"The Softwire: Virus on Orbis 1" by PJ Haarsma

ISBN: 978-0-7636-2709-6

The seed ship "Renaissance" has been traveling through deep space for a very long time, so long that Johnny Turnbull and all the other children on the ship were actually born and raised on the ship. Their parents, you see, had entered into a contract to come and work on planet Orbis; in exchange for their virtual slave status, they would be rewarded with citizenship when their contracts expired.

Unfortunately there was a problem on the ship and all of the parents died. The contract had prevented them from bringing children to the planet, but they had decided to smuggle their frozen embryos on the ship. As soon as they died, the onboard computer decided to unfreeze the embryos! So the children have been raised by the computer, whom they named Mother; Mother teaches them everything they need to know…she prepares synthetic foods for them, she tells them about their parents, about earth, and about the planet they are going to.

*****

The planet Orbis is occupied by the Keepers and the people of the Trading Council, who thousands of years ago fought a war for control of the planet…and ended up with a truce that allowed the Keepers to rule the planet while the Trading Council controls its riches. In this war, the Keepers were allied to a race of warriors called Space Jumpers. These fearsome warriors could travel through space at will…but only if called by another Space Jumper. The Trading Council is so afraid of the Space Jumpers that as part of the peace agreement, the Space Jumpers are banished form Orbis.

*****

When the Renaissance and its ship full of children arrive, the aliens are upset. They expected full grown humans! They decide to separate the children and give them as slaves to the Trading Council to make up for the money they lost when the parents died on the Renaissance. But Johnny had a special gift. He could talk to Mother without being on a computer…he used his mind. When the aliens take the children and are getting ready to put an implant on them so they can communicate with them…one of the aliens stops Johnny from getting it. He wonders why…if he does not download the software he can't talk with the aliens. Then, through a translation box, one of the aliens tells him to download the software with his mind! And he does. Johhny is the first human softwire…and now the aliens all want him…until the computer that runs the entire planet starts to experience problems…and Johnny is blamed!

What will happen? Read the book to find out!

"Endymion Spring" by Matthew Skelton

(978-0-3857-3456-1)

This is a book that takes place in two different eras...one in the mid 1400's and the other in our modern times.

Blake is a young American living in England while his mother studies at Oxford. He lives with her and his little sister, Duck, often finding himself in libraries. One day, as he is walking by, running his hands along the books on the shelf, rapping them with his knuckles...one of the books hits him back! He looks at his hand and sees blood, and he sees a book laying on the floor; he picks it up and sees that it is a vary old book...but it is blank.

Why would there be a blank book in a library, one that doesn't even look like it belongs there for it is not even cataloged? As he is looking through the blank pages, words start to form...and he reads the name "Endymion Spring."

What does it mean? And why is it that only he can read the words on the paper? Did the book really jump out at him for a reason? Did it choose him?

Legends speak of a a book, a book simply referred to as the Last Book. This book contains all the knowledge of good and evil which tempted Adam and Eve in the garden. All of the past and everything to come in the future...it is all written in this book. "Endymion Spring" is the book that tells where to find the "Last Book." And the Person in Shadow is someone who wants that book more than anything else, and will do anything to get it. "Endymion Spring", you see, is literally a living book...it knows whom it can trust, and it knows the heart of the evil that wants the secret which it holds in its covers!

But who is Endymion Spring?

Endymion Spring is a boy living in 1452...an apprentice to Johannes Gutenberg. Johan Fust is a man who steals something very valuable, the contents are stored in a magnificent chest...but he cannot access the contents, not all of them. Only the blood of an innocent can reveal the contents...and Endymion Spring is the boy who can bring forth the words. But he cannot let Fust get the book stored within the chest, for Fust will use it for evil! So Endymion Spring takes the book with him and runs away...he must protect the book!

What, then, is the connection between Blake in the 21st century and Endymion Spring in the 15th century? Who is the Person in Shadow? Can Blake protect the book?

Read this book to find out!