RIGGED

In Horn’s middle-grade SF novel, when a 13-year-old girl wins a place at the elite StarNet Academy, she knows that proving herself will be an uphill battle.

On the planet of Adonell, the process of selecting a leader comes down to the decision of a powerful orb named a Blast Ball. Anyone can be chosen, and when 13-year-old Kaylah gets the job, she knows she’s ready. Far across the solar system, Tori isn’t quite so confident that she’s qualified to be a StarNet cadet. She was accepted off a waitlist, and her overly critical father dismisses her dreams of one day becoming a captain. Once at school, many of Tori’s worst fears are realized when she immediately makes an enemy—an overconfident boy named Jamison—and is then forced to room with Celia Ricco, an achievement-obsessed girl from a powerful family who seems doubtful of Tori’s ability to succeed in the program (“The first impression did not go as planned”). As she settles in, Tori befriends a budding diplomat named Anna, and her rivalry with Jamison turns out to bring out the best in each of them. Soon after passing a simulation test, Tori and her friends are sent on their first field mission. What’s supposed to be a routine trip soon turns into anything but when a ship is destroyed. The culprits seem to be from Adonell, and those in charge are all too willing to blame the planet’s 13-year-old leader. Tori is brought onto the planet to meet with Kaylah, and she’s disappointed to learn that the girl seems just as unpleasant and irresponsible as they had assumed. Back on the ship, Tori faints when their ship comes under fire. Desperate to prove herself, Tori disobeys orders by sneaking back onto Adonell. She and Anna are promptly captured, but not before discovering something that has the power to overturn Adonell’s leadership altogether. Tori has the chance to stop a war from starting, but only if she’s willing to risk it all.

Horn’s first installment in the StarNet series is a fast-paced SF adventure set in a compellingly constructed universe. Kaylah’s conviction that she deserves to lead her people provides a strong opening hook, and Tori’s comparative lack of confidence allows for intriguing comparisons to be drawn between the two girls. At the heart of the novel is a story about trying to prove yourself when the odds aren’t stacked in your favor—the StarNet Academy reads very much like an elite American college, and Tori’s sense of isolation there is humanizing and establishes a motive for many of her more impulsive decisions (she’s driven by her ambition and is desperate to show that she deserves the opportunities she’s been given). While Horn does an admirable job with narrative pacing, telling Tori’s story over a longer time frame would allow for more nuance to emerge, both in Tori’s own character and in her relationships with others. Doing so would also increase the stakes of the impending war and allow time for Tori’s actions and discoveries to seem like the results of careful planning rather than impulse and chance. Still, Tori has the makings of a compelling protagonist—she just needs the chance to spread her wings.

A promising, imaginative debut with great potential for further development.