About Monsters Past
by Laney Cairo
139 pages / 50500 words
ISBN: 978-1-60370-781-7, 1-60370-781-6
Available file types - html, lit, pdf, prc, epub, Sony-optimized pdf, paperback
Sid and Dan are back in this sequel to Running the Nullarbor. This time the retired army man and magician have joined the Australian Defense Force along with Sid's cousin Kit and her fox Marlowe in order to put Sid and Kit's magical abilities to work in the defense
of their country.
Being in the army seems to be one dull moment after another and the threesome are stuck on the base when they discover there are worse things than basic training and meetings. When they go deep into the Australian Outback to check out strange happenings, they discover someone has opened a portal to the past. Pre-historic-jawed crocodiles and seven meter long monitor lizards are just the beginning as Sid, Kit and Dan find Australia has more enemies than the invading army inching across its northern reaches.
Can two magic users and a soldier penetrate an American army base, defeat magically-assisted secret service agents and shut down the portal to save Australia from the dinosaurs?
Find out in this second book in the The Liminus Australis series by Laney Cairo.
Review
James Hogue, author of Vinculum, writes: “Monsters Past” by Laney Cairo is the continuation of the love story between Dan and Sid that began in “Running the Nullabor”. Both men, along with Sid’s cousin, Kit and her adorable fox, Marlowe, have now enlisted in the Australian Army and become part of a magical, paranormal Special Forces unit. They are quickly called into action when malevolent magical forces reconstruct Australia’s prehistoric past. They find themselves combating not only evil magicians, but carnivorous, primordial monsters as well. But through it all, the love that they have found together continues to grow and flourish.
This futuristic, paranormal love story is a romantic, suspenseful, thrill ride adventure. There are also moments of pure comedic genius, such as the scene where Dan and Sid use a prehistoric, giant wombat as a tank to penetrate a magical barrier. The story is well written, moves at a fast pace, and is very entertaining. Laney Cairo is an author with an extremely bright future ahead of her. I highly recommend this book.
Sample
The middle-aged man in the smooth suit studied Sid, Dan, and Kit across his desk, deep in the bowels of the Defence Department headquarters at Duntroon, Canberra.
"I've heard about you," he said, and his smile was the kind of empty that made Sid's teeth ache. "And about your troubles, out at the Eucla camp, with Colonel Parkes."
"And?" Dan said, and he sounded as angry as Sid felt.
They'd been held captive by Colonel Parkes' small, brutal magical team, and Sid had been tortured, out in the middle of the Nullarbor. Sid had some unresolved anger about the incident, something that he'd like to have a chat about with Colonel Parkes one day, preferably while he was holding something ballistic with the safety off.
"It's not acceptable, of course, that we knew so little about what the Colonel and his little team of researchers were up to. I've read the briefing paper, and there are bigger issues here that have only been hinted at, things we had no idea about, and that Colonel Parkes never felt the need to enlighten us about, like the existence of other magical systems."
"That's because the Colonel and his hack technicians are moronic magicians," Sid said. "And I'd be careful about how you use the word 'magic,' since you have no idea what you're talking about."
The man in the suit, Mr. Johnson according to the name badge on his desk, nodded. "And you can help us?" His eyes shifted to Sid, taking in the smeared dirt on Sid's T-shirt. "The three of you?"
Kit, who was Sid's younger cousin, and was just as grubby as he was, pushed her wild, dark hair out of her eyes and shifted her fox, Marlowe, on her lap, then fixed her gaze on Mr. Johnson. Kit might be nineteen years old, and covered in fox hair, but she had the kind of power and skill that made Sid look like the hopeless fool he was.
"Right," Mr. Johnson said. "I think the best thing is to get the three of you enlisted and covered by some solid secrecy provisions, before we talk any further."
"Re-enlisted," Dan said. "I was a corporal with the 6th Battalion, supporting the 7th Brigade, until I was wounded and demobilized."
"Welcome back, soldier," Mr. Johnson said. "How do you feel about being an officer this time around?"
"If you make me an officer, I'm not signing up again," Dan said. "Let's be quite clear about that. I'm an enlisted man, and never will be anything else."
"I'll be an officer," Sid said. "That would be cool." He turned to look at Dan. "What does an officer do?"
"You get to tell people what to do," Dan said. "You'll be good at it."
"Excellent," Sid said, grinning. "Kit, do you want to boss people around, too?"
"Sounds good," Kit said. "I'm naturally bossy."
Mr. Johnson reached for the phone on his desk. "If you'd like to wait outside, I'll find someone from Recruitment, and from Military Intelligence, and we can do all the paperwork at once."
In the corridor, under the watchful eye of yet another military escort, Sid draped an arm around Dan's neck. "Why don't you want to be an officer?"
Dan looked at Sid, and it was the kind of look that was supposed to make Sid feel small and ill-informed. Sid, however, knew he was taller than Dan, and felt no shame in his ignorance, so he just grinned at Dan.
"Officers," Dan said in a low voice. "Officers make all the stupid decisions, and face none of the consequences. Officers are not real soldiers. Enlisted men and women do the real work, and they take pride in this."
"Being an officer sounds like my kind of job," Sid said. "It really does. I'm good at stupid decisions and being lazy."
Dan looked tired suddenly, even more tired than he had before. "It's more than that," Dan said. "But I really can't explain the entire culture of the military to you right now."
Kit leaned against the wall beside Sid. "He's a creep," she said, her voice low. "Though I think Dan knows that already."