Book description
Lightborn, better known as 'shine', is a mind-altering technology
that has revolutionised the modern world. It is the ultimate in
education, self-improvement and entertainment - beamed directly into
the brain of anyone who can meet the asking price. But in the city of
Los Sombres, renegade shine has attacked the adult population,
resulting in social chaos and widespread insanity in everyone past the
age of puberty. The only solution has been to turn off the Field and
isolate the city.
Trapped within the quarantine perimeter, fourteen-year-old Xavier
just wants to find the drug that can keep his own physical maturity at
bay until the army shuts down the shine. That's how he meets Roksana,
mysteriously impervious to shine and devoted to helping the stricken.
As the military invades street by street, Xavier and Roksana discover
that there could be hope for Los Sombres - but only if Xavier will
allow a lightborn cure to enter his mind. What he doesn't know is that
the shine in question has a mind of its own . . .
Tricia Sullivan was born in New Jersey in 1968 and received a music
degree from Bard College and a Master's in Education from Columbia
University. She taught in Manhattan and New Jersey before moving to the
UK in 1995. DREAMING IN SMOKE won the 1999 Arthur C. Clarke award.
