Let Slip the Beasts

Kaliope Dearborne (27) is a failure at life. She still lives at home and is stuck in a dead end job going through alpha tester reports for a huge corporation developing experimental augments called AugTech. She is quick to anger, even quicker to drink and has no luck in love – not with any gender. All she wants is to do more than just get by and maybe make the world a little better than it currently is. So far she’s only made it worse. After letting her anger get the best of her and doing a Very Bad Thing she finds herself locked in a prison cell. In that dark cell, Kallie discovers more and more disturbing sides of herself and realizes that there is something very wrong with her captors – they are not the police, nor are they entirely human.

As it turns out, neither is she

LET SLIP THE BEASTS is an unagented, not-yet-published, fast-paced, action-driven sci-fi story set in a near future about found families, sacrifice, love and violence.

Description

A not too distant future. The world is ravaged by fires, floods and destructive thunderstorms. Humanity has huddled together in sprawling megacities, with ghettos that are overrun with
climate refugees. The rich and powerful are safely tucked away in their towers and repurposed oil rigs. Corporations have replaced governments in all but name and can get away with anything – murder being the least of it.

Officially, the pharmaceutical mega-conglomerate VyroGen researches cancer and cancer treatments. Unofficially, they conduct experiments on the poor and undesired to unlock the full human potential, to unlock immortality.

After doing a Very Bad Thing – murdering her little sister’s well-connected bully – Kallie Dearborne finds herself being held captive by the charismatic Leon – The leader of a ragtag group of runaway medical test subjects calling themselves the Warren. They have been locked in a war of attrition with VyroGen for years, and believe Kallie to be the latest test subject to escape their clutches.  And Leon wants to use her to destroy VyroGen from within, in a bid to get their memories, bodies and lives back.

Kallie, naturally, thinks they are quite mistaken. She is a loser who can help no one with absolutely nothing, and is definitely not important enough to have been experimented on. She isn’t entirely wrong. As it turns out, she’s somewhat of an accident.

Story of her life.

Still, Leon sends her on a mission to retrieve some important files. The mission goes sideways in a rather spectacular manner and Kallie is captured yet again. Her new captors are far more terrifying, and strangely familiar, than the Warren ever was. But the more time she spends with them, the more she realizes Leon may not have been entirely honest about his motives, the Warren or even VyroGen.

When the dust settles, whose side will Kallie be on?

 

Found familiy

Kallie is all about family. But when she is faced with the truth about her own, she has to redefine what that word really means. Is blood the only thing that binds families together?

Love

You can find love in the weirdest, most disturbing places, as Kallie will soon discover. Familial, platonic, romantic - which one will compel Kallie the most, and propel her towards her destiny?

Sacrifice

Kallie will have to make tremendous sacrifices in order to save the ones she cares about. Is she a pawn, or is she the mastermind? And who will be left standing when Kallie is done?

 

The Embers recipe: A pinch of X-Men, a sprinkling of Orphan Black and one solid dose of kickass female heroine.

Mia, book expert

A blood-splattered, merciless delight!

Line, author

It’s The Shape of Water meets Fight Club. Lots of fighting and one sexy fishman.

Odd Karsten, karate champion