In worlds beset by war between legendary beings and forces, a young boy is dragged into one such conflict in an insidious gambit to tip the scales in a certain favour. But there are other forces at work besides that of evil, and in the struggle between elves, vampires, and more over his fate, he will discover loss, vengeance, and the price of innocence. New Blood is a snapshot story of a much larger universe told from the perspective of a young boy that is drawn into a world much bigger and deadlier than his own. The boy, Shex, lives in a small township by a well trafficked river, with the townsfolk that adopted him and his lifelong best friend Fannolie after the disappearance of their respective parents many years ago. Unbeknownst to him however, he is also the distant descendant of an ancient group of nigh invincible warriors, and has inherited a small portion of their legendary invulnerability. The arrival of an unnaturally large figure clad all in black then heralds the end of his carefree life, as Fannolie ends up being used as bait to kidnap Shex by a vampire queen, Lamashtu, intent on utilising his blood to create a stronger breed of vampire. Attempts to escape fail as Lamashtu forcibly turns Shex into a vampire and pressgangs him into doing the same to others, so that they will share his durability and give the vampires the edge they need in their eternal war with the elves. And all under the threat of Fannolie's life. The man in black however, who is in fact a nephilim (half-angel) and long time pursuer of Lamashtu, mounts a rescue siege of Lamashtu's castle, made up of various allies including a contingent of elven warriors, and liberates the two children from her clutches after a drawn out battle. However, Shex cannot now return home now that he is a vampire himself, with only Fannolie able to be sent back. Instead Zachariah, the nephilim, offers him a new home, one made with outcasts like the two of them in mind. The story ends with Shex asking to be trained in combat, so that he may seek revenge on Lamashtu for robbing him of his life, and Zachariah warning him of the dangers of such a course of action before asking if he's ready to begin.
About the Author: My name is Joshua Patrick Jennings, I was born in England 23 years ago, have lived in Australia all my life, went to school at Kelvin Grove State School and Brisbane Boys College after that, and am a recent graduate of a Bachelor of Fine Arts course in Creative and Professional Writing at the Queensland University of Technology. This is my first published book, of any size. Its backdrop has taken seven years of meticulous research and development in order to complete; I have loved writing it and the others however, precisely because they are challenging and getting every detail right is as rewarding as much as it is often frustrating. It gives me a great sense of accomplishment to be able to slot the pieces together and make them work both on a logical and cathartic level. For this first novel, the main action takes place solely in the Nine Worlds and Otherworld, the rest simply existing as a backdrop and only mentioned as reference, including the outlying colonies, which are colonised worlds scattered throughout the rest of the galaxy and held under the jurisdiction of Heaven. The end result of all this being that the genre tends to branch out from fantasy and into other speculative fiction areas, including sci-fi and various punk genres depending on the technology realised setting-to-setting. So, yes, a little ambitious, but my attempt at fulfilling said ambition has consisted of years of painstaking research, not just into mythology and folklore but language, cultures, antiquated weapons and armour, ancient literature, and even numerous sciences where it's been necessary (you'd be surprised). And while I'm not someone who can ever be perfectly satisfied with anything I do, I am least pleased with the product thus far.