Useless and the Mandala Trap
Book 1Ewen "Useless" Euston has the worst nickname in his neighbourhood. When a sprained ankle keeps him home from a mysterious rally at the park, he watches helplessly as every child in the district…
Read More →A Useless Series, Book 2: Useless and the Carnival of Terror by Margaret Pearce
Everyday life can turn extraordinary in an instant.
For Ewen "Useless" Euston, a swirling mandala on the oval, a mysterious carnival, or even a second-hand computer game can open gateways to worlds where children vanish, villages crumble, and alien threats rise.
Alongside loyal friends and faithful dogs, Useless must outwit kidnappers, overlords, clones, and even giant ants if he wants to bring everyone home.
Packed with humour, heart, and nail-biting twists, A Useless Series delivers fast-paced sci-fi adventures where ordinary kids take on impossible odds--and sometimes, saving the world is the only way to prove you're not useless after all.
The carnival gates swing open, but no one leaves.
When Ewen "Useless" Euston and his best friend Perry sneak into the grand opening of The New Carnival, they expect a few free rides and maybe some trouble for sneaking in. What they don't expect is to find every adult slumped unconscious and every child vanishing into thin air.
Then their friend Will wins a strange token in a rigged arcade game. One canoe ride later, the boys are transported to an alien planet where the sun never sets, and nothing is what it seems.
Drugged food. Grinning surveillance heads. Monstrous hounds. And a gang of red-crested criminals who see children as cargo.
Useless and his friends must outwit intergalactic kidnappers, befriend terrifying alien creatures, and find a way home before time runs out, or they'll be lost forever.
Packed with fast-paced action, dry humour, and nail-biting escapes, Useless and the Carnival of Terror is the second adventure in A Useless Series, perfect for readers 10+ who love brave underdogs, bizarre mysteries, and impossible odds.
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📖 Read the first chapter!
Chapter 1
It was Saturday morning, and the grand opening of the renovated amusement park. It had been renamed The New Carnival.
Practically everybody in the district was there except my family and Perry's Mum and his five brothers. Perry's mother had snapped she didn't have the money for that sort of foolishness, and my parents weren't interested anyway.
After the speeches, everyone clapped, crowded around the ticket office and then started pushing through the turnstiles
It was thirty dollars to get in and that was for kids. Adults were fifty dollars each, and family tickets were even more. This was why Perry and I were still outside.
"They reckon there's a new ghost train and a new haunted castle," Perry said wistfully.
"And everything is automated and voice activated and there are not supposed to be any operators," I reported.
We hung around a bit longer. No one offered us any free tickets.
"Come on Useless," Perry grumbled. "We'll get in the back way."
"Place is like Fort Knox," I scoffed. My name happens to be Ewen Euston, but I mainly get Useless. "What back way?"
"They dammed the creek to make the lake, right."
"So?"
"They put in a pipe for the runoff under their high wall across to the swamp."
"So?"
"There are sure to be inspection hatches down to the pipe from inside."
"Worth a try," I agreed. We ran around the high wall of the carnival grounds to the swamp. "If there are no operators, there'll be no one to notice us getting in."
"Cool!" Perry agreed.
A few minutes pounding shifted the bars from the big pipe opening from the crumbly cement.
There was only a dribble of water along the bottom of the pipe. We walked through under the high wall.
"A special private entrance just for us," Perry gloated.
We climbed the iron rungs up to a grating and came up into a lane between one of the rides.
So this is how we joined the carnival through the back entrance, and saved everyone – not that we got any thanks for it.
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