Review The Balance by Michael Selden

BOOK INFORMATION

TITLE – The Balance
SERIES (& Book #) – This will eventually be a trilogy—one story spanning 3 books
AUTHOR – Michael Selden
GENRE – Science Fiction / Dystopian for Young Adult /Adult audiences
PUBLICATION DATE – June 2015
LENGTH (Pages/# Words) – 350 / 109K
PUBLISHER – Woodland Park Press LLC
COVER ARTIST – Paola Sbriccoli (Drawings) & Jamie Kerry (cover layout)

NOTE - This is the first of a planned 3-volume story—one story spanning the 3 books. The remaining volumes are planned to be completed after I publish 2 other books over the next 2 years. They are plotted, but not written yet.

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BOOK SYNOPSIS

Phoebe lives in a harbor town with her adopted father, Daniel. It’s been 200 years since the apocalypse, and the Land is ruled by the Council of God: a heavy-handed theocracy.

Phoebe doesn’t know why she’s plagued by thoughts, images, and feelings from the people around her. For her, it’s a constant battle just to survive the chaos they bring, and to hide her strangeness from the Council. In fact she’s the unwitting product of a genetic engineering program run by the Order, an organization driven into hiding almost 18 years before the story begins.

The Balance is Phoebe’s story, and the first installment about the Order’s struggle to return from exile, to bring the technologies of the past, and to rekindle the agreement reached with the Council after the war’s destruction—an agreement called The Balance.

MY REVIEW:

I AM A BIG FAN OF YOUNG ADULT BOOKS. I REALLY ENJOY READING THEM.  THE BALANCE WAS NO EXCEPTION.  I LOVE THE COMBINATION OF SCIENCE FICTION, AND DYSTOPIAN FOR YOUNG ADULTS.  THE BALANCE IS PHOEBE'S STORY.  IT STARTED OUT AS A SLOW READ AT FIRST BUT ONCE THEY GOT PAST THE TECHNOLOGY INFORMATION YOU NEEDED TO KNOW.  PHOEBE IS SPECIAL AND LEARNS TO CONTROL HER POWERS AND FALLS IN LOVE WITH A HUMAN BOY.  SHE IS NOT SAFE IF ANYONE DISCOVERS WHAT SHE CAN DO.  THE COUNCIL WILL DESTROY HER.  THE ORDER WANT TO RETURN FROM EXILE AND REKINDLE THE AGREEMENT CALLED THE BALANCE THEY REACHED AFTER THE WAR.

I LOVED READING THE BALANCE AND I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO READING THE REST OF THE SERIES.  THERE IS A LOT OF ACTION AND SOME ROMANCE.  THERE IS A LOT OF INFORMATION TO TAKE IN BUT ONCE YOU DO, YOU WILL UNDER THE STORY AND ENJOY. IF YOU ARE A BIG FAN OF YOUNG ADULT, SCIENCE FICTION AND DYSTOPIAN, I RECOMMEND YOU READ THE BALANCE.  I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO READING MORE BOOKS BY THIS AUTHOR.  4 STARS

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BUY & TBR LINKS

AMAZON KINDLE US – AMAZON KINDLE CA – AMAZON KINDLE UK – AMAZON HARDCOVER– AMAZON PAPERBACK – BARNES & NOBLES PAPERBACK – GOODREADS – WEB PAGE

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EXCERPT

It was difficult to tell what color the walls might originally have been. Every available surface was covered with pictures— charcoal and pencil drawings, watercolor and oil paintings. They hung without apparent plan or order, and the pages were many layers deep in most places. Each morning her eyes sought out these familiar images—reminders of a thousand nights of terror.

But for Phoebe they were strangely comforting, a record of the many things she’d survived.

Her father, Daniel, was asleep in the old rocking chair near the window, his head rested on his chest, and he was snoring softly. The sound of his breathing had let her know he was there through the night, and helped her sleep again. Daniel had come when he’d heard her screaming—just as he always had.

The rocker stood sentry in a triangular niche attached to the east side of the room, where the walls came together in an unusual mixture of oblique and sharp angles. To Phoebe, the area had always seemed an afterthought, an eccentricity added to an otherwise normal space. She thought that it made for an odd room and was well suited for her—an odd room for an odd girl.

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AUTHOR BIO

I've lived or worked all over the world at one time or another and spent almost 30 years as a physicist doing research and development, both for science and for specific applications. I wound up returning to the Pikes Peak region of Colorado, where I went to high school, to write books.

I write different genre--from children's books, like The Boy Who Ran, to Young Adult books, like The Balance (coming in Dec. 2014), to science fiction, and even a supernatural thriller.

I live in Woodland Park, Colorado now, at an 8500 ft. elevation. My house is on the edge of Pike National Forest and all sorts of animals visit my house every day, from squirrels to deer, to bears, and foxes, and raccoons and -- well, there are animal reserves nearby.

I like to read about and to create new worlds, new stories and interesting characters. Now that I no longer spend all of my time on developing new technology, I get to do what I've always wanted to do.

AUTHOR FOLLOW LINKS

AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE – WEBSITE / BLOG – FACEBOOK – TWITTER – GOODREADS – COLORADO AUTHOR’S LEAUGE PAGE

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GIVEAWAY PRIZES

3 Signed Hardcover First Editions of The Balance

CLICK TO ENTER THE AUTHORS GIVEAWAY

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