"Wakeworld"

Kerry Schafer was born and raised in Canada, moved back and forth across the border several times, and finally settled on a compromise. She now lives in Washington state, but within an hour’s drive of her home and native land. She is the author of the Books of the Between (Between and Wakeworld) and the Dream Wars Series (Dream Runner, Dream Thief, Dream Wars).

Schafer applied the Page 69 Test to Wakeworld and reported the following:

When I was invited to take the Page 69 Challenge it sounded like great fun. I floated over to the book in a haze of happy anticipation, flipped through the pages, and wilted like a deflated balloon. As it turns out, page 69 of Wakeworld is a short page at the end of a short chapter. It begins mid-paragraph and mid-thought, and is one of only three point of view scenes of the dark, power hungry Dragon Queen, Aidan.

I confess I was tempted to cheat. A few pages back and we have Zee battling a swarm of black cloaked, gray skinned warriors. A few pages forward and we find Vivian discovering that she has been locked into Wakeworld and has no way to get back to Zee, wounded and taken captive by his enemies. But no, instead page 69 gives us a quiet, almost reflective moment, in which Aidan makes one of those decisions that turns out to be pivotal to all that follows:

But he was breathing. Strong enough to kill seven of her best men and live. If he could survive this, there was a chance he could survive the other.

“Let him be put to the test.”

The captain looked at her, as though he wished to speak but did not dare.

“What?” she demanded. “Say it.”

“He is already very weak. It is a harsh death you decree.”

“If he is the one I seek, it will heal him. If not, he will die anyway. See that it is done.”

“And the other?”

She barely even glanced at the hovel. The face that had watched through the open window had moved out of sight, but she knew the man was still in there. A coward. She detested cowards. Not worth the sword thrust it would take to kill him and of no use to her, now that she had the Key. “Throw him into the Between and leave him to wander.

The Verdict - is page 69 representative of the novel?

No. Although this page contains a key moment in which a decision is made that will affect the lives of all the characters, it lacks the action, tension, and magic that runs through most of the book.

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--Marshal Zeringue