Monstrous Monday: The Monsters of Bone Sliver

It seems to me that it would be silly to do a blog segment on monsters, and leave out the ones in my own books, so today I’ll go over some of the monsters in the first book of The Nova Wave series.

Bone Sliver is in part an exploration of the word “monster”.    The rest I’ll leave to others to discuss.  At the heart of the series is a massive, world-changing spell.  This alters much of life on earth, and those that survive their transformations must adapt to their new forms.  The remaining humans must adapt to their new world as well, with the added caveat that they must also decide who still counts as “human.”

One character who doesn’t get a lot of room in Bone Sliver, but who is very dear to me is the tree-girl.  She has been transformed in an instant, rooted to the spot, and grown bark for skin.  Most people, seeing her would not think too much about whether she was a tree with human features, or a human turned into a tree.  She can’t speak to tell them, either.  She does have abilities, but those you will have to read about in the books.  Suffice it to say, that Max is the only one that knows the depth of her tragedy at this point.  Is she a monster?

How about a frog-lady or her children?  How about flying sewer barracudas or giant leaping lamprey? The first book has all these and more.

We also see the introduction of a species that the humans come to call weres.  This term, short for werewolf, has come to be used for any human/canine chimeras that survive, regardless of former canine breed.  These guys tend to run in packs, and like their namesakes, they hunt anything (including humans) that they might make a meal of. These weres are not subject to the lunar cycles like true werewolves, nor do they change back into people.  They’re full-on monsters all the time.

These are some of the tamer monsters.

You want a sneak preview of a monster in the upcoming book?

Okay,  In one of the books upcoming (Not telling which) is a tiny, tiny monster that might just be one of the scariest yet.  Actually, there are untold numbers of them, and they’re older than this Nova Wave.  They’re called The Navalha, or “the razors.”  They are probably less than an inch long, covered in razor-sharp chitin, and they move so fast that they’re invisible when they’re in motion.  With a near-human intelligence, they know just where to strike their prey to do the most damage.    An onlooker witnessing a Navalha attack would simply see cuts appearing on the victim for apparently no reason at all.  The person would be dead in minutes.

Why would the Navalha do this?  That can only be answered in the books.

That’s all for this Monstrous Monday, folks.  Also, if you or someone you know is a concept artist, I am in the market for someone to flesh out the characters in the books, for cover art and the like.  Drop me an e-mail at tc_media@hotmail.com if you’re interested.

Until next time,

Be well

~D