It’s Sunday again, and time for snippets from authors far and wide. For Weekend Writing Warriors click the logo above, for Snippet Sunday click the logo below.
This week I’m posting a snippet from Tourist Trap, available in all formats from Barnes and Noble, iUniverse and Amazon, though I can’t seem to get Amazon to offer a reasonable e-book price. Point out the lower prices to them. This is some 20 years earlier than Horse Power. An unexpected jibe has just knocked Roi out of the sailboat Timi has been piloting
If you knocked him out, something in the back of Timi’s mind whispered, there’s a good chance he’d drown.
That’s crazy, his saner self replied. Roi’s my friend.
He’s your owner. How can he possibly be your friend?
He was almost back to the eddy now, and with a surge of relief—or was it hatred?—he saw Roi’s head break water. The R’il’noid was pawing feebly at the water, seemingly unable to use his right arm, and he was choking and coughing.
All you have to do is hit him like this, the voice whispered, and to his horror Timi felt his hands moving, not to assist Roi until the boat could get back to them, but to kill.
A vacation with his three best friends from slavery and a manhood challenge: Roi is given the graduation present he has dreamed of. Dogsledding, hang gliding, a chance to see Pleistocene animals transplanted to a Terraformed vacation world, horseback riding, sailing … all the sports he has returned to with his recovery from paralysis, and a few new ones to learn.
They’re prepared for danger from weather, wild animals and extreme sports. But none of them realize that Roi’s half brother Zhaim, determined to recover his old position as Lai’s heir, intends to kill them if he can—and he’s decided that the dangers of the trip will make a perfect cover for his schemes.
How long will it take them to realize that the “accidents” they keep running into are more than just accidents?
Tourist Trap, the second novel of the Jarnian Confederation, won first place in science fiction and fiction book of the year in the 2011 Reader Views contest.
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First place? No wonder! What a terrific premise.
I love Timi’s struggle, here—makes me wonder if Zhaim has anything to do with that inner voice.
I just wish I could get more people to read (and review) it.
I always enjoy the way your characters think. Great snippet!
Too bad I couldn’t put in some earlier bits that would make more sense of this.
Tense snippet, delicious!
Timi’s a bit conflicted, but part of his mind is really shocked by this.
“Accidents” that are hard to explain…that does make a person wonder. Hope that things turn out all right.
Get the book and see.
Another who wonders if Zhaim is behind Timi’s thoughts. Great snippet!
Readers at this point won’t have much doubt.
Spooky and tense as it’s meant to be. Definitely makes me curious to know more.
The e-book’s under $5 from Barnes and Noble.
Wow, some dilemma Timi finds himself in and that spooky voice urging him on is quite a touch. Excellent excerpt, intriguing story.
At this point I’m pulling random excerpts, usually in no particular order, from both published books.
I wonder what’s going on with Timi, is Zhaim controlling him?
The reader by this point should have no doubts.
Wow…Timi’s about to learn to kill in an extraordinary way. It’s almost like he’s being remote-controlled… and this idea of a vacation world is amazing! I once had a dream about just such a thing and got to experience such a place. I know that probably sounds weird, but it’s one of the things that really draws me into your stories, Sue. You are an incredible world-builder! And I hope you are feeling better and better! 🙂
Finished my last Chemo (I hope) two weeks ago. Still bald. And being a geophysicist really helps the world building. No almost about it, by the way.
Your imagination stirs mine, Sue Ann. Interesting scary eight. Best to you, my friend.
Glad you like it.
The eternal struggle between good and evil. The world of vacation with extreme sports is well done as described. No wonder this won first place.
What would we do for plots without it?
Such a struggle…I wonder what path he’ll choose! Well cone!
He’s not being given much choice.
Hmm.. Is Zhaim behind Timi’s thoughts? Makes me wonder. Great visual scene!
Hope you’re feeling better. Last Chemo? I’ll say an extra prayer that it is. 🙂
In the book it’s pretty apparent from what’s gone before.
Wow! So much tension in the snippet and what a great premise.
It’s kind of a tense moment.
I hope this explains a little of the way Timi hesitates to be beholden to Roi in Horse Power.
Excellent eight! Hope you’re feeling better!
Much better, thanks, though still a little weak.
It’s actually a bit eerie. Great job!
Taking over another’s mind is kind of eerie.
Sue Ann, today I passed 55% reading Homecoming. I am so completely in love with the story. And I confess to not realizing until I began reading Homecoming, that your books share characters and a series. Not only is the story good, but it’s fascinating how you’ve infused the analytical and factual with the fictional future/past? When I read the reason for the Earthlings all having some R’il’noid DNA–the subtle resemblance to Abraham (in the Bible) actually made me say wow, out loud! Wonderful. The book is simply wonderful.
So, I’ll be reading Tourist Trap in the not too distant future. 🙂
Thank you so much. Roi (as an adult) is actually the common factor behind the castaways in Coralie’s story and in fact the whole trilogy I’m working on. The trilogy’s set in our time; Homecoming started about the time of George Washington’s birth. But the Confederation, though there is a Guardian for Earth, is carefully hiding their existence and refusing to meddle in our affairs. The early prehistory of the Confederation is on my blog every Friday as Jarn’s Journal. (It’s supposedly written by the R’il’nian who was stranded on Earth 125,000 years ago.)
Great snippet, and we all know how I love a story with a touch of a murder plot. Well done!
History Sleuth’s Milk Carton Murders
In this one we are intermittently in the would-be murderer’s POV.