

Cardinal Virtues is first book in the series War of the Submarine, also published as Season 1 of the War of the Submarine serial on Kindle Vella.

Forever Avalon

TAKE AN ADVENTURE THROUGH TIME! Stephanie Drake and her three children were glad to be alive after a sudden storm slammed their boat onto an uncharted island, but it's not where they think. They found themselves in another world, frozen in time. For more than 3,000 years, the magical island of Avalon remained hidden from the outside world. It was a place of eternal magic, where the descendants of King Arthur ruled over a land filled with magical creatures, wizards, Elves, Dwarves and dragons. On Avalon, Stephanie and her children were being hunted by bounty hunters, thieves and brigands. They found themselves caught in a poweTh r struggle between Lord Kraven Darkholm, a powerful wizard descended from the sorceress Morgana le Fay, and Lord Bryan MoonDrake, the Gil-Gamesh of Avalon.

The people of this magical isle have been protected for centuries by the Gil-Gamesh, a descendant of Sir Percival Peredyr, the last Knight of the Round Table. But who is Lord MoonDrake and how does he know so much about Stephanie and her children? Now, it's a race against time as the Gil-Gamesh must protect these Outlanders—as they are called—and get them home to the outside world. All the while, Kraven Darkholm continued his schemes against the people of Avalon, vying to achieve his ultimate goal of becoming ruler of this enchanted island.

Free on Kindle Unlimited or 0.99, audiobook available

SHINY METAL BOXES (THE WORMHOLESCOPE CHRONICLES)

Emma Castle, an eye implant techie, gets dumped into dealing with a corporate nightmare.

People depend on AI, including eyeGo, a visual implant installed from the age of nine. When an erratic illness known as Jobs Disease incapacitates millions, Emma, an eyeGo health technician, gets reassigned to investigate a possible link between the implant and the affliction. As the disease continues to spread on Earth at an alarming rate, Emma uncovers a potential conspiracy that could rock humankind and technology forever. Teaming up with a private investigator, a hacking guru, a senior member of The Milky Way Library, and a million-dollar AI assistant, Emma races to stop the devastation before it’s too late.

SHINY METAL BOXES, the first installment in The Wormholescope Chronicles, is a science fiction novel that falls into the abyss of technology addiction.

Free on Kindle Unlimited

Into the Black: Tales from the Cassidyverse 1 (The Cassidy Chronicles)

Welcome to the Cassidyverse, the wider world of the Cassidy Chronicles, where life will take you in unexpected directions.

Kendra Cassidy’s dream was to drag humanity to the stars. Along the way she invested her fortune, her sweat, and her blood to make the Terran Federation real. But she wasn’t the only one; her crew struggled alongside her to bring it to life. These are their stories:

In “Recruiting Kendra, “ a younger Kendra learns first-hand what it takes to turn an actress into an assassin.

In “A Dream Made Flesh,” Diana, an AI and a leader of the Federation, wonders what it might be like to be human.

In “When ‘cats Fly,” Daniela is challenged to solve the problem of making a space fighter suitable for cat-sized sentients.

In “Murder on the Missouri,” a cadet is murdered, Alyssa calls in the only human who can solve the case.

In “Hell Hath No Fury,” A jealous, vengeful Admiral discovers that Ashley is the wrong Captain to exile to the frontier.

In “The Martian Gambit,” Mikall and the crew of the TFS Nike face a last-gasp attempt to overthrow the Terran Federation.

And in “Thrown For A Loop,” a story that spans centuries, Kendra and her wife, Aiyana, confront a threat to all of space and time.

In all, eleven tales of bravery, love, creativity, and…staplers?

Come see for yourself!

The Cassidy Chronicles

The year 2113 is a post-modern America, after decades of warfare and the near collapse of civilisation, America is shattered into a dozen nations. Aiyana Cassidy is a genius physicist who has stumbled upon a technology that will revolutionize the world. She makes contact with her old high school friend Kendra Foster-Briggs, who is an employee of a shadowy organization called OutLook. Cassidy's experiments at Heavy Lift Corporation (HLC) into teleportation cause many different players to begin tracking her down. Kendra and Cassidy set of on a cross-continental journey to find some answers.

In this steampunk novel, their travels take them on a continent spanning adventure as we are introduced to a world of advanced technology, strange and unfamiliar landscapes and new discoveries.

Kinetics: In Search of Willow (Kinetics Sequence Book 1)

Eugene was only five years old when he burned his house down and nearly killed his mother. Fearing his powers were too volatile, his parents had the memories of his powers and their secret society of super humans erased.

Ten years later, that secret is revealed when a classmate goes crazy and makes Eugene’s whole school see their own nightmares. His classmate is only the beginning. His best friend Willow can heal all wounds, his father can turn invisible, and his brother can make things explode. Before Eugene can come to terms with having unusual abilities, Willow is kidnapped.

For thousands of years, Earth has been under siege by an alien named Isiro bent on enslaving the planet. Now, in need of a new host to carry his disembodied essence, Isiro has taken Willow. With no help from the Anyan’s Alliance and with powers he barely understands Eugene journeys across the States following her trail into the enemy base itself. He is determined to find her and find the answer to her kidnapping before she is turned into an alien host.

Free on Kindle Unlimited

Forces: In Search of Power (Kinetics Sequence Book 2)

Eugene has traveled across the United States and nothing went as expected. Now he’s stuck in China with a mentor he never asked for. Learning his powers, the conflicts ahead of him, and who he is are more important than he knows. Willow has come out the other side but now she feels more alone than ever before. She’s a target, on the run, and trying to figure out what to do next. It’s only with the help of a new friend that she’ll be able to navigate new world opening before her. Harry, Jack, Roy, and Logan are off trying to find Laura but nothing is certain and they might be opening a can of worms they aren’t ready to handle.

The war between the Anyan’s Alliance and Isiroan Legion is heating up and no one is prepared for what that means. There are forces at play in the world and Eugene, Willow, and the others are on paths to becoming leaders of a new generation.

A Twist in the Rift (Rift Runners Book 1)

If you could travel to different worlds, would you ever come back to this one?

Lyrica is the usual final year university student, except that she has the ability to see Rifts – portals to other worlds in this Universe. When her acquaintance Basil, a time-travelling archaeologist from the future shows up and needs her help, well, why would she resist the call of adventure? But what of these new aliens that have joined their group – will they draw Lyrica out of her self-justified, self-imposed loneliness? What will happen when the adventure turns more dangerous than anticipated?

In this first story of the Rift Runners Saga, find out what life is like when you can travel almost anywhere, and almost anything can happen!

Bounty (Jill Andersen Series Book 1)

Jill Andersen is one of Baltimore's best and brightest detectives, but she harbors a dark secret -- a secret that threatens to come out when the body of Dr. Trent Roberts is pulled out of the Chesapeake Bay. Dr. Roberts' connection to Jill reveals a past that involves a tour in Iraq, a secretive cybernetic experiment, and a conspiracy that involves a native son.

Can Jill solve the case while still keeping her secret? Will her partners at the Seventh Precinct find out what she's so desperate to hide? What was Dr. Roberts looking into that led to his murder? And perhaps the biggest question of all...

Who is Bounty?

0.99 on Kindle!

The Quantum Contingent

The future… is here. Gregory Simpson brings you "The Quantum Contingent", a globe-trotting, techno-spy thriller with pop-culture references and even its own Spotify playlist! This novel is set in richly detailed locations around the globe and features today's technologies extrapolated for tomorrow, including cryptocurrency, drones, and SpaceX rocket ships.

In 2028, a mysterious group known as The Quantum Contingent has achieved true quantum computing capabilities. The Quantum Contingent have their sights set on achieving immortality for a select few who will chart humanity's destiny. They are willing to hold the world's governments hostage to achieve their goals.

Jack and Sarah are sibling spies who work with Quotient, a mysterious, independent spy agency whose secret advantage is also quantum based. They find themselves taking on a desperate mission to race across the globe at a frenetic pace to stop this nefarious group and their anonymous founder!

Altar From Space

Talisha Martinson and her crew respond to the distress signal of the SS Revelation, only to discover that nobody is there. It quickly becomes apparent that something monstrous is lurking aboard the SS Revelation, and it's not going to let anyone leave with their life.

As The Artifacts Stir

After escaping the nightmare aboard the SS Revelation, Talisha awakes on an unfamiliar medical station. She quickly realizes that something truly awful is happening based on the blood splattered walls and piles of viscera. It seems that Talisha escaped from one hell, only to be plunged into another.

The Shareholders

In the late 21st century, Earth has been ravaged by climate change. Seeing it was time for decisive action, the billionaires bioengineered immortality, purchased the last habitable biospheres on the planet as their personal shares, and fled to Mars. For everyone left behind, life on a dying planet isn't easy. The lucky ones live in enclosed cities eating bug protein and saving up for passage to Mars. The rest of humanity exists as climate refugees passing through worlds that are perpetually on the brink of ecological collapse.

Ian Gateman, one of Earth's last bureaucrats, works on the settlement of ecological refugees while he, his wife, Anne, and their son, Alex, look forward to life on Mars. When Anne becomes terminally ill, she decides to upload her consciousness and live forever in Lotus: a corporate-run virtual reality simulation. To keep up with the monthly payments for Anne's digital residency and stop Lotus from deleting her consciousness, Ian takes on a special assignment. Tasked with finding a buyer for a fledgling colony of newly settled ecological refugees, Ian travels to the estates of several visiting immortals. As Ian tries to flog the colony to a brooding class of bored immortals, it becomes clear they have their own plans for humanity's future.

Sugar Plum Tea

Humanity needed the Tahli to chase the invading Borie from Earth. The Tahli needed Earth since their dying sun was giving off radiation that sterilized most of their women. They can either make it work, or both go extinct.

At the age of seven, Winnie was pulled from the rubble of a dying world by Tahli soldiers. She became their reason to fight to protect the women and girls of Earth, even if it meant going against their people’s desperation to save their species.

In her adult years, Winnie wanted nothing more than to marry and have children after starting her successful tea and sweet shop in the colonies set up by the Tahli. Backstabbers, terrorists, and hate that still filled the rebuilding world always seemed to get in the way. That is until she has a chance meeting with a newly relocated Tahli on Kinship Day.

Free on Kindle Unlimited

From the Grave of the Gods: The Augment Saga: Book One

Strange lights in the sky.
A Red Planet.
A catalyst to change the course of human history.

Commander James Fowler is an astronaut and the first officer of the Magnum Opus, the largest spacecraft ever built, on the first crewed expedition to Mars. The mission: to investigate the mysterious extrasolar object that went down on the Red Planet five years ago. James is living the dream: he gets to go to space and be one of the first to set foot on another world, with his girlfriend, Angela, cheering him on at home. Maybe after the mission, when he's returned a hero, he'll find the perfect moment to finally propose.

But his dreams shatter as the mission ends in disaster.

Returning to a world reeling from the revelation of what they found out there, James works to piece his life back together and come to terms with what happened. But the mission left him changed, and now he must fight to protect everything he holds dear from those who seek advancement at any cost; a process that makes him question his identity, his place in the world, and what it means to be human.

Free on Kindle Unlimited

The Re-Emergence: An Augment Saga Novella (The Augment Saga)

"It was just a myth. Just a damn legend passed down from corrupted databanks..."

A strange probe from a long-forgotten satellite network appears in the P’hori star system. Its message: a dire warning signalling the return of an ancient mythological evil. Imperator Da’kora Corasar and the crew of the Qesh’kal are sent to determine the probe’s origin, and find that the satellite is not as they had expected. Corasar trusts the satellite’s data, but not everyone aboard agrees. Tensions rise and loyalties are tested as they track down the source of the signal. Thrust into conflict, the crew of the Qesh’kal must chase their foe across the galactic arm and save their home from certain destruction.

Nexus Point (Time Ranger)

Late in the twenty-second century, teams of Time Rangers travel back in history to capture Time Runners, renegade time travellers who endanger the future by changing the past. Kai Sawyer, son of a rear admiral who was a founding member of the Time Ranger unit, is a Spawn, a genetically enhanced human with powerful strength and abilities. But despite his advantages, he carries the burden of his father's cold and calculated plans for Kai's future.

As Kai rises through the ranks to become the Time Rangers' youngest commander ever, he must constantly prove himself to fend off perceptions, even from his own team, that nepotism is behind his meteoric rise. But when Kai and his team are sent to seventeenth-century France to capture a sadistic Time Runner altering the arc of medical advances, Kai finds his considerable strengths used against him. And he fears that he might be a pawn in a dark scheme concocted by mysterious forces even he can't defeat.

Oliver Maris

Escaping to far-off places of his imagination to forget about being bullied, is typical for sixth grader Oliver, until one afternoon he goes a bit too far. He switches places with Captain Maris, a tough-as-the-seas pirate from another dimension where space travel, tall ships, and wild adventure are the norm. Captain Maris may have survived space battles, but he’ll face his greatest challenge yet while walking in Oliver’s shoes. Meanwhile, Oliver is more lost than ever. When the truth comes to light, it is more than Captain Maris can bear. It shatters him and breaks Oliver, and now he has to come to terms with a whole new reality. In this middle-grade adventure about facing your fears and dealing with life-changing problems, author Fernando Bravo crafts an engaging tale that spans worlds.