Books published by Odyssey Books

Emmeline Muchamore is a well-bred young lady hiding explosive family secrets. She needs to marry well, and quickly, in order to keep her family respectable. But when her brass heart malfunctions, she makes a desperate choice to steal the parts she needs to repair it and survive.She is unable to explain her actions without revealing she has a steam-powered heart, so she is arrested for theft and transported to Victoria, Australia - right in the midst of the Gold Rush.Now that she's escaped the bounds of high society, iron manacles cannot hold her for long.The only metal that really matters is gold.

Excessive mining, human pollution and war have left the earth devastated and all but inhabitable to humans. A Dome built over the city of Sydney and controlled by the tyrant Silmac protects what is possibly the last bastion of civilisation.When Silver is abandoned out in the badlands by her salvage crew, she must fight for survival to make it back to safety. But she soon finds that the Dome no longer offers the protection it once did, as she faces betrayal, makes new alliances and uncovers secrets that will bring her into conflict with Silmac himself.

The war may be over, but the fight to belong is just beginning.Left homeless, starving, and almost killed by the Second World War, the Saforo family are refugees fleeing Italy for a better life. The shores of Australia are calling to them and they head off, packing dreams of jobs, a home and ... soccer.But from the moment they get off the boat, adapting to the Australian way of life is harder than it seems. Their family doesn't speak right, eat right or even look right. As they struggle to build a simple life against the backdrop of 1950s racism, they start to wonder if they will be outsiders forever.A true family affair, Wanderers No More will make you laugh, remind you of your family, and warm your heart.

That dandelion. A flash of stubborn yellow in a dark box of space. It had promised sunshine but had tasted sour. Artefacts. A dandelion. A mayfly. A family, bereft. Items and mementos of a life, lived hard and with love, or long, empty, bitter. In these sharply drawn and unflinching short stories, Rebecca Burns unpicks the connection between the lives we live and what we leave behind.

When Mina joins a troupe of travelling actors, her aim is to find her missing brother, but her search unlocks a series of secrets that will change the world she knows forever.Tarya, the mystical realm spoken of in tales, is real, and her gift for story telling opens a way to it. But Tarya has a shadow side, and someone in the troupe of actors is using it to harm people. Mina soon realises she may be the only one with the power to stop them. Harlequin's Riddle is the first book in a Young Adult fantasy trilogy about the gift of creativity and where it can take you.

When Rick Hendry is contacted by a federal agent to help investigate a growing number of mysterious vanishings across Australia, he finds himself immersed in a world where normal is a very narrow view of reality. The two men are joined by a doctor, an archeologist, a journalist, and an Afflur Hunter. They soon discover that in the bush, south of Sydney, among the beach goers, walkers and picnickers, a menace grows. The mysterious Bledray monsters are preparing for a Gathering; a feast of epic proportions. Only the Afflur Hunter and Guardians can stop them, but their strength is failing and humans are needed to help prevent a second holocaust. A Single Light is an urban fantasy tale of ghoulish monsters and non-human protectors battling to save humanity amid the spectacular and rugged landscapes of the Royal National Park south of Sydney.

In the wake of the devastation the coastal city of Geelong has suffered, any hopes the remaining citizens have of rescue are dashed one by one.As several nations rally to attempt to control the virus, the differences between friend and foe become hard to distinguish.Death is closer than they think.

Life on Mars is in danger of becoming boring.Fame is fleeting so, following the Martian uprising and Jodi's abduction, a little time has seen life return to relative normality. At least that's the way it seems on the surface. Jodi battles with the memories of Jules while Astrid remains the arse-kicking hero she's always been.But life on Mars is never what it seems.There are tensions: both personal and political. Two young women who need little more than each other are always going to set people on edge. Perhaps that's why they imported two noobs.Akira and Amos have come to learn. One about life, the other about Jodi and what kind of life she has now. Little do they know, what lies beneath the surface will set the media talking and the rest of two worlds thinking, and that's good becauseLife on Mars is dangerously becoming ...

After a medical mishap, Dr Vince Hanrahan crashes professionally and personally, is all but struck off, and the Medical Board kicks him all the way down the Princes Highway to be a rural GP. Supervised. On notice. He rents a dump, lives off takeaway, and plans to see out his time before regaining his rightful position on the specialist pedestal. Vince's old terrors resurface when he sees his young patient dead on the labour ward floor. The investigation declares the cause of death suspicious. Unless he can find out who did it, and why, the Board will come after him. And he's on his last chance. After another suspicious death, Vince realises that only he can clean up this mess; it's time to pull his finger out. With the help of the IT-savvy Senior Constable Elena Genovesi and Emu Quick, a dying junkie and drug dealer, he sets up an elaborate, high-risk sting. But even if he can get through this, has Vince lost his old life forever?

We belong to the Earth, Lainie-Bug. We were sent here in human form for a reason. If you don't know what to do, then just be human.Right. Like that was ever a simple thing to do.In the heart of the Wimmera region of Victoria, an ancient gateway to Eden is kept hidden and safe by a creature so powerful that even the moon would obey her commands - at least it would if she had any idea that she wasn't just a normal girl about to finish high school. When a mining company begins exploratory sampling near Lainie's sheep farm, a family secret is revealed that makes her regret not having learnt more about her Indigenous heritage.What she's told by their farmhand, Harry - an Aboriginal Elder - can't possibly be true, but then the most irritating guy in class, Bane, begins to act even more insanely toward her than ever, until she can no longer deny that something very unusual is going on.When Harry doesn't return from his quest to seek help to protect the area from the miners, Lainie sets out to discover the truth of her heritage, and of the secret she's been born to protect.

Is the future set like concrete, or a piece of clay we can mould and change?On a remote farm in Queensland Cassie Shultz feels useless. Her perfect brother Alex has an uncanny ability to predict the weather, and the fortunes of the entire family hinge upon his forecasts. However, her own gift for prophecy remains frustratingly obscure. Attempts to help her family usually result in failure.After meeting with her new genius neighbor Athena, Cassie thinks she has unlocked the secret of her powers. But as her visions grow more vivid, she learns that the cost of honing her gift may be her sanity.With her family breaking apart, the future hurtles towards Cassie faster than she can comprehend it.

In a tale of sand, songs, survival and untimely erections, it takes a trek along the Australian coastline for Benjamin Allmon to find himself, and the true key to happiness.It is 2006. After more than a decade trying to make it in the music industry, singer-songwriter Ben is getting desperate. As his former bandmates settle into sensible careers he gives it one last shot and records his debut album. The only problem - how to promote it?In homage to the Deep South bluesmen who walked and played their way to Chicago, he decides to trek 1000 kilometres of Australian coastline. Kissing his girlfriend goodbye, he sets off with a guitar, a sleeping bag and a heroic miscalculation of what he's getting into.Beset by bushfires, dingoes, and septuagenarian nudists, fame seems to forever be over the horizon. Penniless and lost, the tour soon becomes a matter of survival instead of climbing the charts. Through his encounters with the people you only meet when walking slow and sleeping rough, Ben realises that what he wanted at the outset has changed enormously.

The egalitarian nation of Aotearoa may be a safe haven for freedom fighters, but former Sky commander Breta yearns for more. The sudden build-up of troopers in the southern Brown Zone, and a conviction that someone is still betraying the Women's Line, provide a stimulating assignment.Breta gets more than he bargained for during his clandestine visit to the bay region, but this only serves to strengthen his resolve to implement an alliance between the Sky pilots, the Kauri-Australia Line (KAL) and the Women's Line to overthrow the totalitarian Australian government.The situation alters when villagers in the northern Brown Zone stage their own small but successful insurrection - the Sky Lines Alliance is formed and Operation Unity begins. But they'll soon discover that radical change cannot be achieved without recourse to the dark side.

The body had no name. It was not supposed to be there...Jess is a researcher on a quest to give the one-hundred-year-old skeleton, discovered in the exhumed grave of a prominent bishop, an identity. But she's not sure of her own - her career is stalling, her marriage is failing. She doesn't want to spend hours in the archives, rifling through dusty papers in an endless search for a name. And when a young man named Hayden makes clear his interest in her, Jess has to decide what is most important to her.

At the outbreak of World War I, Lucy Paignton-Fox enlists in the Australian Army Nursing Service and leaves her family's cattle station in the Northern Territory to join the war effort. During the Gallipoli campaign she serves in hospitals in Egypt, but when the Anzacs are posted to France she moves with them. A talented and spirited nurse, with dreams of one day becoming a doctor, Lucy finds more opportunities than she ever imagined: working alongside doctors and surgeons, sharing the soldiers' dangers, helping them through their pain, and making lifelong friends. But with war comes suffering. Lucy sees it all around: sorrow, disease and death. How long can she stay separated from it all?Adam Hayward joins the British Army after a devastating attack on his family. Accepted into the air force, Adam tests his luck in the cockpit fighting for those he loves. But with aircraft technology booming, can Adam continue to stay ahead of the game?John Mitchell's determination leads him slowly up the ranks. With more responsibility than ever, he becomes disillusioned with the horrors of war, but he can't help admiring the brave nurses who do so much to help the wounded men.Nursing Fox details the experiences of Australian nurses during the Great War. It honours their journeys and shows the impact that the nurses had on the soldiers with whom they crossed paths.

The year is 2401, the location a farming settlement on the northwest coast of North Island, Aotearoa. Pia has lived at Kauri Haven since fleeing imprisonment in Australia for seditious activities, through the intervention of Kaire, the man she calls the Skyman. On the first anniversary of her mother Sannah's death, Pia's fragile composure threatens to shatter upon receiving disturbing news from the Brown Zone in apartheid Australia. Five Line Leaders have been incarcerated in the infamous prison complex beneath the central desert. An ingenious plan is undertaken to free the women, but from the moment Pia meets the youngest, Yuki, she feels troubled. Her fears are compounded when Kaire receives unexpected orders, which threaten his survival and that of his Sky friends. Can Pia assist Kaire in his preferred mission, without compromising her position as an authorised refugee?

The foreshadowing of a dark future threatens the seven nations of Sahas. Mai is selected to train with the mysterious elemental master Sah Dohba, who will prepare her to become the protector of the desert lands. Her brother Long steps forward to travel with her as her chaperone to the Valley of a Thousand Thoughts.A mysterious encounter brings them together with Akra, the Starchild. The trio travels on into a battle with the elements. Sandstorms. Deadly creatures. Starvation. Then a chance meeting with powerful earthfollower sets them on a new path where they must each find the strength to face a terrifying foe from the Underworld.

Sarah is a nurse at the Geelong hospital, going about her Boxing Day shift while her family recovers at home after indulging in the usual Christmas feasting. But when a wild-eyed patient is admitted that afternoon, she soon discovers a new virus taking root in the area.Not wasting any time, Sarah and her family have to bug out before they too are taken out by the infected hordes amassing in the town. The virus is spreading rapidly and beers will have to be set aside in favour of running for their lives.The South Forsaken is one family's story in this zombie apocalyptic tale with an Aussie twist!

Nicole is desperate to leave Silverlake, the small town she's spent her whole life in, and her plans for escape and her future career are all falling into place. But when the local heartthrob Aiden points out the one thing holding her back, Nicole's response sets off a chain of bad decisions that leaves her second guessing everything she ever knew about herself.Aiden may be devilishly handsome with a scent that gives Nic heart palpitations, but deep down she knows he is trouble. Before long, she finds herself sitting in a stolen Porsche with her hand on his knee and blood on her shoes. Does Nic have what it takes to survive in this unknown world, or is she letting her desires ruin her life?

After finding the Silvershade and escaping the attacking forces as the Wilder Forest city was scorched to the ground, Mai, Akra and Kalin must now face the evil that has consumed Long. When they reach the land of Cruscar and enter the ice city of Algus, the children are confronted with an ice challenge to win an audience with Queen Isolda. A treacherous journey now awaits them if they are to reach the Healing Stone to save Long.But Piceptus, the underworld king, will not give up his search and he will do anything to bring the pilgrims' journey to an end. The children grow stronger as they begin to master their powers, but will this be enough to escape this danger and continue on their pilgrimage to fulfil the prophecy?

Meet William. He's twenty-two. He's highly intelligent. He's an acerbic critic of Australian suburban life. And he's lost. Chafing against his rural-Aussie background, William sees a university career in Thailand as his intellectual salvation, but he just can't seem to get it together. When he bumps into a childhood friend, Deliria, now a scorchingly attractive eighteen-year-old music student, she reveals a secret: she's a compulsive shoplifter. Of course, he's now completely smitten. Outclassed and intimidated, William tries to win her over by aiding and abetting her in a succession of minor thefts, and saving her life whenever things go awry.Overflowing with the riotous immediacy of desire, Deliria is a comic-serious exploration of an educated young man's quest to find his way in the world. A love song to Deliria, Thailand and twelfth-century French poetry, it proves that literary cultivation, savoir faire, bravery, sexual obsession, moral laxity and complete stupidity can exist in the one person.

With a new addition to their journey, a sealer boy who is bound by the collar of slavery, Mai, Long, and Akra escape the clutches of the sand slavers and then vicious Melkarie beasts. They travel to Naroan - the forest lands of the soulbankers, the regulators of life and death. Against the backdrop of rules and suspicion, the children are challenged with unravelling the mystery of the Silvershade, which has been calling to Akra from the moment he arrived in the forest city.But Long is tormented by his own doubts - he must face a deadly power from the Underworld before it takes him into the darkness.