In All but Blood

As a new Eagle Scout, 16-year-old Tanner Gernhardt longs for a last chance to experience the lush forests, scenic mountains, and sparkling streams of New Honua, an exoplanet 94 light-years from Earth that is soon to be opened for mass settlement.Problem is, Tanner and everyone else are forbidden from leaving Alpha Colony, owing to the fearsome predators that stalk the forests: the dinowolves, one of which supposedly killed Tanner's elder brother, Gus, seven years earlier.But Gus's remains were never found, so Tanner hatches a plan to escape Alpha and search for them-while getting in some excellent scouting!However, Tanner may end up totally unprepared for whatever he is fated to find in the alien wilderness...Or rather, for whatever is fated to find him.In All but Blood is a future-set science fiction action-adventure that tips its hat to Golden Era juvenile sci-fi literature, i.e., non-romance young adult sci-fi for teenboys (sometimes called "Guy Reads"), while transcending the period demographic and scope of that ever-profitable backlist genre. It will appeal to sci-fi aficionados tween and older, not least those among the one million boys and girls in organized scouting worldwide, plus the millions more adults who are proud to have been scouts.Of interest to prospective readers: Clean dialogue, themes, and situations; morally straight characters; just a titch of teen romance; one heterosexual kiss; no supernatural, horror, or psychodrama elements; Grounded in known and speculative science and technology. Outward-looking, humor free of one-liners and quips, fast-paced, slightly dangerous.