Excerpt: Rupture by Curtis Hox + Giveaway

Rupture (Transhuman Warrior #1)

by Curtis Hox
Editions: ebook
Published March 13th 2012 by Curtis Hox
Genre: YA Dystopian Fantasy
Simone Wellborn is a Transhuman with an attitude. She’s been genetically engineered from birth to be super smart. The problem? All that tinkering her parents paid top dollar for provided a few unexpected results, like an annoying ability to blast telekinetic energy at the worst possible times. She also has another tricky issue: strange entities possess her and, worse, transform her into something dangerous.
Simone’s mother sends her to the Sterling School for reject Transhumans. While there, she meets a few other students with similar problems. They’re all Transhumans with dirty secrets. Heartthrob Hutto Toth is a charming gladiator. He annoys Simone from day one, but he’s also a Werebear who accidentally killed a boy in a glad match, and Simone can’t stand how much she likes him. There’s two-foot tall Wally Dorsey, who’s determined to pilot a personalized mech. His best friend, Beasley Gardner, is a mountain of a young girl with enough muscle to beat up any boy at school, but she’s suffers from a rage disorder. Finally, Simone meets Kimberlee Newkirk, an unassuming Succubus who fears she’ll kill the next boy she kisses.
These defective students find themselves at the center of a deadly conflict when another student, Joss Beckwith, attracts a Rogue Artificial Intelligence, the new power brokers in a society radically changed by science and technology.
The Transhuman Warrior Series tells the story of Simone and her friends as they’re transformed into highly specialized human weapons. They must challenge the increasing power of the Rogues as these enemies push into Realspace with one goal in mind: total domination.
~ Goodreads Blurb

About the Author:

A little about me:
I’ve written six unpublished contemporary, literary science fantasy novels in the last decade, all of which I finished and promptly put away. I didn’t even let my wife read one until this year. (I know, ultra critical and self defeating as hell, but that’s me.) I did rounds of agent hunting with little luck, and since everyone is talking about epublishing, I thought I’d give it a try by writing a series of three YA novels with all the juicy stuff I love from Sci Fi and Fantasy and just have fun with it. I’m also forcing myself to be open to everything that goes along with the business side of marketing without griping, “Frack it! I just want to write.” So this site will, at first, probably be a bit about process, plus be a place for me to explore ideas related to my projects. Then, if all goes well, a way to market my novels.
As of now, we’ve soft launched Bleedover, a contemporary science fantasy novel I wrote a few years ago. We’re using it to learn the marketing side, while I finish working with an editor on the first three books in my Transhuman Warrior Series, the fun YA novels I wrote last summer. These have all been drafted, with covers. And Rupture (Book One in the Transhuman Warrior Series) is in round two of the edits.

Links: Website | Twitter

” Simone watched Rigon move to block as much of their sight as possible. What her mother was doing defied the best rational arguments her brother and his techno-bosses could make, so they hid such powers away at all costs, or, in today’s world, used them. Simone hated the fact she was both mesmerized and afraid of her mother, who now grasped two weapons that glowed with amber fire. She had always wanted to be like her, to be able to do the things her mother did. The lords granted Simone limited access to their beneficence, but she had never demonstrated such skills as her mother’s in channeling and summoning. Her mother could call things into being. She was a psy-sorceress, and a highly paid one.

Simone mumbled her mantra of centering as she watched her mother move in a delicate dance that looked like a dramatic performance.

“I am coming for you,” her mother said. Joss was no longer Joss. His eyes had rolled back in his head, and he stood rigid. “I’ve got you now. Send your messenger, you intemperate void beasts.”

Simone backed up; it was dangerous to be so close … to her mother. Joss roared a deep-bellied roar that sounded as if it echoed up from an abyss. He fell to his knees and his neck snapped back so that he faced the ceiling as would a spigot.

“Come on out,” her mother said, her arms continuing the seductive dance with the weapons. “You little pretenders.”

***

Simone watched Principal Smalls usher the students away from her mother. Simone assumed it was because of her form-fitting, silver Consortium Bodyglove and metallic Mirrorshades, items most of the students ogled and some even asked to touch. Simone also watched Rigon waiting with his team down by the clinic. Keila and Mr. Vaughn had retreated to faculty housing, where the school always kept a few furnished suites for the Association Council.

Ralph and a few other annoyed maintenance guys walked into the clinic to clean it up. She realized everyone’s Friday night was over. Her mother and brother talked briefly, nodded to each other; then Rigon left without a hug.

Here comes the talk, Simone thought, as her mother approached.

Simone crossed her arms and prepared to dig in, expecting a tongue-lashing over her reckless denunciation of Joss as a child of the Dark Void and all that.

Instead, her mother removed her shades and rubbed her eyes. Simone could see the mirror-like reflection behind her irises that meant her optic nerves and retinas had been upgraded. It didn’t dehumanize her, no, but at odd moments, when the light glimmered just right, you’d see two flashes of solid, flat, golden circles looking back at you. For a moment or two, you’d be confused. Were you looking at a human or a machine, or a hybrid? She knew the answer. Her mother and brother and the fortunate others with intellect packages who’d extended their consciousnesses to merge with intelligent cybernetic data systems were the new power brokers in society. Their enemies called them cyborgs and their friends called them Cybertranshumans. They were on the front lines of every important battle being fought in the name of humanity, and her mother, with her own gifts, was one of the most powerful, if controversial.

***

The vulgar symbol inside the sculpture shifted, no longer solid, but fluid, as if the man’s ass was about to eat himself whole. She felt energized at what was about to happen, feeling the power of her lords swell in her. She mumbled her mantras, began her dance, and readied herself. She would perform her most demanding kata so far, only half of the twelve her mother promised to teach her. She felt herself immune to the travails of the world. Let all the cracks in the universe show, she thought. They won’t matter.

Pop-pop-pop.

Apple-sized pods began popping out of the fabricator like heated popcorn out of a pan. Each one stuck to something solid like the walls, the ceiling, and chairs. Beasley moved with rapid speed to avoid a barrage of fruit, and one particularly large apple flew between her and Hutto and splattered on the wall behind them. The students all ducked behind a sofa.

Each of the pods transformed into black-irised eyes that looked about the room in random motions. All at once they locked onto Simone in the middle of the room dancing through her psy-kata. The invaders knew their target. Her mother continued her dance. Rigon remained impassive, although he was ready to blast the criminal minds who had shown themselves with enough psychic force to knock down the walls. She knew he’d probably kill everyone in the room, as well, so he’d have to be careful.

Simone was on her own, for now.

A voice spoke from the fabricator: “We are Dominion and Pain and Pleasure. We are Life and Love. Hate and Death. We are All. Young one of the Mind, kneel and worship us, and we will give you our brand.” “

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