A royal palace is burning. The King and Queen are dead. The only hopes for an ancient dynasty flee to England for their lives.
A boy runs from his mother and the people he believes want to mutilate him, and vanishes, seemingly forever.
Gary Winchcombe, the experimental “super-cop” pursues a notorious gang of bank robbers, and starts to discover that his friends and neighbours have secrets he never could have imagined.
Tod Reynard wants to turn his life around. When he meets and falls in love with the beautiful Jade, he knows she might just be the one to help him change his life for the better. He cannot possibly know just how much.
When Jade’s twin sister Gloria is kidnapped, old rivalries must be put aside and new associations formed in order to save Gloria’s life and restore the rightful order of things.
General information
Pages: 397
Published: 7 November 2015
ISBN: 978-1518803901
Themes
- Superheroes
- Friendship
- Being different
- Twins
- Royalty
- Revolution
- Kidnap/rescue
- Jealousy
- Crime/crime fighting
- Nature v. nurture
First Page
Ildas McNair alighted from the plane, wrinkling his nose against the acrid smell of aviation fuel. He’d spent the two-and-a-half-hour flight wondering why Alex had been so desperate to see him after all these years. He was about to find out.
The sky was a deep royal blue; the mountains were black hulks huddled in a line as if watching him. A bitter wind whistled from the mountains across the flat plain of the airfield. It penetrated McNair’s thin overcoat and chilled his bones. When he’d boarded the plane, it had been a sunny spring afternoon in England.
McNair spotted his old friend Alexander, standing on the tarmac. The years melted away. McNair remembered the last time he’d visited Galorvia, many years before, during his student days.
Alex had been there to meet him then, too. It had been a balmy summer day, although the highest peaks of the mountains had still retained their snow. They’d waved furiously to each other. McNair recalled how Alex had come running to embrace him in a very European, but most undignified fashion.
Reasons not to read it
- It’s got superheroes in it.
- It also has a king and a queen and princesses in it, so is it a comic book story or a fairy tale?
- It’s got an imaginary country in it. Therefore it can’t be historically accurate.
- The superheroes aren’t from Krypton. They’re from England, France, the US and this imaginary place.
- Superheroes living in normal houses and apartments and not a secret base underground? Really?
- There’s as much romance and character development as there is war.
- There’s a suggestion criminals could actually change and become better people.
Book club questions
- Do you think this book is closer to the science fiction or the fantasy genre? Or is it something else entirely?
- Jade and Gloria are identical twins, but from birth, even though they grew up together, their lives were going to be very different. How do you think their birth order affected their personalities and their relationship with each other?
- Jade and Tod are totally different in terms of their backgrounds. What do you think drew them so powerfully to one another?
- Same question in relation to Gloria and Boris.
- Katie and Tina are well into their teens before their abilities manifest. It never occurred to Katie to try and walk through walls, and Tina’s ability only manifested when she met other genetic variants for the first time. For all we know, we could all have superpowers! If that is true, what do you think your power or ability might be? What would you like it to be?
- Let’s play “What if?” What if the rebellion and murder of the king in Galorvia had never happened? How would Jade and Gloria’s lives have played out? What if Gloria had never been kidnapped? Would the people of Galorvia still have rebelled against the New Republic eventually anyway?
- Why did Tod remain under the influence of Suggs and Fingers for so long?
- Should Andrew have given Gloria another chance?
Gallery
Julie Howlin Author 