The intricately woven narrative threads come together in a suspenseful denouement sure to leave readers hoping for another...
Nearly 400 years after the events in The Forgetting (2016), Canaan, long abandoned, its whereabouts lost, has devolved into an evil myth, while New Canaan, the rigid, class-stratified community that’s replaced it, faces growing threats, internal and external.
New Canaan’s rulers, the Knowing, live underground and are served by Outsiders, impoverished surface dwellers. The Knowing have perfect memory; to recall is to re-experience events as if for the first time. For those like black-haired, brown-skinned Samara who are unable to “cache,” or repress traumatic memories, suicide is common. Secretly helping Outsiders, Samara may have unintentionally endangered them. Tortured by horrific memories, she escapes to find Canaan’s ruins and to Forget. There, she runs into Beckett and Jill, two Americans from Earth’s spaceship Centauri III, its mission to learn the fate of predecessor missions. Beckett, multiracial (Chinese/Latinx) son of two anthropologists, is intrigued by Samara, who talks them into returning to New Canaan with her. His growing chemistry with Samara angers Jill, the bright, blonde, white daughter of an archaeologist. Uneasy with Jill’s ambition and expectations, Beckett’s alarmed by his father’s warning that Centauri III has a secret agenda, one that Jill may share. New Canaan, too, has surprises in store, including a burgeoning rebellion. Diverse, well-drawn characters abound, but in the riveting power struggles that ensue, women are dominant players, ruthless ideologues willing to sacrifice all that interferes with the goal.
The intricately woven narrative threads come together in a suspenseful denouement sure to leave readers hoping for another installment. (Science fiction. 13-16)Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-94524-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
At her father’s funeral during a sweltering Utah summer in the not-so-distant future, Kelsa Phillips rages against her mother, the funeral and her father’s dying in a hospice. So when she meets a shape-shifter named Raven, she (rashly) accompanies him on a road trip through Canada to release knots in the magical veins of energy under the earth to save the world from eco-disaster. But this is a different United States from ours: The authorities have put in place a grid system of movement control in which the only people who can move from state to state are those with valid identification cards. The pair joust with each other, neither trusting the other with vital information even as disaster looms. Plot drives this book from the start to the rousing climax and surprise resolution. Humor will engage readers’ interest while the ever-increasing suspense will keep it. The worldbuilding is scant; it’s a pity Bell didn’t incorporate more detail about the future United States to make it more convincing. Enough threads are left dangling at the end to ensure a sequel (Traitor’s Boy, scheduled for spring 2012), so perhaps it will be fleshed out there. (Fantasy. 13-16)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-19620-6
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2010
The Salt trilogy closes with a third generation of children fighting petty but dangerous evils. Hana, a girl from the city's wretched Bawdhouse Burrow, is orphaned when her mother is burned as a witch. Ben grows up far from the city, raised by his grandparents Pearl and Hari in the idyllic village from Gool (2010). When Hana flees the city, she brings with her a terrifying message for those outside its darkness: The Limping Man is coming. He has the terrible power to make people love him even as he torments them, and he plans to wipe out all who stand against him. Since most of the outsiders—Ben's family, the forest Dwellers and "the people without a name"—have mental powers, the Limping Man intends to massacre them. Ben and Hana, along with their allies, must find the Limping Man's secret in order to save their own lives and homes. Ben and Hana’s victories, like those of their parents and grandparents, are local. Even if they do defeat the Limping Man, they cannot vanquish evil from the world; life in the burrows will likely continue to be nasty, brutish and short. The heroes' personalities are defined by their harsh environments, but they reach beyond those limitations. Fantasy heroes who can save only themselves and their loved ones are a welcome change from the usual. (Fantasy. 13-15)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-55469-216-3
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2011
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