NEW SANCTUARY

In this sequel to The Last Seed Keeper (2025), scrappy young friends work to repair a damaged Earth while adults engage in power struggles.

Durie, Skyler, and Ivy just want to live in a world that’s safe and healthy, but they keep having to save themselves and each other from the machinations of powerful adults with conflicting priorities: Eden Valentina, CEO of XyleCorp; scientist Katrina Blackwell, who’s opening the titular New Sanctuary on Earth; and Beatrix, head of the Miner’s Guild and currently “the world’s biggest threat.” The youngsters team up, get separated, and find each other again, all while searching for Skyler’s and Ivy’s fathers and learning more about the history of their world—and their own surprising roles in it. This action-packed middle entry in the trilogy shifts perspectives frequently and contains several stunning revelations. The story is sometimes scrambled, with frequent location changes taking readers from the sky to the Piles to the mines to the salt farms. The smart, brave kids—“small in stature but enormous in courage and cunning”—make for good heroes. Readers should definitely be familiar with the first book; its careful worldbuilding is a necessary foundation that isn’t recapped here.

A jumbled but fast-paced middle book, with appealing leads and some major surprises.