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Stray (Touchstone Book 1) by [Andrea K. Höst]

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Andrea K Höst

Stray (Touchstone Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Andrea K. Höst (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

726 ratings

Book 1 of 6: Touchstone

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On her last day of high school, Cassandra Devlin walked out of exams and into a forest. Surrounded by the wrong sort of trees, and animals never featured in any nature documentary, Cass is only sure of one thing: alone, she will be lucky to survive.

The sprawl of abandoned blockish buildings Cass discovers offers her only more puzzles. Where are the people? What is the intoxicating mist which drifts off the buildings in the moonlight? And why does she feel like she's being watched?

Increasingly unnerved, Cass is overjoyed at the arrival of the formidable Setari. Whisked to a world as technologically advanced as the first was primitive, where nanotech computers are grown inside people's skulls, and few have any interest in venturing outside the enormous whitestone cities, Cass finds herself processed as a 'stray', a refugee displaced by the gates torn between worlds. Struggling with an unfamiliar language and culture, she must adapt to virtual classrooms, friends who can teleport, and the ingrained attitude that strays are backward and slow.

Can Cass ever find her way home? And after the people of her new world discover her unexpected value, will they be willing to let her leave?

Print length

280 pages
Language

English
Publication date

March 20, 2011
File size

692 KB
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"This book was so fantastic, I highly recommend it"
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"Wonderful change of perspective and focus on new characters"
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"Its a great start to a new series and I highly recommend it"

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Andrea K Höst is an Australian writer of fantasy and science fantasy. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

ASIN : B004T3A518
Publisher : Andrea K Hösth (March 20, 2011)
Publication date : March 20, 2011
Language : English
File size : 692 KB
Simultaneous device usage : Unlimited
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 280 pages
Lending : Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #9,322 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #129 in Teen & Young Adult Science Fiction eBooks
- #137 in Science Fiction Adventure
- #151 in Children's eBooks (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
726 ratings

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5 star		59%
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3 star		11%
2 star		4%
1 star		4%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Jane

Scifi YA story with NO love triangle. YAY!

Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2016

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Disclaimer: The following review was originally posted on my book blog The Book Challengers (link in bio).

Goodreads recommended this book to me due to my love of The Last Hour of Gann and while I must admit that I really enjoyed this freebie (so much so that I already got my hands on part 2), I don't really see how these two books can really be compared. The Last Hour of Gann is brutal, it's full of violence and things you normally wouldn't want to read about. Stray, on the other hand, is a story in a diary format of a girl who somehow stumbles into a parallel world/universe through a wormhole. There's some violence, but due to the diary format it seems pretty meek and it would be an exaggeration to call it graphic.

The world our heroine Cassandra stumbles into is a truly wondrous scifi world. At first it doesn't seem all that wondrous, but then she's rescued by an alien race (I am still wondering if it's the best word to use here) who are pretty humanoid, but differ from humans in some slight ways. For instance, they have these special abilities they use to fight the bad guys. Their society is pretty advanced in a way - everyone has an integrated interface in their brains that allows you to change the way buildings look like around you, allows you to attend school in your head, send e-mails, contact someone directly, and this interface also allows the government to record everything you do. Kind of cool, but also kind of creepy or what?

But what I really liked about our heroine Cass was the fact that she didn't whine, she didn't cry at every obstacle (or at the very least she didn't write it down), she tried to make the best of the situation she was in, and most of all, she was a realistic girl with realistic expectations of the world she had stumbled into. Plus, it didn't hurt that there was no instant love-triangle thingy going on. Sure, there were a few hints about a possible romance or two, but nothing further than "this guy is kind of cute". Also, I adored the fact that she really struggled in learning the new language (just like Amber did...).

On to the next one!

19 people found this helpful

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Laura in Oregon

Read all 3, plus a bit, books, they are worth it.

Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2016

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While I generally steer clear of books that just stop, to be continued in the next book, I think this series is split into 3, and a bit, books because of the length of the story. There weren't really any places to wrap up things into a complete story in each volume. Kinda like the Lord of the Rings, in that you really can't read any of them as stand alone books, they are just 3 parts of a whole.
It's long but truly worth it.

As for the story, I loved it. I hadn't read anything like it and I am a Sci/Fi Fantasy nut, so that's saying a lot!
Excellent world building and character involvement.
While the characters are young they don't come across as teens or young people. Cass is very well rounded and while just graduating from high school is quite mature, and yet still not an adult in all things. Yeah there are times she can be a bit moody or whining, she recognizes it and keeps going on with life, putting that part aside afterwards. No one going through what she goes through wouldn't be unhappy and sometimes whiny.
I felt a lot of empathy with her, as I'd have dealt with a lot of what she now has to deal with in similar ways. I'm over 50, so that says something for her maturity.
Other reviews will go into the book and the characters etc in more depth, I just wanted to say that I loved the series, loved that the author wrapped it up and in the Gratuitous Epilogue pulled it all together and let us know how the rest of their lives would likely continue.
Thank you Andrea for writing this.
There are a few typos, and sometimes the wording is odd, or seems to leave out a word here or there, but they were rare and didn't bother me too much. Sometimes I think it was just a language thing between the authors home language and the Aussie variations in the english language. It didn't affect my enjoyment at all.

24 people found this helpful

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Karen Siddall

Good story with a fun narrator

Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2018

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When Cassandra Devlin left school on her final day of classes she thought she was headed home to prepare for a night of partying with her fellow graduates. But somewhere along the way she inadvertently traveled through a gateway away from Earth and onto another planet.
Alone, lost, and without resources other than what she had in her school backpack, she located a waterway and followed it downstream in hopes of finding civilization. Instead she came to a strange, deserted community constructed of blocky, white stone buildings.
Surviving there a month, she is discovered and rescued by a pair of young, black-clad soldiers (Setari) and taken to their home base, KOTIS, on the island-city of Konna, on the planet Tare. There she receives medical attention and is implanted with a device that helps her understand and learn the Taren’s language.
She is what they call a “STRAY,” and she’s not the first one that’s been found. There have been others.
Throughout the story, Cassandra expresses her desire to return home, but as she tries to figure out how to accomplish this, she is developing relationships with her rescuers and becoming embroiled and invested in their fight to save their world from destruction by the horrible creatures, the Ionoth, coming through the ENA. Her Setari friends believe that should she breach the ENA again to return to Earth she may draw the attention of the Ionoth and cause them to attack Earth just like Tare.
Told in first-person in the form of Cassandra’s diary, author Andrea K. Höst has developed an imaginative and compelling storyline in an interesting world. Familiar yet very different, the planets of Muina and Tare, and the concept of the ENA remain mysterious to the reader even at the completion of this first book in the Touchstone series. (The ENA is defined as “a dimension connected to the thoughts, memories, dreams, and imaginations of living beings,” however, it is a very real and scary place in the novel, filled with shadowy locations and dangerous creatures.
There are also a multitude of characters introduced (so many that there is a list of characters included at the end of the book.) While I enjoyed Stray, it took some effort to keep reading; the story develops slowly. Many of the characters are only superficially sketched out right now but I’m guessing some will become more substantial as the series progresses. I will definitely be going for the next book in the series, “Lab Rat One,” soon.

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

ChrisDB

The protagonist makes this series

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 20, 2014

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The books basically follow the main character after she is brought unexpectedly into a new and unknown world. She doesn't speak the language, she doesn't understand the society she's landed in, and she has to struggle to find her place and integrate with her new world. In addition, in a world full of people with psychic abilities, her own ability is a bit of an oddity, which brings sometimes unwelcome intense interest from the local authorities.

I really enjoyed these books. I liked the main character, and that's what carried the series for me. The books are very much about that character - don't expect the plot to advance quickly or to have non-stop nail-biting action. That being the case, you probably should read the sample and decide if you like the main character or not before buying.

One thing which I was unsure about when starting these books was the choice of a diary format. I've always struggled with books in this format, from Dracula onwards, because a diary entry is removed in time from the events it describes. That additional barrier between the reader and events often, I think, makes it hard to engage with the story. On the other hand, it does give more access to the inner thoughts and feelings of the main character / diary writer. As the main character was what sold these books to me, I think that this is a rare case where a fictional diary actually works.

5 people found this helpful

Emily Newman

My Favourite Book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 29, 2020

Verified Purchase

I can't tell how many times I've read and re-read this book.
And even now I'm struggling how best to describe it for someone who hasn't read it.
But for me, it has everything you could want.
Fantastic world building.
Engaging Plot.
A main character I feel like I KNOW.
Cass is my best friend in this book - I feel every step she takes and how hard her struggles are. I love the little personal touches inside, and I can feel how she feels in those all too important emotional moments.
This book is my comfort food - the world I turn to time and again when I am low, sad and alone, because I know Cass has been through it all and worse, and if she can do it, so can i.
I urge you to give her a try (just don't get frustrated if you can't do the Australian accent all the way through!)

DJW13

Australian teenager suddenly transported into a different world.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 25, 2017

Verified Purchase

A bit of a mixed bag. The story starts very slowly, while Cass is on her own, and even when she is "rescued" by the Setari. Eventually the pace picks up when her enhancing skill is discovered but I became confused with the various "worlds" that were travelled into, which were potentially fully of dangerous creatures (which may not have substance but could kill).

I enjoyed the Ghost ( a virtual cat) who perhaps has a bigger role in later books? As Cass struggles with learning the language in her new world, the author decided that the entries in Cass's diary when she writes down what she has said should be stilted rather than fluent. I can see why, but it is annoying sometimes.

Presumably the book is aimed at the Young Adult market, as Cass is a teenager. Most of the time she acts like one, but from time to time she shows more maturity.

stefnwolf

Slow but OK

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 17, 2018

Verified Purchase

The main plot, a society of Ninja like warriors with special powers fighting monsters coming though rents in the fabric of the universe is confusing and all seems a little contrived to provide a meaning for the books original concept, which seems to be the survival of a castaway.
If set on earth in the middle ages, the main character would be shipwrecked on the other side of the world, unable to return to her own country, and having to learn to get on with the natives who are totally different. Imagine Eskimo shipwrecked in China.
Still, it was an Interesting read and quite enjoyable as long as you can shrug off some of its shortcomings.
I liked the main character, and the first person diary like narrative, but feel that is too limiting develop the world and other players in a series. I am hoping the second book in the series has a little more depth to it than this one.

Stan

good sci-fi

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 1, 2013

Verified Purchase

On starting this freebie - teenage girl walking home from school finds herself in a strange place and, apparently unfazed, decides shes on another planet and goes into survival mode - I thought I'd soon be giving up. But as it progressed I got hooked as it turned into a good, fairly traditional sci-fi.
So what was good? First, and sorry to be nationist, she isn't American but Australian (which explains how she has some bushcraft), shes got normal teenage reactions to many things but is intelligent with it (various references to poetry and philosophy show the Aus are giving a good education), its well written and sets well into an alien environment that resembles our own but differs in many details.
As I said, its quite traditional sci-fi involving wormholes, gates to other 'dimensions' (I never worked out exactly what these were), fighting off monster attacks ( again, I know the monsters existed as threats but how and why wasn't clear; and why were parties sent to kill them when they were known to regenerate and would have to be killed again?).
This is volume 1 and I'm not sure how the story will sustain for another two, but I will buy the next and see.
Overall it's a good try at showing how an intelligent teenager might adapt to an environment where language, ways of living and history are totally new and face physical and well- being threats. Some nice moral issues addressed as well.

2 people found this helpful

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