411 on Books, Authors & Publishing

‘Ninety-five percent Human’ is a new YA sci-fi about sixteen-year old Joe Kendrick, living on a failing hill farm in the Welsh mountains. When he saves a girl, Sarah, from drowning, he could never have guessed she was born on a planet halfway across the next galaxy and has been sent to Earth to test the latest genetically engineered body. But is being human just about DNA? The book has a cast of characters and the most humane are not always one hundred percent human.

First up is Sarah. Sarah has 95% human DNA. She knows if her body is a success and she survives, a whole army of hybrids will be made, Earth will be invaded, and the aliens don’t take prisoners. She doesn’t want to be responsible for the destruction of the human race so she determines to kill herself. She has a strong sense of responsibility and is willing to die for what she believes in; very noble human values indeed.

Sarah’s identity is inadvertently compromised by Joe’s ambitious friend Rhys. He doesn’t consider anyone but himself when he sells their story to the local newspaper. Ambition and selfishness are human traits too but not ones we should probably be proud of.

Next, we come to the MI6 operatives sent to capture Sarah and transport her to the UK centre for bio-hazards. Trained to do what they’re told and not to use their own judgment, here we have humans with inhuman values: humans at their worst, scared and stupid enough to kill something because it’s different even though it poses no threat.

Their alien counterparts in the book are the Keepers, robotic technology stationed on Earth to protect it and keep the gene pool uncontaminated. This means Sarah’s presence is definitely in violation and protocol stipulates she must be sent back to the planet she came from. But the Keepers are evolving, are they learning to be more human? Who knows what they will do?

Jake, the laughing geologist, turns out to be an alien robot too. Programmed to learn about Earth culture, he has a childish sense of humour, poor fashion sense and lacks social skills but he is also loyal and trustworthy, particularly if he thinks you’re his friend.

Having rendered his own planet uninhabitable, the alien leader, Keltan, has only one objective: annihilate the human race and take over the planet. Keltan kills because he likes it, takes over planets because he relishes the power and has no respect for anyone regardless of their genetic origins.  As every James Bond movie and every war throughout time has proven, humans have these twisted aspirations too.

We finish with our hero. Joe always means to do the right thing, although at the beginning of the story he doesn’t always stand up for himself and the people he cares about as much as he might. He has a strong sense of responsibility but low self-esteem. It takes the influence of someone with only ninety-five percent human DNA to put that right.

So, what do you think? Is it our DNA that makes us human? Or can aliens be human too?

Ninety-Five Percent Human

Teenager, Joe Kendrick, thinks he’s got problems. The farm he’s looked after since his father’s suicide is falling and his brother wants to sell it, his girlfriend has dumped him and his normally down-to-earth Nan starts muttering about seeing UFO’s. And all Joe wants is a ‘normal’ life. Then he saves suicidal stranger, Sarah, from drowning.

What Joe doesn’t know is that Sarah is a human/alien hybrid, sent to test the viability of life on Earth, and, as she’s survived hostile aliens are already planning their attack.

Ninety-five percent Human is the first in a two-book sci-fi adventure.

Genre: Young-Adult / Sci-Fi

209 pages

ISBN13 9780957466234

August 31st 2013 by Beresford Publishing House

AMAZON

http://bit.ly/95HUMAN

Suzanna Williams is a perpetually eighteen year old YA author who lives in the wild, wet, Welsh borderlands surrounded by ruined medieval castles and Celtic mythology where she looks for UFO’s amongst the stars and imagines all the people she meets have dark secrets.

When she is not inventing radical problems for her unsuspecting heroes and plotting their escape, Suzanna is a serial collector of random badly paying jobs and has never found a use for her BSc in Psychology whatsoever.

As a child, Suzanna filled notebook after notebook with stories and her first taste of writing success was a poem published in the local newspaper aged just nine years old. She has written and directed several plays and pantomimes before publishing her debut novel, ShockWaves, in 2012.

Suzanna loves sci-fi action adventures, playing the piano, believes Romeo and Juliet should have talked more and considers sarcasm to be the highest form of wit.

She has a daughter who is a drummer, another daughter who is a driving instructor, a son who is a dancer and a ‘nearly’ grandson she’s dying to meet.

 WEBSITE – http://www.suzannawilliams.com/

FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/pages/Suzanna-Williams/269357693135545

TWITTER – https://twitter.com/suzannawriter

YOUTUBE – http://bit.ly/SuzannaYouTube

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