Mouse and Snake Series

What happens after life as we know it ends? Life goes on, altered beyond what we could have imagined. In a world where global warming has raised the seas two hundred and fifty feet life is very different but some things remain the same: friendship, family, love, hope and the inevitability of greed overshadowing joy. Meyari McFarland presents five exciting tales in the Mouse and Snake cyberpunk universe, now available in one collected edition.

Ruby's world, the artificial jungle suspended from a web of synthetic cables, threatened to collapse around her. A larger than normal storm had driven a drifting ship towards the support stanchions that held up the web. She swam with War Tooth, the military outcast cyborg orca of the local pod, to secure it and save everyone she knew. But securing the ship was only the beginning of Ruby's fight for survival. The seas and all the creatures living in it was a bigger threat to her survival than any wayward ship. The Web is an exciting cyberpunk struggle to survive in a world that's surrendered to global warming and rising seas that is sure to excite.

Noa's life revolved around scavenging for valuables left behind when global warming melted the ice caps and flooded Seattle. Her little nest in the Web was all she had other than her flipper and the precious cybernetic mods her Ma had gotten her. It was a hard life but all that Noa knew. One day, a month or so after a drift-ship nearly ran into the Web's support struts, Noa explored somewhere new. What she found threatened to either end her life or transform it forever. Unfortunately, the only person she could call on for help was War Tooth, military outcast cyborg orca from the local pod. Without his assistance Noa's one chance at a better life might drift away before she had a chance to catch it. Scavenger is an exciting cyberpunk story of survival, hope and the bonds that can form at the margins of society.

Bot smasher Nakato dedicated her life to taking the broken tech other people had abandoned and turning it into robots designs that the world had never seen. Only two things drew her from her home high in the Web: her best friend Rafah and commissions for customers she liked. Those two things drew Nakato out of her comfortable rut when a commission for prosthetic arms for the orca War Tooth revealed just how much she had left to learn at the same time that Rafah fell into an abusive relationship that threatened her very life. Mods is a thrilling cyberpunk story set in the Mouse and Snake universe that's sure to excite.

Meyari McFarland returns to the world of Mouse and Snake in a story of a mother's love struggling to protect her child. Banan had never been violent. She left that to Nakato, her daughter Rafah's best friend, and her other friends. But the relentless attacks against Rafah both emotionally and now electronically had her contemplating violence on a grand scale. As Banan ventured into the electronic world of the net, she discovered that the threats to Rafah were far greater than a mere broken heart. If Banan didn't get to the heart of it, she could lose not only her daughter but also her life. Electric time is a dramatic cyberpunk story set in a decaying future where global warming has won and humanity scrapes along in a world falling to pieces around them.

Meyari McFarland returns to the world of Mouse and Snake in a story of a found family and the cycles of life. Ben's terraced garden, cut high into the mountainside where few dared to work, was his pride and joy, source of his family's food. Twenty years of working it had taught him every nook and cranny, leaving few surprises until the cool spring day he found a beaten and abandoned toddler by the blackberry bushes. Child of Spring is a tender cyberpunk story of family, the bonds forged by working the earth together and the inevitability of death even in the far future.

Skye had to get the onions planted. Onions and garlic. It was time, past time, for them to be in the ground. Claudine and Felicia didn’t seem to understand how important it was. If Skye didn’t work, didn’t give grow squash and potatoes and beans and onions, then there was no reason for her to be there. No reason for them to keep her safe. So she had to plant the onions right away no matter what.

Amelia stopped, panting. The mountain loomed ahead, dropped away behind. Cedars had long since been replaced by scrubby wind-twisted spruce. She trusted Jen and Danny but this was huge. So huge. Amelia didn't know if she could leave her parents, her clone-sisters behind to live on this mountain when the sea flooded around them. More importantly, she didn't know if her parents would let her go.

Creating a monster was easy when you were surrounded by them. Kelby's robots weren't monsters until now. But his lovers Braxton and Dawson had played Kelby like a fool until they abandoned him for each other. Now Kelby had to figure out how to go on with his life now that his lovers had torn his heart out. And he had to decide what to do with the monster lurking in his lab.