SAMPLE ONLY - You do not have permission to copy, reprint or distribute without written permission from the author.
BORN A COMMON SETTLER, Wil shouldn’t be able to sift, but he can. He sees emotions in bursts of color and hears thoughts as if they were whispered into his ear. This gift has transformed his life, lifting him from the squalor of a Settler’s camp to the Guardian Academy – an elite school where young Sifters train to use their power. But Wil soon realizes he will never be accepted by his High Founder classmates. No matter what his accomplishments, they’ll always see him as an outsider. A ‘Camp Rat’ with inferior blood, not worthy of the Guardian name.
UNLESS HE CAN PROVE THEM WRONG. Now sixteen and on the verge of graduation, Wil finally has that chance. Somewhere in the frozen settlement of Washton, a dangerous mind is on the run. If he can track them down before his classmates do, he’ll win more than bragging rights. He might finally earn some respect, maybe even a grudging nod from Astrid Blake – the beautiful but frosty daughter of the most powerful man in Neoden.
THE ‘FOX HUNT’ IS ON. As Wil chases his quarry through the ruins of Washton, he still believes what he’s been taught: that a Guardian’s sacred duty is to keep the citizens of Neoden free from deviant and destructive thoughts. But when he and his classmates are targeted in a deadly terrorist attack, those beliefs start to crumble. Why would the Settlers he’s been sent to protect try to kill him? When a voice from the past reaches out to him with an answer, he’s forced to face a terrible possibility. Maybe powerful evil still exists in the Founders’ perfect world. And maybe he’s being groomed to serve it.
FOUNDERS, the first book of the dystopian YA Sifter series, is inspired by George Orwell’s 1984 and takes the concept of “thought police” to a telepathic extreme.