Search Worlds Without End

Teenager Staci's father has just remarried, and now she finds herself being shunted aside by her new stepmother. Shunted all the way to the run-down and dying Maine town of Silence, in fact, and the custody of her alcoholic mother.

It gets worse. Silence seems to be stuck in the proverbial stone age. There's no cell phone service except at the very top of a bluff outside of town, no internet except dialup, and not one familiar franchise or business. Staci's mom seems to have gotten even worse since the last time Staci lived with her. The only bright spots in the whole place are a friendly waitress at the diner, and a bookstore where she meets a gaggle of geeks and gamers.

But all is not as it seems in Silence. There are strange things moving beneath the shabby surface, terrible plots in play, and deadly players in the game, and Staci is about to find herself caught up in the middle of it all.

FIGHT FOR THE SOUL OF SILENCE

When Staci was first shunted off to the back-water town of Silence, Maine, to live with her alcoholic mother, she thought her life was over. Silence had none of the amenities a typical teen in the twenty-first century considered essential: no cell service and barely any internet connectivity. But Staci soon learned that Silence was more than a town left behind by progress. The first family of Silence, the Blackthorns, liked the town that way. The Blackthorns were dark elves who fed off the misery of the residents of Silence.

But now, all that's changing for the better. With the help of Staci and her friends, the Blackthorns have been all but defeated. Industry is returning to Silence, and Staci's mom is improving with each passing day. There's even a cute new busboy at the diner.

But evil dies hard. And Staci, now a mage-in-training, senses that the Blackthorns have not yet given up the fight. The soul of Silence is on the line, and it is up to Staci and her friends to strike back against the encroaching darkness.