It's been two hundred years since the big invasion of the Phrions (2699-2750), a nation of extraterrestrial creatures from the exoplaneet Hyllus, one of three planets orbiting around the star Deianeira (located in the constellation of Hercules). After hundreds of years of space travel and decades of interaction with extraterrestrial life forms, all this progress was lost - technology was destroyed, humanity had lost her faith in all alien species and after the war, when the Earth population had decreased considerably, it was decided that research on anything beyond our own solar system would not be done any longer. This was also included in a contract, drawn up by the president of Európê (a state consisting of the countries what the European Union used to be). Space travel would not take place anymore.
Until a woman named Matilda Sevester decided that it had been enough, 125 years after the war. With the help of her husband, she founded the Supreme International Headquarters for Extraterrestrial Research (SIHER), to start researching outer space again. Her granddaughter, Maren Sevester, continued her work and was the first person after three centuries to set foot Mars.
Now it's time for her oldest daughter, Francés, to carry on their work with her team of researchers, as youngest commander in a hundred years. With a team of 13 people, they set out to rediscover habited planets and make peace with extraterrestrial species, to prevent a second war, in their spaceship The Andromeda. But not everything goes as planned, and if there's one thing Francés Sevester doesn't like, it's when things doesn't go as she wants.
After an apocalyptic event that thrusts the world into a new ice age, Calestia - a 17-year-old girl with a strong will - must learn to survive on a land infested with gangs, guns, and distrust.
*****
Nobody knows what day it is anymore. Nobody knows the month, the day of the week...and the only way to tell time is by the slight change in the color of the sky from grey to black every twenty-four hours. If a day even is twenty-four hours anymore. The planet is dead. The people are dead. Snow falls down upon piles of bodies like the ash of a volcanic eruption. Except, the snow doesn't stop. It never does. It continues to fall and fall until you wonder if it is even possible for another flake to come down and land silently in your hair. But it does. They do. There are few survivors of what the remaining have started to call the end of the world. The Apocalypse. Few who are still brave or scared of death enough to face the torture that is living. I am one of those survivors.
Book One of the Snow Series
Highest ranking: #3 in Sci-Fi
Watty's Shortlisted