Introducing The Swan Riders

Guys, guys, guys! I have been sitting on this for too long, but I finally get to tell you! The companion book to The Scorpion Rules finally has a title, and a cover. Behold, The Swan Riders, coming September 20th:

I wrote The Scorpion Rules to stand alone -- and indeed, I still think it can stand alone. But when I got about two-thirds of the way through writing it, I

a) discovered an ending which didn't require me to kill EVERYONE, and

b) introduced a whole set of new problems and themes that I suddenly wanted an extra book to play with.

So I wrote one. For now, there are two books in this world, and only two. It's a big world, and I might not be done with it forever (there are characters not in this book whom I'd like to write about) but this does make a nice mirror pair for The Scorpion Rules, and I only sold the two.

Here is the flap copy:

Greta Stuart had always known her future: die young. She was her country's crown princess, and also its hostage, destined to be the first casualty in an inevitable war. But when the war came it broke all the rules, and Greta forged a different path.

She is no longer princess. No longer hostage. No longer human. Greta Stuart has become an AI.

If she can survive the transition, Greta will earn a place alongside Talis, the AI who rules the world. Talis is a big believer in peace through superior firepower. But some problems are too personal to obliterate from orbit, and for those there are the Swan Riders: a small band of humans who serve the AIs as part army, part cult.

Now two of the Swan Riders are escorting Talis and Greta across post-apocalyptic Saskatchewan. But Greta’s fate has stirred her nation into open rebellion, and the dry grassland may hide insurgents who want to rescue her – or see her killed. Including Elian, the boy she saved—the boy who wants to change the world, with a knife if necessary. Even the infinitely loyal Swan Riders may not be everything they seem.

Greta’s fate—and the fate of her world—are balanced on the edge of a knife in this smart, sly, electrifying adventure.

The Scorpion Rules has a new paperback cover to match! Paperback will be released June 7th.