Avatars

Series · 3 books · 2006-2008

By Tui T. Sutherland

Books in series

So This Is How It Ends

2006

Something was different. She stepped hesitantly out of the subway car, her boots sounding even louder now. What was it? The graffiti. Had that been there before? Emblazoned across the far wall in huge silver letters: The end has come. In New York, Kali wakes to an empty subway car, and an even emptier city. Venus and Gus survive an earthquake in Los Angeles and realize they have to deal with more than just the aftershocks. In Chile, Tigre finds himself in an unfamiliar jungle, and strangely not alone. And Amon, in Egypt, can see his path but is blind to the full picture. They are suddenly trapped in a deserted world, five teenagers with no hope of escape. Why have they survived? What force or intelligence connects them? Drawn inexorably toward one another, they only know their future involves an experience outside anything they could have imagined. Fantasy newcomer Tui T. Sutherland creates a future in which teens have the power to complete the destruction of Earth or to save it.

Shadow Falling

2007

I was born in a world ruled by gods. This worked out well for me, as I am a god. For centuries we were the rulers of our worlds. But things changed. Now, the stakes are high. Let the games begin... Caught in an ancient rivalry not of their making, on an earth devoid of all other humans, a group of teens learns they are avatars of immortal gods, put on earth in a form that’s only too mortal. Now they are bound to fight one another—and only one of them can survive. Do they resist the forces controlling them and unite to save themselves and perhaps even return to their own time? Or can one of them win this battle and seize immortality and the life of a god? Tui T. Sutherland ups the ante in this second volume of her witty and absorbing fantasy trilogy about life, immortality, and what it means to live among the gods—and to do their dirty work.

Kingdom of Twilight

2008

"Don't die," Gus whispered. He reached out and touched her hand. Were there superpowers that could bring her back? Would there be gods in Africa that could help them save her? "I stayed alive when you ordered me to. Now you return the favor, okay? Just . . . whatever you do, don't die." Ruthlessly stabbed by a fellow avatar, Diana suddenly finds herself hopelessly wandering through the underworlds, fighting her way past everything and anything vile, struggling to find a way back to life. Up above, her fellow avatars—Gus, Kali, and Tigre—have set sail to Africa, hoping to find refuge and a healer to bring Diana back from death. Time is racing against the avatars, because once Diana reaches the Greek underworld, Hades, she is gone. Forever. But that problem pales in comparison to the larger issue at hand—only one avatar can take back the power of the gods and live forever. Beautifully weaving together myth and realism, Tui T. Sutherland delivers the breathtaking conclusion to a trilogy that places the fate of the world in the outcome of a battle between power-hungry pantheons of gods and four teen avatars.

Author

Tui T. Sutherland

Author · 58 books

Okay, I know what you’re thinking. Tui? What kind of name is that? Is it short for something? Nope. Among the many great things to come out of New Zealand (the Lord of the Rings movies, cats that paint, my mom) is a bird called the tui—not as well known as the kiwi, but a heck of a lot noisier! I was born July 31 (same birthday as Harry Potter!) in Caracas, Venezuela, and lived in Asuncion, Paraguay; Miami, Florida; and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, before moving to New Jersey in high school, where I started doing theatre—mostly backstage work, because (a) it was fun, and (b) you got to hang out in the dark with cute boys. (Er, I mean . . . because it was artistically fulfilling, yes.) I graduated from Williams College in ’98 and I currently live in Boston with my husband, my perfect new baby, and my adorable yoodle Sunshine (what’s a yoodle? A puppy that’s three-quarters poodle and one-quarter Yorkshire terrier, of course!). Much to my parents’ relief, I abandoned my theatrical aspirations after college for the far more stable and lucrative career of fiction writing. My first two official books were beginning readers, part of Grosset & Dunlap’s “First Friends” series for kids learning to read. MEET MO AND ELLA is tough to find now, but FUN WITH MO AND ELLA should still be out there somewhere. My first novel for teenagers was THIS MUST BE LOVE, which retells Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a modern-day high school, from the POV of the two heroines, Hermia and Helena. And now I'm writing in a new project called SEEKERS! It's a children's book series that I'm writing with Erin Hunter. Check out my blog to find out more!