Title: To The Stars
Author: Tiaan Lubbe
Genre: Dystopian / YA / NA / scifi
One boy. One girl. One world about to end.
When the world finds out its inevitable end will come in sixty years, it seems like all hope is lost. Until a man steps from the darkness. He offers salvation, but demands total control. The world accepts.
Sixty years later, the old saviour’s son is leader and watches over the last proceedings of his father’s plans – Seven Ark ships called the Astrum Portas.
Noah is the next leader. He doesn’t want to be.
Zara is the girl he’s in love with. She doesn’t know it.
Three lives become complicatedly intertwined when a bomb on the Astrum Porta unexpectedly throws them into a whirlwind of secrets, forbidden love and violent clashes all while the looming apocalypse approaches rapidly.
The final adventure awaits...
EXCERPT
“Come!” his father orders. Noah complies even though his body kicks against the action. He follows a few steps behind his father as they walk through the hallway and turn at the corner. Another hallway stretches out. It seems identical to the first hallway except for the steel door that creates a gap in the white almost immediately to the right. Far ahead, at the end of the hallway is another steel door, just after the hallway turns off to the left. They walk toward the door at the far end, passing the left turn-off that reveals another section of the Lower Level, and stop in front of the door. The High Chancellor turns to face Noah who is forced to take a step or two back to avoid looking up his father’s nose.
“Father?” Noah asks as he looks around, “Where...”
“Today I am not your father,” the High Chancellor cuts him off without hesitation, “I am purely your High Chancellor and you are an apprentice. Clear?”
Noah’s forehead pulls into a deep scowl. Why did he think that somehow their relationship has progressed?
You were never my father anyway.
“Are we clear, Mr. Edison?” the Leader reiterates with spitting clarity. “Clear as can be...my Lord.”
“Now then, instead of showing you the day to day of being the head of the Empire,” the High Chancellor says to his apprentice, “I will educate you in the actions that make a leader a leader.”
Noah stays quiet and only nods when the High Chancellor’s pause requires one. The High Chancellor turns around once again and pulls the red pinstriped sleeve of his sleek, black suit upward to expose his wrist and brings it to a glowing panel to the side of the door. The door itself has no handle and promotes the epitome of total security. The panel reacts with a voice that fills the white hallway with its cold tone.
“Code 10 restricted access zone. Blood identification requested.”
The High Chancellor moves his hand to the wall. From what previously looked like a part of the wall, a red line of light forms a square. The square comes out of the wall a few centimetres before it stops. In it, five dots of light appear in the shape of a hand, the High Chancellor places his hand on the square, his fingertips correlating with the red dots. Then he hears a quick, sharp sound, and five crimson tears run from the fingertips. They run down until they each reach another red dot underneath the previous dots. The red light flashes several times then switches to green. The High Chancellor takes his hand away from the panel and it disappears back into the wall, the blood disappearing with it as if it never ran. The cold voice speaks again.
“Blood sample accepted. Welcome High Chancellor.”
From the door comes a latching sound that echoes past Noah and disappears around the corner they came from. It swings open with a heavy groan into another pit of darkness. The High Chancellor steps inside without a second wasted and Noah, after weighing his options, follows. The darkness surrounds him like a thick piece of cloth.
Author Bio
Tiaan Lubbe lives in Pretoria, South Africa where he spends his time teaching little monsters, directing plays, doing what he calls writing and dreaming up the future. Mostly all at once.
Links
Twitter: www.twitter.com/@Tiaan_Lubbe
Facebook: www.facebook.com/tiaanlubbeauthor
Instagram: www.instagram.com/tiaan_lubbe
Website: www.tiaanlubbe.com
Ahh! I absolutely loved this book! Couldn't stop reading! Fantastic writing that had my heart racing and jumping in every chapter!
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