Home – J. E. Hopkins

Jim Hopkins, author of the Transition fantasy-thriller series, lives and writes in a small town near Cincinnati, OH.
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TRANSITION MAGIC
All children can do magic for one month during puberty, but the magic must be unique and sincere, or the child dies.
Few kids take the risk.
Most all who do, die.
It’s August, 2015. The Department of Transition Security has received a report that an adolescent girl in Ticonderoga, New York has entered a corrupted form of Transition — her irises are ebony with blood-red flecks rather than Transition’s lavender. DTS agent John Benoit flies to Ticonderoga, confirms the child’s unprecedented condition, and is horrified when the healthy young girl dies on the last day of her Transition. Reeling, Benoit learns of a nearby boy with the same symptoms. His alarm spikes when he discovers that the boy has used magic that isn’t unique. He watches the boy die on the thirtieth day of Transition. Reports of the same condition and devastating outcome begin to filter into the DTS from around the world.
John and his partner, Stony Hill—a fiery, pierced, purple-haired agent half his age—lead an emergency response team to eliminate the T-plague. The crisis deepens when they’re alerted to a neo-nazi terrorist who intends to use his son’s twisted Transition to destroy a US city.
Woven into The Ebony Finches are the stories of two children in Transition:
Karina Veselý, living in devastated post-World War Two Czechoslovakia; and
Still Water, son of a Apsaalooka Shaman, whose tribe is under pressure from encroaching whites.
THE SAFFRON FALCON (TRANSITION, BOOK 2)
The year is 2015. An archeologist working for the US Department of Transition Security unearths a second-century codex that eliminates Transition’s uniqueness requirement. Any child using the ancient verse would have unlimited power. The artifact is stolen, the theft concealed by a brutal bombing. John and his partner, Stony Hill—a fierce, pierced, purple-haired agent half his age–plunge into the case.
Also ensnared in the ancient book’s web is the son of a Kalash tribal elder, in Transition and abandoned in Islamabad, who stumbles onto the secret of the codex. He flees the ISI, seeking to return to his mountain home. John and Stony’s investigation leads them from the shattered quiet of Georgetown streets to the rugged foothills of the Himalayas, where evil and magic collide, the future of civilization at stake.
The Saffron Falcon also tells the stories of three children in Transition:
Marie, the daughter of a Parisian baker during the height of the Black Death;
Dylan, a loving child who carries within him a devouring anger; and
Lún, a boy of the Han dynasty who confronts castration and magic to protect his family.
THE SCARLET CRANE (TRANSITION, BOOK 1)
Rumors have surfaced of a rogue Chinese program that circumvents Transition’s deadly restrictions. The year is 2014 and the Chinese are seeking to exploit magic for geopolitical domination, using kidnapped children as disposable pawns. An agent for the US Department of Transition Security investigating the reports has been found murdered in his Hanoi hotel room. Dr. John Benoit is ordered to take any action necessary to protect the US from magical threats. John and Stony Hill, his pierced and scarlet-haired young partner, race to pick up the bloody trail, following it to Bangkok, Zurich, Shenyang, and ultimately to a confrontation on the snow-swept plains of North Korea.
Against this global pursuit, the seductive terror of Transition is brought to vivid life by glimpses into the lives of five children:
Thanna, sold to the Chinese, wants to use magic to free Crane’s children.
Anya believes Transition can save her from the winter streets of Moscow.
Isa confronts Transition as part of an ancient African puberty ritual.
Sarah, terrified of magic, feels compelled to use it to stop her friend’s sexual abuse.
Jonah is convinced he’s found a unique way to cure his sister’s cancer.