Here’s the set-up for Andrea K Höst’s Stray (Touchstone)
On her last day of high school, Cassandra Devlin walked out of exams and into a forest. Surrounded by the wrong sort of trees, and animals never featured in any nature documentary, Cass is only sure of one thing: alone, she will be lucky to survive.
The sprawl of abandoned blockish buildings Cass discovers offers her only more puzzles. Where are the people? What is the intoxicating mist which drifts off the buildings in the moonlight? And why does she feel like she’s being watched?
Increasingly unnerved, Cass is overjoyed at the arrival of the formidable Setari. Whisked to a world as technologically advanced as the first was primitive, where nanotech computers are grown inside people’s skulls, and few have any interest in venturing outside the enormous whitestone cities, Cass finds herself processed as a ‘stray,’ a refugee displaced by the gates torn between worlds. Struggling with an unfamiliar language and culture, she must adapt to virtual classrooms, friends who can teleport, and the ingrained attitude that strays are backward and slow.
Can Cass ever find her way home? And after the people of her new world discover her unexpected value, will they be willing to let her leave?
From the reviewer:
The book falls into two parts – pre-rescue, where Cass is very active, and post-rescue where Cass is more doing what she’s told, but at least has people to talk to! Cass herself is a gem: genre-savvy and with touches of sharp humour in an otherwise good-natured personality. There is a smidge of romance (several very lust-worthy possibilities, though she seems focused on one) and some wonderful dramatic sequences which ramp the story into overdrive. I don’t have a book I can easily compare this to, but it’s fun, and funny and I want to know what happens next.–Shan Shar
Andrea K Höst was born in Sweden but raised in Australia – mainly in Townsville, Queensland. She now lives in Sydney.
Andrea writes fantasy and science fantasy, and enjoys creating stories set in worlds which slightly skew our social expectations, and most especially give her female characters something more to do than wait for rescue.
Her novel The Silence of Medair — also available for just 99 cents today! — was shortlisted for the 2010 Aurealis Awards for best fantasy novel.
And here, in the comfort of your own browser, is your free sample of STRAY: