Second Chance: The Chronicles of Freylar

by Liam Young, Mr Liam W H Young, Virtual Voice (Narrator)

Callum is a member of the Shadow class, the lowest rank in human society. His kin lead desperate lives; they survive on the scraps left by an over-indulgent post-apocalyptic humanity, clinging to the remains of a broken metropolis. Their increasing numbers – a result of ineffective government policies failing to address the issue – prompts those in power to instigate an unethical process of forced relocation known as the Rout, ignored by an indifferent society looking to bury its problems. Abandoned by his parents to endure a childhood of children’s homes, followed by teen life surviving on the streets, Callum develops a staunch determination to endure the horrors life throws at him. He is a survivor, able to think fast on his feet, yet his principles hasten his near death during a chance encounter with an enigmatic alien entity. Callum is given a choice; take his chances with his now ruined body, or gamble on a new life. Awakened within the comatose body of a non-human female and faced with a distraught father, Callum is reborn as Rayna, in an entirely new world, presenting the opportunity to start over. Rayna’s new world – Freylar – has a darker undercurrent, and it falls to The Blades – a militant order – to defend the Freylarkai from those horrors born of the shadow. Rayna is inducted into The Blades as she tries to navigate through her strange environment and master new and wonderful abilities, yet she finds herself fighting two battles; one against the repressed memories of her miserable past, and the other a war versus fresh nightmares seeking to claim dominance over her new world.

Audible Audio

Published March 26, 2025

About the author

Liam Young is Fiction and Entertainment Coordinator of Design Studio at SCI-Arc, Los Angeles. An Australian-born architect, he is the founder of the think tank Tomorrows Thoughts Today, a group whose work explores the possibilities of fantastic, speculative and imaginary urbanisms. He co-runs Unknown Fields Division, a nomadic research studio that travels on expeditions to the ends of the earth, documenting emerging trends and uncovering the weak signals of possible futures. He has been featured in the mainstream and architectural media, including the BBC, NBC, Wired, Guardian, Time Magazine, and Dazed and Confused. His work has been acquired for the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum. He has taught at the Architectural Association in London and Princeton University. He now runs an M.A. in Fiction and Entertainment at SCI-Arc.