Character Profile

Summary

A middle-school boy, son of a germaphobe and a reenactor, discovers a family curse that causes the previous Martin to die when a new Martin is born...which gives him about 9 months to live before his cousin born!

Stats

Genre: Tween (10-13) contemporary humor with a supernatural twist. 

Series length: Standalone book

Violence: Low, comedic action violence

Magic/Supernatural: Light, restricted to the family curse. 

Romance: Light--he has a crush on a girl at school. 

Christian/spiritual element: Light, implied, but great themes of gratitude, the power of words, and on living life fully.

Recommendation: Geared more for boys than girls, though some girls might enjoy it as well. Great for reluctant readers.

You might like this book if you liked... 
the humor of Percy Jackson or the Diaries of a Wimpy Kid.

To Purchase

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Opening Lines: 

Air streams whispered out of ducts and vents, masking murmurs and quiet footsteps. On the third floor of the Nuris University library, sound seemed smothered under a weight of wisdom and recirculated air. 

Llyn Torfinn stood at an i-net station, listening nervously. The wall at the end of her aisle was opaque blue glass, and it glistened like a gigantic opal. Closer by, head-high racks displayed information printouts, data spools, and ancient-looking scrolls and books. Her brother Niklo had explained them as replicas, dignifying the library with the appearance of Earth-date antiquity. 

One Mind's Eye 
by Kathy Tyers

What if an artificial reality was all you had ever known?

On the planet Antar, Llyn Torfinn awakes to reality as if for the first time, with no memory of the real world. The human settlers found her abandoned, hooked into an AR machine, and wasting away. Physically and mentally, she must learn how to live in a system at war with alien threats at every turn.

The humans of the Concord worlds are rebuilding their civilization ravaged by the alien Devastators, who disappeared as abruptly as they attacked. As they struggle through the recovery process, the threat of another war of humans against humans arises, carrying with it rumors of an enemy even more potent than the last.

Humanity's last hope lies in a young woman who doesn't even know who she is. Llyn's greatest challenge may be to discover her own identity—or all of humankind may pay the price.

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