Masha du Toit
Ray and the Cat Thing
Reinette needs a break. Calling off the wedding was the right thing to do, but now the rest of her life stretches before her, safe, predictable, empty and lonely. Unless she plans to be stuck in her mother's guest room forever, Reinette has to find a job and a new place to live.
Instead, usually responsible Reinette signs up for a photography camp on a whim. Being out in the wilds, taking beautiful photographs, meeting new people…maybe this is what she’s been yearning for.
Reinette doesn't realise that even the most careful young woman can be tempted away from the safety of the campfire. Deep in the forest a long-forgotten gate waits for her to unlock it, and discover the secrets beyond. Reinette will need all her reserves of courage and kindness to help the new, and rather magical, friends she's about to make..
We Broke the Moon
We Broke the Moon is Hope Punk Science Fiction, a genre that focuses on friendship, love, and a hopeful, can-do approach to the challenges the characters face. It features a virtual reality game on a spaceship in deep space, teenage hackers, talking cats, and a rogue artificial intelligence.
The "Linked Worlds" Series
Linked Worlds follows the adventures of Elke Veraart, a trainer of cybernetic dogs, who is trying to live down her past as an eco-terrorist in South Africa. The second book and third books in the series, The Real and The Strange were both shortlisted for the Ilube Nommo Award for best speculative novel by an African. The series is complete. Each book is a separate, self-contained story, but they are best read in sequence.
The Babylon Eye
Book 1 "Linked Worlds"
A cyber-dog, lost in the void between worlds. The woman who must find the dog to win back her freedom. A spy's betrayal that could kill them both.
Meisje is no ordinary dog. She's a gardag, a cybernetically enhanced living weapon. She's also lost, hungry, and lonely. Elke Veraart is on Meisje's trail. If she can find the dog she'll win back her own freedom. If she fails she'll be sent back to prison.
As she closes in on the gardag, Elke finds her admiration for Meisje growing. And Meisje, weak with hunger, begins to wonder if she could trust the woman who is hunting her. Then Elke discovers that there are other hunters searching for the gardag and that her orders have changed. She no longer has to find Meisje. She has to kill her.
Buy The Babylon Eye
The Real
Book 2 "Linked Worlds"
Shortlisted for the 2018 Ilube Nommo Award:
Best Speculative Novel by an African
The sequel to "The Babylon Eye" SciFi cyber-dogs, eco-terrorists and spies in alternate world South Afr
"Don't trust anyone." The message arrives just as Elke and her cyber-dog Meisje are settling in, content with their new life of patrolling the corridors of The Babylon Eye. It's a warning: Elke is being framed for a crime that bears the death penalty.
Escaping arrest is the least of her troubles. Elke's plans for her own safety are soon derailed by the needs of a lost child and a pack of rogue cyber-dogs.To clear her name and regain her home, Elke must find the sender of the message, the murderer and spy who has betrayed her once before. Her enemy has become her only hope.
Buy The Real
The Strange
Book 3 "Linked Worlds"
Shortlisted for the 2019 Ilube Nommo Award:
Best Speculative Novel by an African
The sequel to "The Real" SciFi Cyber-dogs, inter-world slavery, and genetic warfare in alternate-world South Africa.
Constable Elke Veraart and her cyber-dog Meisje are peace keepers, patrolling the Babylon Eye. It’s a good job, but there must be more to life than chasing smugglers and settling domestic disputes!
Then three children ask Elke to find their mother, who’s been missing for more than a year. The search attracts the wrong kind of attention. Elke and her young friends are in desperate danger.
Unable to resist the powers that have been unleashed against her, Elke is swept out of the Babylon Eye and into another world. While she struggles to regain her freedom, the children are unprotected. They must face, all alone, a new danger that stalks the corridors of the Babylon Eye.
Buy The Strange
The "Crooked World" Series
The Crooked World series, Crooks & Straights and its sequel Wolf Logic were inspired by this question: What would South Africa be like if magic was real and magical creatures lived among us? How would apartheid have worked? What about xenophobia?
This is a world where magical creatures are persecuted by those who fear their powers. South Africa is one of the few places where they might hope to be safe and so there is an influx of illegal magical immigrants from all over the world: trolls, swan-women and other, stranger creatures. Some are hunted down by Special Branch, the police division that specialises in the illegal use of magic. Others fight against all attempts to control them and form resistance groups; the most famous of these is the ruthless magical terrorists, the Belle Gente.
This is a complete series.
Crooks and Straights
Book 1 "Crooked World"
Gia's brother Nico is different from other boys. And being different can be dangerous in Gia's world.
Cape Town is no longer the haven for magical refugees that it once was. The Purists want to get rid of all magic and the newspapers are full of dreadful stories about the Belle Gente, the magical terrorists.
None of this concerns Gia, until the Special Branch— police who investigate the illegal use of magic— come knocking at her door, looking for Nico. When Gia turns to her parents for help, she finds only more secrets. Then she realises that she was the one who put her brother in danger.
Buy Crooks & Straights
Wolf Logic
Book 2 "Crooked World"
Never trust a werewolf.
That's Gia's first lesson as she enters the wolf cages at Special Branch, the police force that deal with the illegal use of magic. But working with the tracker-werewolves is not the greatest danger she faces: Gia is a spy. She risks torture and death if her secret is discovered.
Then Gia receives shocking news. Her little brother has disappeared, taken out of his bed, in the middle of the night. She doesn't want to believe that Special Branch is responsible, but who did take Nico? Could it be the magical terrorists, the Belle Gente? Or is there another, even stranger explanation?
The Sisters Series
The Story Trap
Book 1 "The Sisters"
One girl’s death might save the ocean. But can her sisters let her die?
Rebecca never expected to meet a witch, least of all in a second-hand bookshop in Mowbray.
Buy The Story Trap
The Broken Path
Book 2 "The Sisters"
What if a story came to life? If the characters stepped off the page and into our world?
The sequel to "The Story Trap."
Cape Town in winter is a harsh place to be homeless. Rebecca has to keep her people safe until she finds a way to get them back into their story. She turns to her sisters for help but finds that they have secrets of their own. And Rebecca's gun-packing neighbour is getting far too interested in her strange visitors.
Buy The Broken Path
Strange Neighbours
Short Story Collection
Strange Neighbours is a collection of ten illustrated fantasy short stories set in Cape Town, South Africa.
Meet a hitch hiking troll with a taste for pepper-spray and a homeless witch with a trolley full of secrets. Discover a book hoarding mermaid and a fridge full of frogs. And learn how to greet a witch politely, of course.
Get "Strange Neighbours" on Amazon
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