HalfWorlder #Wattys2017

(Highest rank #12 in sci-fi). When a dangerous ancient artifact hidden by the Egyptian gods activates after millennia, the long-dormant powers of a half-alien boy come alive just in time to save the Earth. But he never imagined winning over a girl would be harder than saving the world. And he may not even do that.

THE LONG VERSION: Human life was hard enough for 17-year-old Gil Scott when his father suddenly disappeared from a temple dig. But when the half-alien teen uncovers a conspiracy surrounding the artifact his human dad was hunting, Gil must use his alien powers to track it down before it destroys the planet he calls home.

With the help of a beautiful Oasen-human hybrid whose drive to succeed masks her private pain, Gil borrows his mom's spaceship, following the same clues across Egypt as his father. The teens battle strange weather phenomena and rising global panic as they race through the suffocating heat of the desert, through deluged ancient temples, and hidden libraries hiding more than just books. That is until it starts snowing on the Great Sphinx and they unearth a millennial-old message from Ra himself, addressed to Gil, with a choice that will affect everyone's future.

Unraveling Ra's remaining clues, they rush to locate the powerful artifact in time. But Ra and the other ancient aliens' thousands-year-old, carefully mapped plan to save the Earth from the Aten has a fatal flaw, and their gamble may cost Gil the only life that will matter to him in the end. And possibly the planet itself.

(Cover image: Photo of The Pyramids of Giza from Egypt combined with a Hubble image.
Original photographer: Rom Srinivasan, 2005)