Alastair McCaig
Twist
of Evolution is a contemporary novel with a science fiction/fantasy twist.
It follows the diverse fortunes of James, his brother Freddie, Meisha and
Trafur - four individuals whose fates are bound together by an incredible
truth.
James
McLaren is a normal teenager who lives on the west coast of Scotland. He and
his younger brother Freddie are anything but ordinary. While James has vivid,
waking dreams of people and places he neither knows nor recognises, Freddie is
unaware that he is different until a chance encounter with two old ladies
changes everything. James discovers the truth about his family’s past and why
he and his brother are so special. The answers lead them on an incredible
journey of self-discovery with perilous consequences for them and their family.
Meisha
and Trafur couldn’t be more dissimilar. She is the daughter of the Chancellor
of a renegade colony while he is a hapless farmhand. However, as Meisha’s once
privileged and ordered life turns to chaos when she becomes embroiled in a
kidnap plot, Trafur embarks on an adventure where he will learn about the
desperate plague which afflicts his world and the mysterious Cleansings which
claimed his father’s life.
As
Meisha, Trafur, James and Freddie are unwittingly drawn into a deadly game of
political skullduggery and lethal conspiracy, they begin to discover some
incredible truths about themselves and each other which will bind them together
and affirm their improbable destiny as potentially the only ones standing
between the human race and its ultimate extinction.
Twist
of Evolution is the beginning of a tremendous adventure encompassing diverse
civilizations who share a common heritage and will pose disturbing questions
about humanity’s dreadful ancestry and its ultimate destiny. Can humanity avoid
the mistakes of the past or is it doomed to annihilation.
Alastair McCaig was born in Ayr in Scotland (where the book is
set) and now lives with his family in Northern Ireland where he works as a
project manager.
"James knew he was different. In fact it was a certainty which he never
questioned. What James didn’t know was how he was different. Outwardly he was a
normal seventeen year old lad of above average height, slim build and sandy
brown hair. His mother always told him he was handsome which latterly had
afforded him some success with girls. He enjoyed school, got reasonable grades
and had a close knit group of friends. If nothing else, James was pretty
average but that didn’t allay his suspicions.
James was contemplating
the meaning of life from the cool, quiet corridor outside the classroom from
which he’d just been dispatched by his physics teacher Miss West. Now at this
point it would be wrong to conclude that James was a troublemaker. In fact
quite the opposite was true. To underline his normalness, this was the first
time James had been sent out of class since primary school and something he
wasn’t particularly proud of.
Anyway, it was Robert
Turner’s fault. He does a fairly mean impression of poor Miss West, whose
speech impediment and poor personal hygiene make for an irresistibly easy target.
But Miss West was learning fast. Her meek ‘carry on regardless’ attitude was
being replaced by a more formidable ‘let God sort it out’, “God” being Mr
McDonald, the head of Physics. And so it was that James, suffering from an
uncontrollable fit of the giggles, was promptly made an example of. He was just
the unfortunate scapegoat who’d laughed loudest and longest."
