Book excerpt: The Neptune Project by Polly Holyoke is a brilliantly pacy survival story. Readers who loved The Hunger Games or Gone will be thrilled by it. Land is shrinking. The sea is rising. Time is running out. Nere has always felt at home in the sea. But she never imagined she'd have to leave the land behind forever, until she finds out she's part of the Neptune Conspiracy. She has been adapted to survive underwater. Under the careful watch of the enigmatic Dai, Nere is nominated to lead a group of kids across miles of ocean. Her survival skills will be put to the ultimate test. Guided by their faithful dolphin pod, they face the ocean's deadliest creatures, and close behind the government's savage dive team are determined to capture them, dead or alive . . . PRAISE FOR THE NEPTUNE CONSPIRACY: 'It takes a skillful author to bring readers into an unfamiliar world and make them feel secure. The detail has to be just right, without overpowering the story; the characters have to be grounded in reality, to give us something to identify with; and even the nonhuman creatures have to resonate warmth and personality. Polly Holyoke has done all this and more with her fabulous debut, The Neptune Project.' - reader, GOODREADS