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About The Last Beekeeper by Rebecca L. Fearnley
Title: The Last Beekeeper
Author: Rebecca L. Fearnley
Series: Silent Skies #
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy Dystopia
Solma is a fighter. Trained by her village Steward to protect their community from the predators of their harsh world, she is fierce and loyal. But how can she protect her friends and family from crop failure and starvation? With flying insects extinct for over a century, nowhere on the forsaken continent of Alphor is safe and Solma is terrified her little brother, Warren, will be one of the next to die. The villagers cling to life, waiting for the Earth Whisperers—mysterious nomads with a strange magic that helps plants grow—to arrive.
But then Warren finds something. Something impossible. When the first bee in a hundred years crawls out of the earth, Warren forms a strange bond with the creature and Solma fears he might have a new power. One that leaders of Alphor would kill for. As she and Warren fight to keep the bee secret and safe, word of this miracle sweeps the continent. Allies and enemies alike descend on the village. Some demand the bees for themselves, others want to destroy the colony to level the odds. When words become threats and then violence, Solma and Warren are caught in the conflict, and now it isn’t just the bees in danger.
When whoever controls the bees controls the world, how will Solma and Warren know who to trust?
Excerpt from The Last Beekeeper
© 2022
Rebecca L. Fearnley
The crowd parts and a visiting Steward strides to face Olive. It’s the woman with the silk scarf. She’s at least half a head taller than Olive and gets close enough so that she can look down at her, their noses inches apart. Solma bristles before she realizes what she’s doing and almost steps in, knife in hand, but someone grabs her arm. She glances down to see Cobra holding her wrist, eyes imploring. Solma scowls and wrenches her arm free, but it’s enough to stop her diving in and starting the scuffle anew.
The Steward grins down at Olive, teeth bared like a predator. “We’ll go home,” she murmurs. “When your pathetic little village gives us its bees.”
Olive cocks her pistol and presses it up under the Steward’s chin. There’s a gasp from the crowd and the Steward’s guards brandish their weapons again. Olive either doesn’t notice or doesn’t care.
“Don’t think I won’t,” Olive snarls. “’Cos I will.”
Solma believes her. She clutches her belly to quell the churning inside it. Could Olive really shoot an unarmed woman? Except …
There’s a flash of steel at the woman’s hip and Solma sees with a kick of her heart that the woman is not unarmed at all. The steel winks in the sinking sun. The Steward’s grin widens and Solma sees, as if the whole world has slowed down, Olive’s eyes widen in sudden realization.
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About Rebecca L. Fearnley
Rebecca has been obsessed with two things since she learned to walk and talk: stories and animals. Luckily, the two seem to be very compatible. Rebecca writes stories set in strange worlds filled with bizarre creatures, strong female characters and magical powers. She started her writing career as a poet, performing all over the country and publishing her first collection, Octopus Medicine, with Two Rivers Press in 2017.
In addition to writing, Rebecca is also a teacher and, in 2018, decided that she wanted to write quality books for the young people she works with. Her books tend towards themes of respect for the environment, protecting the planet and the new generations challenging the old to face up to their mistakes.
She lives in Reading, UK, with her unusual family, which includes herself and her partner, a friendly little mini-lop rabbit (called Cleo) and a gregarious and feisty quaker parrot (called Maya).
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