Guardian by Alex London Blog Tour (Guest Post | Spotlight | Giveaway)

About the book:

GUARDIAN (Proxy, #2) by Alex London Release Date: May 29, 2014 Hardcover, 352 pages Publisher: Philomel Genre: YA / Dystopian / LGBT

The pulse-pounding sequel to Proxy! Inspired by The Whipping Boy and Feed, this adrenaline-fueled thriller will appeal to fans of The Hunger Games and Divergent.

In the new world led by the Rebooters, former Proxy Syd is the figurehead of the Revolution, beloved by some and hated by others. Liam, a seventeen-year-old Rebooter, is Syd’s bodyguard and must protect him with his life. But armed Machinists aren’t the only danger.

People are falling ill—their veins show through their skin, they find it hard to speak, and sores erupt all over their bodies. Guardians, the violent enforcers of the old system, are hit first, and the government does nothing to help. The old elites fall next, and in the face of an indifferent government, Syd decides it’s up to him to find a cure . . . and what he discovers leaves him stunned.
This heart-stopping thriller is packed with action, adventure, and heroics. Guardian will leave you breathless until the final page.
A fast-paced, thrill-ride of novel full of non-stop action, heart-hammering suspense and true friendship—just as moving as it is exhilarating. Fans of Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider series, James Dashner's Maze Runner, Patrick Ness's Chaos Walking series, and Marie Lu's Legend trilogy will be swept away by this story.

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Guest Post:

Top 10 Random Things About the Series. Anything goes:

1. In the first draft of the first 30 pages of PROXY, Syd’s name was “Shaun” for absolutely no reason.
2. I wrote a lot of PROXY listening to a lot of Sigur Ros, Bjork, and Philip Glass.
3. I wrote a lot of GUARDIAN listening to a lot of Iggy Pop and a collection of Cambodian psychedelic rock that I got in college.
4. The power structures in PROXY were inspired by the Tea Party, while the power structures in GUARDIAN came from the Cambodian Khmer Rouge.
5. The character of Cousin in GUARDIAN is homage to the Judge in Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian.
6. The polar bear in PROXY is a reference to the circus bear in Sid Fleischman’s Newbery winning children’s novel, The Whipping Boy.
7. Egan in PROXY is loosely based on one of my actual best friends from High School. The real person has read the book. I don't know what he thinks of it.
8. The character called Atticus Finch was inspired by the vague idea of someone I had a crush on in High School but didn’t actually know at all.
9. Writing imaginary versions of the crushes I had as a teen and then torturing them is even more fun than it sounds.
10. Marie’s name was originally Mary but I changed it to Marie after Marie Lu helped me with an early draft of PROXY. There is still a typo ‘Mary’ in the first edition of PROXY in hardcover on p. 181. Only one reader has ever pointed that out to me. He was in 7th grade. No one reads as closely as a 7th grader on a mission.

Excerpt:

Chapter One – GUARDIAN by Alex London

At night, they disposed of the bodies. There was no ceremony, no ritual, no remembrance.

“They’re human,” some argued.

“They were human,” said others. “Now they’re meat.”

“We have to study the infection,” said the doctor.

“We have to contain it,” said the counselor and gave her orders. “Burn the bodies.”

A work detail was tasked with the burning. One by one, in the dead of night, green uniforms with white masks hauled corpses to the pile. The corpses were webbed with black veins, their entire network of blood vessels visible through the pale skin. Dried blood obscured their faces and each had a single hole in the temple by the eyes, where the killing bolt went in. They were put down like livestock, burned like sacrifices.

As the bodies crackled, the doctor watched the flames, her face half in shadow, half dancing in firelight. “I believe there is a cure for this,” she said.

The counselor, standing beside her, nodded, but did not turn to look her way. “Your cure is worse than the disease.”

“You believe that?”

“It’s the truth. Your way is treason.”

“You’re in denial,” the doctor said. “This is going to get worse if we don’t stop it.”

“It’s a new world, Doctor,” the counselor replied. “We can’t turn back the clock.”

“Even to save people’s lives?”

“These”—the counselor gestured at the bodies—“are not people.”

“If it spreads?”

“Is it spreading?”

The doctor watched the young members of the work detail tossing the bodies on the pyre. They moved with the assurance of youth, the kind of attitude that allowed them to stare infection and death in the face and believe it would never touch them. “I don’t know.”

“It is your job to know.”

“I can hardly understand it. The blood turns against the body. Itching, burning. Then, expulsion. Half of them bleed out.”

“And the other half?”

The doctor clenched her jaw. “They haven’t bled out yet.”

“They are in pain?”

“They can’t communicate, but we have to restrain them to keep them from scratching their skin off with their fingernails.” The doctor sighed. “So, yes, they are in pain.”

“Put them out of their misery,” the counselor ordered.

“But, we can still learn—”

“Those are the orders.” The counselor walked away, two green uniforms trailing her into the jungle. The doctor took off her white smock, pulled the blue gloves from her hands with a loud synthetic snap, and stood before the flames. She watched her latest failed experiments turn to smoke and ash in the bonfire, every bit of blood boiled away, with all the information it might have contained.

She had ideas, dangerous to share; but if she didn’t find a way, she feared, this sickness would go further than any of them could imagine. She would record a message in case she failed. She hoped that someone would still be alive to receive it.

Read the Exclusive 3 Chapters from London’s new release, GUARDIAN here: http://bit.ly/SgMw3b 

You can read the short story PUNISHMENT, the PROXY prequel on Wattpad for free right now! Meet Syd, Knox, and Liam (from Guardian) at 15... http://w.tt/1mtouLm

About the author:

C. Alexander London grew up in Baltimore, Maryland. He's an author of nonfiction for grown-ups (under a slightly different not very secret name), books for teens (as Alex London...see above), and, younger readers. He once won a 12-gauge skeet-shooting tournament because no one else had signed up in his age group. He's a Master SCUBA diver who hasn't been diving in way too long, and, most excitingly, a fully licensed librarian. He used to know the Dewey Decimal System from memory.

He doesn't anymore.

While traveling as a journalist, he watched television in 23 countries (Burmese soap operas were the most confusing; Cuban news reports were the most dull), survived an erupting volcano in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a hurricane on small island in the Caribbean, 4 civil wars (one of them was over by the time he got there, thankfully), and a mysterious bite on his little toe in the jungles of Thailand. The bite got infected and swollen and gross and gave him a deep mistrust of lizards, even though it probably wasn't a lizard that bit him.

Although he has had many adventures, he really does prefer curling up on the couch and watching some good television or reading a book. He enjoys danger and intrigue far more when it's happening to somebody else.

He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

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Follow the tour:

August 7^th - Book Chic Club – Review/Interview

August 8^th - Cheryl Rainfield ~ Guest Post

August 9^th - Bookish – Spotlight

August 9^th - I Read It & Wept ~ Review (Proxy/Guardian)/GP

August 9^th - Like A Bump On A Blog – Spotlight

August 10^th - Book Escape – Top 10/ Spotlight

August 11^th – A Leisure Moment ~ Review (Proxy/Guardian)

August 11^th – Reads All The Books – Review (Proxy/Guardian)

August 12^th – Debbie Bookish – Review (Proxy/Guardian)

August 13^th – Unconventional Librarian – Review

August 14^th – Word Spelunking ~ Review (Guardian)

August 14^th – Kate Tilton's Blog – GIF Interview

August 15^th - Fangirlish – Review (Proxy/Guardian)

August 15^th - What A Nerd Girl Says – Review (Guardian)

August 16^th - Books To Remember – Review (Guardian)

August 16^th - A Bookshelf Full of Sunshine – Review (Guardian)

August 16^th - The Reading Date ~ Review (Guardian)

August 16^th - Reading Fictional ~ Review (Proxy/Guardian)

September - Bookish Tiffany – Review (Proxy/Guardian)

September - Bookish ~ Review (Proxy/Guardian)

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