Re-release date: May 12, 2019
Subgenre: YA Science Fiction
About One Sunny Night:
It’s 3748. Most of the disasters have already happened, long ago. The
climate has changed; the meteors have impacted; the plagues and scarcity
have been vanquished. It would be almost utopian except for a handful
of people still holding grudges about a war that ended years ago … and
one particularly unlucky trouble magnet of a teenager who goes by the
name of Sonny Knight.
Sonny starts out with some good luck,
winning a trip for his family and friends to see the clashball playoffs
in Vanram. When terrorists attack the stadium and take all of the
spectators hostage, Sonny escapes with a pack of unlikely acquaintances,
aboard an old-fashioned sailing ship made of the only kind of
bioengineered wood that can survive the deadly stretches of caustic,
anoxic ocean.
Many obstacles lie in Sonny’s homeward path,
including volcanoes, tsunamis, arrogant clones, pliosaurs, cattle
stampedes, train wrecks, knee surgery, and his first date.
Excerpt:
At some point in what was probably the afternoon, he saw a
pliosaur.
He thought it was a wave at first, irregular and out of synch. Then
he thought it was a whale. Then he remembered there weren’t any whales in the
Caribbean, they lived much farther away. For a moment he hoped it was a Siren,
such as Nepenthe, coming to bless them with superfast speed.
It was a shiny bluish-grayish curve, surfacing parallel to them.
Pacing them. Sometimes it dipped down beneath the waves but it always came back
up. The sailors must have seen it too, as a cannon fired, directly above them,
followed by several gunshots. Everyone let out a yell of some kind, and
Quicksilver jumped to his feet, only to fall on his butt as the ship recoiled
from the blast.
Sonny was glued to his window, hugging Hina to his chest. More of
the curve surfaced, rain pouring down on it in sheets. Sonny could see tinges
of red in the froth surrounding it. He thought he saw a wound; then a moan
involuntarily escaped his lips once he realized it was an eye. The size of a
large pizza. Staring directly at him.
Rufe swore and pounded up the stairs. Kayliss made the kind of sound
most girls would make upon seeing a kitten. Hina was emitting ear-piercing
yowls, just to let everyone know there was a pliosaur outside. The pliosaur’s
head slowly rose, mottled blue gray, with a long crocodilian snout, packed with
teeth. Something about the set of its eye and the curve of its mouth gave it a
sullen expression, as though it personally resented the world and everything in
it.
The cannon went off again. Sonny let go of Hina and grabbed the
window frame as the ship bucked and lurched. Hina streaked across the room,
retreating to the stairs. When the ship recovered, they were much, much closer
to the pliosaur. Sonny was close enough to count its teeth. He could see
darker-blue tissue inside the monster’s mouth, and a scar along the gumline
towards the snout where it looked like a couple of teeth had broken off. He
could see several holes in its flesh made by bullets and cannonballs, some of
them oozing a dark purplish blood.
The creature suddenly convulsed, as if someone had run a massive
amount of electrical current through it. It uttered a loud toneless sound and
rolled sideways. A thick, fleshy dorsal flipper surfaced, convulsing madly,
slapping against the side of the ship, momentarily blocking the window as Sonny
bolted from his close-up view and headed for the stairs, making it up to the
next deck before he collapsed, heart pounding, a small whimpering sound leaking
from his throat. He didn’t want to be here. He wanted to be safe in a bed that
wasn’t moving, in a place where nothing was trying to kill him. He was full of
rage at all the grownups who had let everything happen.
At some point in what was probably the afternoon, he saw a
pliosaur.
He thought it was a wave at first, irregular and out of synch. Then
he thought it was a whale. Then he remembered there weren’t any whales in the
Caribbean, they lived much farther away. For a moment he hoped it was a Siren,
such as Nepenthe, coming to bless them with superfast speed.
It was a shiny bluish-grayish curve, surfacing parallel to them.
Pacing them. Sometimes it dipped down beneath the waves but it always came back
up. The sailors must have seen it too, as a cannon fired, directly above them,
followed by several gunshots. Everyone let out a yell of some kind, and
Quicksilver jumped to his feet, only to fall on his butt as the ship recoiled
from the blast.
Sonny was glued to his window, hugging Hina to his chest. More of
the curve surfaced, rain pouring down on it in sheets. Sonny could see tinges
of red in the froth surrounding it. He thought he saw a wound; then a moan
involuntarily escaped his lips once he realized it was an eye. The size of a
large pizza. Staring directly at him.
Rufe swore and pounded up the stairs. Kayliss made the kind of sound
most girls would make upon seeing a kitten. Hina was emitting ear-piercing
yowls, just to let everyone know there was a pliosaur outside. The pliosaur’s
head slowly rose, mottled blue gray, with a long crocodilian snout, packed with
teeth. Something about the set of its eye and the curve of its mouth gave it a
sullen expression, as though it personally resented the world and everything in
it.
The cannon went off again. Sonny let go of Hina and grabbed the
window frame as the ship bucked and lurched. Hina streaked across the room,
retreating to the stairs. When the ship recovered, they were much, much closer
to the pliosaur. Sonny was close enough to count its teeth. He could see
darker-blue tissue inside the monster’s mouth, and a scar along the gumline
towards the snout where it looked like a couple of teeth had broken off. He
could see several holes in its flesh made by bullets and cannonballs, some of
them oozing a dark purplish blood.
The creature suddenly convulsed, as if someone had run a massive
amount of electrical current through it. It uttered a loud toneless sound and
rolled sideways. A thick, fleshy dorsal flipper surfaced, convulsing madly,
slapping against the side of the ship, momentarily blocking the window as Sonny
bolted from his close-up view and headed for the stairs, making it up to the
next deck before he collapsed, heart pounding, a small whimpering sound leaking
from his throat. He didn’t want to be here. He wanted to be safe in a bed that
wasn’t moving, in a place where nothing was trying to kill him. He was full of
rage at all the grownups who had let everything happen.
About Charon Dunn:
Charon Dunn originated in Maui, lives in San Francisco, and is
leaping into self-published science fiction authorhood with a
series of YA adventure novels set in a far-future,
asteroid-reconfigured earth. She does nerd stuff for trial lawyers
in the daytime, and she loves tandoori chicken, video games and her
thirty pound cat, not necessarily in that order.
