THUNDER

In search of her father, Selah takes a treacherous journey through the hardscrabble landscape of post-nuclear disaster.

Since the Time of Sorrows, the remaining population has returned to subsistence living, as most food sources are contaminated and the infrastructure has crumbled. Also since that time, Landers, inscrutable figures marked by a wing tattoo, periodically wash up on shore, babbling of a “final Kingdom,” to be hunted for bounty by the remnants of humanity. On her 18th birthday, shortly after finding a Lander, the Lander mark appears on Selah’s chest, indicating that she’s a half-breed. No longer safe, she leaves her Borough seeking her father and the protected fortress of the Mountain. She falls into fitful love with her gorgeous Lander companion, Bodhi, who teaches her about her new telepathic powers. Meanwhile, technology has advanced tenfold at the Mountain. Two scientists battle for dominion, while one is experimenting on Landers, using their DNA to find immortality. There are as many subplots to this novel as hydrogen bonds on a double helix, and the story is snarled by its own twists and clunky with contradictions. The romance is eye-rolling. The series’ only hope is that the plot pursues its one fresh idea: What exactly are the Landers?

A sci-fi mishmash set in a dystopian world where a kind of human/angel hybrid will probably save mankind.