PM JOHNSON
Author
JACK SAWYER IS A SKINNY BOY, UNDERSIZED, AND AS GRACEFUL AS A GIRAFFE ON ROLLER SKATES. Unnoticed by everyone at Stoneybrook Middle School, except for a trio of bullies and a few fellow misfits, Jack trudges through the school year like it was a prison sentence.
Jack knows many things, like the names of all the state capitals and how to tell an agate from a plain old rock. But there’s much he doesn’t know. For example, he doesn’t know how to shoot sparks by snapping his fingers or ride a galloping horse through the mud and over fences. And he really doesn’t know how to hurl a spear, wield a sword, or track mythical creatures through a magical forest.
But that all changes when one day he discovers he can somehow levitate a basketball and send it flying around the school gymnasium. That’s when he feels the Quickening, and with it a whole new world opens up for him. To harness his new abilities, Jack must go to Ranger Academy in a magical place called the Midwald where he spends the whole summer concocting potions, racing horses, tracking fierce creatures, and battling monsters.
It will be the summer of a lifetime - if he survives it.
Get your copy of the Apollo Stone Series Box Set. Get all of the action, drama, and intrigue of the entire series in one convenient volume!
THE IMPACT NEARLY WIPED US OUT. Fire rained down from the skies, smashing into Earth’s land and seas. Earthquakes, firestorms, and tsunamis followed. Millions died instantly. Ash and dust rose high into the atmosphere blocking the sun, ushering in the Long Winter. That’s when the real dying started. Famine, war, revolution. Governments collapsed. The only law was that of survival. That was over a hundred years ago. Today, the world's a different place, but it's anything but peaceful. In North America, the Grand Guardian’s armies are on the march behind a secret weapon of unearthly power.
But all is not what it seems. Dig a little deeper, peel back a few layers, and the terrifying truth becomes clear. We are not alone in the universe. In fact, there’s a war raging across the galaxy, and Earth is about to become the newest, and weakest, combatant. Will Earth emerge victorious over a cruel and implacable enemy bent on victory at any cost? Or will we suffer defeat, even extinction?
EARTH HAS CHANGED. The old world order collapsed following the meteor impacts of 2031 when fire rained down from the skies, instantly vaporizing millions. Billions more died during the Long Winter and resource wars that followed.
Over one hundred years have passed since those devastating events and new societies have formed around the globe. In North America, the fragile peace that exists among the continent’s independent nations and city-states is under threat. The ambitious Grand Guardian of the People’s Republic of America is mobilizing his massive war machine in order to make real his dream of reunifying a former great power.
But on the eve of the offensive, a leading scientist dies under mysterious circumstances, though not before he entrusts another with the key to unlocking a secret. A secret so powerful, it could not only unravel the Grand Guardian’s designs, but also doom, or save, all of humanity.
THEY THOUGHT THE LAST NAVIGATOR WAS DEAD. They thought the Apollo Stone was lost to the vastness of space. But they were wrong. A Navigator has arisen in the unlikeliest of places. And the Apollo Stone has reemerged, if only to vanish once again during the chaos of battle fought both on Earth’s surface and high in her orbit.
Time has passed and the boiling cauldron of war has cooled, but this false peace cannot endure. For, although dark forces both on Earth and among the stars have been thrown back to their strongholds, defeat has only hardened their resolve. On Earth, the Grand Guardian and his dedicated masses still look with envious eyes upon the untainted, fertile lands of the Free Cities west of the Mississippi River. On the planet Sahir, the Queen of the Sahiradin and her legions of warriors still seek to impose their rule over the shattered remains of an empire that once spanned the galaxy.
And at the heart of these struggles, binding them together like the threads of a spider’s web lies the Apollo Stone, the last of thirteen. All sides search for it, whether out of fear or desire, knowing that its strange powers can shift the fortunes of war and determine the fate of us all.
THEY THOUGHT THE LAST NAVIGATOR WAS DEAD. They thought the Apollo Stone was lost to the vastness of space. But they were wrong. A Navigator has arisen in the unlikeliest of places. And the Apollo Stone has reemerged, if only to vanish once again during the chaos of battle fought both on Earth’s surface and high in her orbit.
Time has passed and the boiling cauldron of war has cooled, but this false peace cannot endure. For, although dark forces both on Earth and among the stars have been thrown back to their strongholds, defeat has only hardened their resolve. On Earth, the Grand Guardian and his dedicated masses still look with envious eyes upon the untainted, fertile lands of the Free Cities west of the Mississippi River. On the planet Sahir, the Queen of the Sahiradin and her legions of warriors still seek to impose their rule over the shattered remains of an empire that once spanned the galaxy.
And at the heart of these struggles, binding them together like the threads of a spider’s web lies the Apollo Stone, the last of thirteen. All sides search for it, whether out of fear or desire, knowing that its strange powers can shift the fortunes of war and determine the fate of us all.
THE ALLIANCE IS FRACTURING. Following a stunning Sahiradin victory at the Battle of Halduan, Lycian commitment to carrying on the struggle is waning. Chancellor Penawah is besieged by threats of defection and her appeal to a once stalwart ally fails to soften stubborn hearts. On Earth an irresolute United Earth Council debates whether to prepare for war or chart a course of non-belligerence even as Sahiradin warships prowl the Terran System.
As vulnerable as Earth and the Lycians are, the Sahiradin cannot press their advantage for they too have suffered a grievous defeat, though not at the hands of their enemies. Queen Pashira has perished. Now Khadiem, Pashira’s daughter spawned by artificial means, demands to be recognized as the new Queen of the Sahiradin, but the council of warriors refuses to perform the Ascension Ceremony and install her as their ruler.
While each side in the ancient conflict contends with internal strife, the Apollo Stone comes under the power of someone new, someone whose unbounded ambition for conquest and domination could alter the balance of power more profoundly than any Lycian or Sahiradin victory ever could. But who is the master and who is the servant?
THE ALLIANCE FORCES ARE SPENT. The Human-Lycian Alliance has won a great battle over invading hordes of Sahiradin warriors, though it cost them dearly, and victory was not gained by their strength alone. The defenders were saved from certain defeat by the intervention of strange new warriors, the Chacksu, created in secret by the Dhurlan Syndicate to fight the fearsome Sahiradin on their own, brutal terms.
Now Veiju Dhurlan is dedicating all his syndicate's resources to producing more Chacksu in a desperate gamble to quickly strike at the heart of the Sahiradin Empire and ensure Dhurlan dominance over the galaxy for generations to come.
As the Lycians tally their losses and cast a wary eye on Dhurlan ambitions, Earth prepares for invasion. With the Alliance’s forces depleted and the Dhurlan Syndicate indifferent to the fate of humanity, Earth faces the grim prospect of resisting Khadiem's wrath alone. But soldiers and ships are not the only means to win a war. Even in the face of disastrous odds, forces are at work that may yet defeat both the Empress and ancient sinister powers.