Monday, May 20, 2019

One Sunny Night (The Adventures of Sonny Knight, Book 1) by Charon Dunn

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.

 

Amazon

 

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.
 

 

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