Rhiannon Lassiter

The Hex trilogy

This section of the website is devoted to the Hex trilogy, three science-fiction novels for teenagers first published by Macmillan at the end of the 20th century. The story begins with Hex, continues with Shadows and concludes in Ghosts.

The trilogy follows the adventures of a group of 'mutants': humans who carry the illegal Hex gene which allows them to mentally interface with computers. The reluctant leader of the group is a teenage girl named Raven whose abilities are far beyond the worst nightmares of the corrupt and repressive government.

Hex was Rhiannon's first novel and was accepted and published while she was still at university, reading English Literature at Oxford. The sequels were also written in Oxford over the next couple of years.

Hex received rave reviews when first published and has since been translated into over ten foreign languages and performed as a play in Vienna, Austria.

Hex

It was a brilliant scientific breakthrough.
A gene that mutates the mind; that gives a human brain access to all computer systems.

It is a deadly curse.
It creates people of incalculable power – who must be destroyed before they can grow up.

The Hex Trilogy began in 1998 with the publication of Hex, the story of Raven, a computer hacker with an illegal mutant ability to interface mentally with computer technology. Set in a world of the future where Hexes can be legally exterminated by the repressive government of the EF, the story takes place in the urban wastelands of London where Raven and her brother Wraith seeks allies in a quest that will take them into the greatest danger of their lives.

Hex: Shadows

Raven. Ali. Avalon. Revenge.
Four girls with superhuman minds, all supposed to die.

The experiment is over – the Hex gene eradicated.
But they survived and now they want revenge.
The gene lives on…

Shadows continues the story begun in Hex. Still on the run from the EF, the gang has collected a disparate group of people. Raven, cyber-sorceress and hacker; Wraith, her reformed ganger brother; the streetrat Kez; Ali, the rich kid from the heights; Luciel, a victim of experimentation and Revenge; the shattered remains of a Hex child.

Wraith is determined to bind the group into a real organisation and protest against the sadistic practices of the EF, the Seccies and the CPS. But not all the group are agreed on the path to take – and somewhere in the Shadows lurks Raven's nemesis: the evil Dr Kalden.

Hex: Ghosts

“Hex: Ghosts follows on from the sequel Hex: Shadows and completes the trilogy with style, delivering a satisfying conclusion to a substantial tale with almost as much verve as was evident in the original.” – John McLay, 2000

Hex: Ghosts is the conclusion of the Hex trilogy. Raven, Wraith and the rest of the characters from Hex are now accomplished freedom fighters. Together with the anti-EF group Anglecynn, run by Alaric and Geraint, they have staked out areas of the urban wastelands of London as theirs. But things are coming to a head in the councils of the European Federation, a darkness is invading the network, and on the other side of the world two children are about to begin a dangerous journey to bring the Hexes the best kept secret of the CPS: the Freedom Files.

Awards

• Hex was longlisted for the Guardian prize.

Click here for more information about Rhiannon's awards

International editions

Click here to read about Rhiannon's books published in other countries

The Hex Play