Edith Clayton and the Wisdom of Athena (Preview)

The Great War - the bloodiest in history - is over. Everyone wants to forget the horrors of the past, but for one girl that's impossible.

Fourteen year old Edith Clayton thinks looking after her rebellious little sister is difficult, but that's the least of her concerns when her archaeologist father discovers a shape changing, black metal sphere that defies the known laws of science. After Edith accidentally absorbs the unearthly power contained within, events take a dangerous turn.

Gifted with the ability to heal rapidly from wounds and relive any memory in perfect detail, Edith struggles to find answers. But there's another, more profound effect that only becomes evident later: Edith has stopped growing old. While everybody else ages as they should, she remains trapped in the body of a teenager.

As two decades pass and a second great war breaks out, Edith is caught in a desperate race to recover an artefact even more powerful than the first. Smaller and physically weaker than an adult, she learns
there are also advantages to being a child. Edith will need those - and her special skills - because the promise of eternal youth attracts many enemies.

(Selected excerpts/chapters from Edith Clayton and the Wisdom of Athena by A.D. Phillips, a young adult science fiction/adventure. The book is the first in a planned series, with each entry covering key years in Edith's life. The Wisdom of Athena is set primarily in 1924, 1936, and 1941.)