The Dreaming Crystal

If you love to escape into the struggles and triumphs of solidly built characters in a post climate-change world where tech reigns and magic is forgotten but not gone, this is the the book for you. Twelve thousand years ago, on the banks of a yellow river in the place that would come to be called China, magic all but left the world when a reckless murder was committed by an angst-ridden teenage girl. An angry ghost was trapped in a crystal prison and an unlucky few souls were fused to its improbable existence forever, doomed to an eternal torment of maddening shared memories. Now in 2096, the story's present and our future, magic is the stuff of ancient myth and science and technology rule the world. Far from its ancient origins on a rain-soaked island in the Aotearoa archipelago (formerly New Zealand), the legacy of the ghost in the stone begins to stir again. Unsuspecting of the catastrophe about to unfold, Nate, Chen and Tina, three young people struggle with their different pasts and present hardships, from day to day and pay to pay. But the ancient ghost rages louder in its torment and strains with ever increasing urgency at the weakening chains of power that bind it. Strange earthquakes gather force off the coast of Akarana Island and when an old house is demolished, something unbreakable is broken and Nate, Chen, Tina and everyone in the world will be drawn into the legacy of the curse of the ghost in the Stone whether they believe in such things or not.