Generation Icarus
The 2017-2020 editions of Generation Icarus are currently sold out. A new release with brand new cover designs coming soon! Sign up for the newsletter so you don't miss the launch date, scroll on for the blurbs, or click here to jump to the history of the series!
#1: Air Born
My past.
My present.
My future.
Destroyed in an instant.
So, who am I?
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Seventeen-year-old Tyler is smart, good-looking, and destined to be a fighter pilot. He's mapped out his life and knows exactly where he's headed.
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That is, until his first solo sky-dive, when he undergoes a terrifying transformation. Caught on camera, Tyler becomes a viral hit. Everyone wants a piece of him, including the sinister Evolutionary Corporation and a religious cult known as the Angelists.
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But the worldwide media coverage also alerts others like him. Driven by instinct, they come together and form the Flight. The first of an extraordinary new species, they have only one way to survive.
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Fly.
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Air Born also features pieces by fan contest winners Annabel Morison, NZ (Fan Art) and Sierra Ciardafone, US (Fan Fiction)!
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YA urban science fiction. Contains medium violence and language. Suitable for ages 12 and up. Early editions published as First Flight. For more information on the history of the series, please see below.
#2: Take Flight
Notable Book Award Winner 2019
Capture
Rebellion
Revelation
The Flight is recovering in a remote mountain hideaway. They think they're safe, but they couldn't be more wrong.
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When Evolutionary Corp mercenaries in helicopters hunt them down, only Condor and Kestrel manage to escape. With nowhere else to turn and desperate for help to save their friends, the two flee across the country to the jubilant Angelists.
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Meanwhile, a nightmare unfolds for the imprisoned teenage Icari. A shocking bond is revealed which changes everything.
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Pushed to the limits of endurance, somehow they must survive the most dangerous place they can imagine.
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Somehow, they must fly free.
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Take Flight features a piece of writing from the fanfic competition winner Jaimi Lutes of Colorado, USA!
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Early edition published as Second Chance.
#3: Sun Strike
The Flight, grief-stricken, exhausted and starving, are increasingly demonised as they struggle to survive. The police and the sinister Evolutionaries are closing in, and social media is rife with conspiracy theories and prejudice.
Meanwhile, emotional relationships grow strained and ever more complex, and the pull of family threatens the stability of the group, just as new Icari make contact.
Trying to take control of their future, the Flight use social media to ask for help. But as events spin out of control and a deadly virus threatens, their only way forward is to uncover the truth hidden in their pasts.
Can the Flight finally find their place in the world, and be accepted for who they are?
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Inspired by the early editions of Generation Icarus books 3 & 4: Third Time Lucky and Final Stand.
GENERATION ICARUS BOOK HISTORY
In 2011, J L Pawley completed the first draft of the first book in the Generation Icarus series. After receiving a rejection letter from a major publisher that indicated manuscripts were not accepted for consideration unless they had been reviewed by a professional manuscript assessor, she set about finding one.
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The assessor she contacted happened to be an author in her own right, who was in the process of setting up her own publishing company. After the assessment was complete, she offered to publish the books herself.
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Unfortunately, just as the first tiny print run of First Flight rolled off the press in December 2012, the company closed down. So, with a half-published book, J L Pawley was unable to seek publication with any other company, and decided to re-publish herself under her own label. Nineteenth House Publishing was born.
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After another round of professional editing and book design, the Nineteenth House Publishing edition of First Flight was released in 2013, earning an award from Readers Favorite. The Second Chance, Third Time Lucky, and Final Stand, along with the Icarus Origins companion novellas detailing the back stories of the main characters, followed over the next two years. The final book came out in December 2015.
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Along the way, J L Pawley also posted the series on the ebook streaming site Wattpad, with special Wattpad-edition covers. The first two books reached #2 and #3 in Science Fiction, and the series earned over a million reads between 2014-2015.
Then, in early 2016, the series was noticed by the Eunoia Publishing Group. The director and editors promptly offered J L Pawley a publishing contract under the Steam Press imprint. As part of the deal, the original version of the series was withdrawn from Amazon and Wattpad, ready for redevelopment.
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After a year of reworking, rewriting, and reediting, the books were given new titles to reflect the updated story within. Air Born was launched by Steam Press in Auckland in September 2017, followed by Take Flight in November 2018. Russian translations of Air Born and Take Flight were released soon after, as well as a traditional Mandarin Chinese translation of Air Born. However, partly due to the challenges caused by the COVID pandemic, the third book Sun Strike was delayed, and had a limited release online in December 2020.
In March 2023, the rights to Generation Icarus were re-acquired by J L Pawley and Nineteenth House Publishing. The Steam Press editions were sold out, but the books are undergoing a design makeover, and the new release is coming soon!
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