THE DREAMER

A teen and a band of unlikely allies find adventure in outer space in Cleary’s YA novel, the first in a series.

Ash Bennett’s mid-24th-century life is “nomadic,” with her parents often between jobs. Landing on the Martian moon Phobos for supplies changes everything: Someone kills her parents and takes their bodies away, and Ash, to get answers, reluctantly teams up with an 18-year-old stranger, Edan. He’s been helping twins Isaac and Izzy, who are looking for their own missing parents. The twins are rare “pathers”; Isaac is an empath, while Izzy is telekinetic. They’re like the Mind Squad Agents who helped fight off alien species during a war that saved humanity but not the Earth. MSAs may be the ones abducting pathers, while Edan likely has a bounty on him courtesy of the criminal parents he’s been evading. In any case, he and the twins must leave Phobos; Ash, with piloting skills and her family’s spaceship, makes an ideal new friend. Meanwhile, Ash, who’s been having intense dreams of a blue-skinned figure, discovers that she has newfound abilities not unlike a pather’s. The first installment of Cleary’s series is jam-packed with impressive worldbuilding—characters visit or hail from various moons in the solar system, and three distinct nonhuman races (all tied to the war) make appearances. The characters have complicated relationships and backstories; the teens and parents have secrets among them, and Ash and Edan’s mutual attraction comes with all sorts of obstacles (“I’d rather be alone,” Ash claims). The teens are capable and work together to great effect, especially when danger is involved. But despite the superbly developed cast, this interstellar narrative barely unfolds. Ash and the others dig up copious mysteries (like one concerning an enigmatic “chosen one”), but most are left unresolved; even Isaac’s gift for reading minds usually leads only to more questions. Answers surely await the intrepid teens (and readers) in the sequels.

Indelible characters fuel this deliberately paced but wholly engaging SF story.