Gleam

By Tom Fletcher

Published Sep 2014

Welcome to the Gleam: A world of strange inhabitants and stranger secrets.

Most people live and die in luxury inside the Black Pyramid at the centre of the Gleam, but there are others who eke out a precarious living outside, in the lawless wilderness of the Discard.

Alan’s family was massacred by Pyramidders when he was a child. In an act of mercy, one of the soldiers took him back into the Pyramid to be raised there. But Alan has never been able to let go of the past; he has grown up angry, resentful and desperate for answers. When his continued questioning of Pyramid authority gets his wife beaten up and their son threatened, he has no choice but to return to the Discard.

When his voluntary exile isn’t enough to pacify the Arbitrators, he is given an ultimatum: bring them a mushroom with great powers, or see his son suffer.

Wild Alan is about to embark upon a journey far deeper into Gleam than he ever wanted to go…and discover more than he bargained for.

Fletcher’s writing is fresh and distinctive.

Sunday Times