Books with author William F Powell

In a parallel universe there exists another Britain, but this one is not called Britain; instead it is called Avery. It occupies the exact same spot on the planet as our dear old GB but there the similarity ends for in this world there are no motor cars or aeroplanes, no motorways or major roads, no shopping malls, no internet or computers; no electricity even! But the pace of life is so much slower than in our world and the people who live there are, for the most part, very happy. All life in Avery revolves around a huge castle called Huxley Castle in the capital town, also called Huxley, and at the centre of everyday life are three – soon to become four – friends, and this is the story of them: Ringlet is the Keeper of the Castle Diary and his best friend is Edwy, the sergeant-at-arms of the militia and a huge brute of a man. Edwy’s fiancée (and Ringlet’s lifelong friend) is a witch called Mantissa who meets Ringlet for lunch every Friday in a tavern called The Witches Brew, where they drink ale, eat fresh homemade food and exchange castle gossip. But soon there is to be a new addition to this little circle of friends, for Mantissa has a beautiful cousin called Eleleth who comes to visit her and Ringlet finds he harbours strong feelings for her even though he has met her on numerous occasions in the past. And so life and love unfolds in Huxley and it seems as though nothing much will ever change there.But something strange happens twice a year, and only a handful of Huxley folk know about it – a portal to Britain opens, once on winter solstice and again on summer solstice. And all is fine, until a series of events begins to unfold that heralds the arrival of a new, rogue portal; one which appears unexpectedly and threatens to tear apart the fabric of Huxley society, and the four friends must find out what is going on if they are to save the kingdom from an influx of visitors from Britain!

Expiration Day is an insightful coming-of-age novel set in the near future by debut author William Campbell Powell. It is the year 2049, and humanity is on the brink of extinction. Tania Deeley has always been told that shes a rarity: a human child in a world where most children are sophisticated androids manufactured by Oxted Corporation. When a decline in global fertility ensued, it was the creation of these near-perfect human copies called teknoids that helped to prevent the utter collapse of society. Though she has always been aware of the existence of teknoids, it is not until her first day at the Lady Maud High School for Girls that Tania realizes that her best friend, Siân, may be one. Returning home from the summer holiday, she is shocked by how much Siân has changed. Is it possible that these changes were engineered by Oxted? And if Siân could be a teknoid, how many others in Tanias life are not real?Driven by the need to understand what sets teknoids apart from their human counterparts, Tania begins to seek answers. But time is running out. For everyone knows that on their eighteenth “birthdays,” teknoids must be returned to Oxted—never to be heard from again. Told in diary format, Expiration Day is the powerful and poignant story of a young girl coming of age and discovering what it means to be truly human by a talented debut novelist.