EXCERPT and GIVEAWAY
Project Firebird
by Nick Green
Project Firebird is the first book in Nick Green's Firebird trilogy. Also available: Firebird Dawn and Firebird Radiant.
Project Firebird is on tour with Enchanted Book Promotions. The tour stops here today for an excerpt and a giveaway. Please be sure to visit the other tour stops as well.
Description
How do you save the world when it’s already too late?
Don’t ask Leo Lloyd-Jones. Ask him how to steal a car, or why he got excluded from every school in Salford , but don’t come to him for help. This whole thing must be a daft mistake – and if anyone finds out, he’s done for.
Earth is on a deadly collision course that nothing can prevent. The only real hope is Project Firebird, deep inside a blast-proof bunker that shelters the brightest and bravest young people. Leo has got mixed up with the likes of Rhys Carnarvon, the celebrated teenage polar explorer, and other child prodigies chosen to keep the flame of civilization.
Among them is the streetwise Paige Harris, a girl Leo likes a lot (but not in that way). Paige is desperate to rescue her little sister from London before the catastrophe strikes. But no-one is crazy enough to try that. Almost no-one.
Leo is about to find out why he’s here.
Book Video
Excerpt
Just before the next turning he saw a door ajar, with large, frightened eyes peeping out. He knew her face at once.
‘Paige?’
‘Leo?’
She was kneeling inside a supply cupboard. Walls of shelves behind her were stacked with plastic-wrapped bundles of bedding.
‘Aye, ’tis I. And my trusty Polar Guide.’ Leo beckoned Rhys over and opened the cupboard door fully. Paige had made a sort of nest just inside, a pile of linen dented from being lain upon. A pattern of white dots on the floor caught his eye: it was a scattering of dominoes. Following Leo’s glance, Paige scooped the dominoes up and dropped them into a cloth bag.
‘What are you doing here?’ she demanded, suddenly fierce.
‘Er… Got any sweets?’
‘What?’
In the half-light he saw that her face was soaking wet. She must have been crying herself empty. Surprising himself, he mopped her cheek lightly with the back of one finger.
‘Sorry. I still don’t have tissues.’ Leo pulled his change of underpants from his pocket. ‘These any use?’
Paige gawked and swatted his hand away.
‘You,’ she shook her head, ‘you are so disgusting.’
‘What do you mean? They’re clean. Ish.’
Her mouth really didn’t want to smile, he could tell, but there was a twitch in one corner.
‘Not easy here, is it?’ he said. Paige shook her head.
‘Couldn’t you two sleep either?’ she asked.
‘Leo was attempting a jailbreak,’ said Rhys.
‘Seriously?’
‘Nah,’ said Leo. ‘I came out for a midnight snack. Any idea where they keep the food?’
‘I passed a sort of kitchen back there.’ Paige pointed down a curving corridor.
‘Great. Let’s raid it.’
‘Hang on.’ Rhys blocked their path. ‘You can’t go stealing food here.’
‘They won’t miss a few chocolate bars.’
‘Leo, this is a survival shelter! The food will be rationed. I know about these things.’
‘Like I said,’ Leo sidled past him. ‘A pack of crisps. A Snickers bar. No-one’ll mind.’ Letting Paige wander ahead, he whispered, ‘Come on, ice man. She’s upset. When girls are upset, they need chocolate. Scientific fact.’
‘Your funeral.’
Leo caught up with Paige. ‘So Lucy snores?’
‘What?’
‘Lucy, your room-mate. She snores,’ said Leo. ‘That’s why you had to sleep in that cupboard?’
‘Oh, no.’ Paige shook her head. ‘Dunno what I was doing there, really. I just had to, y’know, get away. If that makes any sense.’
It did. Leo fought the temptation to tell her what he’d really been doing.
‘Just – why?’ Paige stopped, her voice raised in despair. ‘Why did they take me away from her?’
‘Who?’
She rounded on him. ‘My sister, Skye! Who do you think? She’s hundreds of miles away and I’m stuck down a slate mine. I can’t take care of her!’
Rhys hovered behind. ‘They promised us our families would be safe.’
Praise for the Book
"Thoroughly entertaining, exciting, thought-provoking and powerfully written … The characters are many, all individual and lively – their dialogue is excellent, and witty … I loved it. Highly recommended." ~ Susan Price, winner of the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and the Carnegie Medal
"Green's world-building is flawless. One of my favourite trilogies – gripping, unpredictable, and there's even a love story." ~ L A Weatherly, author of the Angel trilogy
"The Firebird trilogy is beyond fantastic." ~ The Bookwitch blog
About the Author
Giveaway
Enter the tour-wide giveaway for a chance to win an ebook copy of all three books in the Firebird trilogy by Nick Green.
Links
