Songlines (The Sentinels of Eden #1)
We belong to the Earth, Lainie-Bug. We were sent here in human form for a reason. If you don’t know what to do, then just be human.
Right. Like that was ever a simple thing to do.
In the heart of the Wimmera region of Victoria, an ancient gateway to Eden is kept hidden and safe by a creature so powerful that even the moon would obey her commands – at least it would if she had any idea that she wasn’t just a normal girl about to finish high school.
When a mining company begins exploratory sampling near Lainie’s sheep farm, a family secret is revealed that makes her regret not having learnt more about her Indigenous heritage.What she’s told by their farmhand, Harry – an Aboriginal elder – can’t possibly be true, but then the most irritating guy in class, Bane, begins to act even more insanely toward her than ever, until she can no longer deny that something very unusual is going on.
When Harry doesn’t return from his quest to seek help to protect the area from the miners, Lainie sets out to discover the truth of her heritage, and of the secret she’s been born to protect.
Available in print and ebook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, or your favourite bookstore or online retailer.
$24.95
Book Details
| Weight | 426 g |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 229 × 152 mm |
| Extent | 328 pages |
| Format | Paperback |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy, Young Adult |
| Release date | 20 August 2016 |
| ISBN | 9781922200600 |
| Imprint | Odyssey Books |
About The Author
Carolyn Denman
Carolyn Denman is a writer with a passion for introducing young adults to the intriguing world of speculative fiction. Living on a small farm just outside Melbourne – and likely to remain there happily until the human race is permitted back into The Garden of Eden – she holds a Bachelor of Science degree and currently works part time for a finance company. She has completed five novels and numerous short stories and is currently working on a science-fiction romance series.
Ebony –
I loved the incorporation of aboriginal and Christian belief systems. It is so unusual to find a book like this. Lainie is such a relatable character to some of the aboriginal kids I work with! That’s right, they are reading this book right now! Diversity in books is so important to get kids reading and it is so hard to find books that break cultural stereotypes. – Ebony (via Goodreads)
Mark O’Dwyer –
This unusual adventure, aimed at Young Adults, is so thoughtful it deserves a wide readership. It mixes a coming-of-age tale and romance with ancient memories, religious motifs and mythologies.
The slow burn narrative begins in a nowheresville ‘where the creeks are named after dead animals’. Carolyn Denman builds the details of school life, farm work and hikes through the fire-prone bush until the fantastical elements seem to arise quite plausibly from this backdrop .
I see it as an engrossing story of protecting the one Eden we all have now, our Earth. Lainie and her friends, Bane, Noah and Tessa, represent our only hope – young people. Earth’s enemies are symbolised by the mining giant Kolsom. But there is more going on than the struggle between these Sentinels of a special place and Kolsom’s devious agents. Something seems to be going badly wrong with the nature of Eden itself.
Don’t be fooled by the early steady pace; the acceleration toward the utterly unforeseeable events took me by surprise. You are bound to want to know what on earth – and Eden – is going to happen next. Fortunately, the sequels are now available too.