December 8, 2014
Generations ago, Phaet Theta’s ancestors fled an environmentally damaged Earth for the Moon; now, Lunar colonists live carefully regulated lives under the governance of a strict, anonymous Committee and authoritarian Militia. When Phaet’s journalist mother is forcibly quarantined (ostensibly for medical reasons, though dark purposes are clearly afoot), the 15-year-old and her siblings face living in the filthy, dangerous conditions of Shelter, where Lunar residents without resources are exiled. To keep her family safe, Phaet gives up her bioengineering dreams and her work in the Moon’s greenhouses with her best (and be-smitten) friend Umbriel and becomes the youngest volunteer to join the Militia. Fortunately, she’s smart, motivated, and—once she starts working out with equally driven cadet Wes Kappa—physically fit. In other words, well-equipped to navigate the now-familiar path of a dystopian heroine, gathering allies and identifying powerful enemies. Newcomer Bao’s off-world setting and worldbuilding details are intriguing, but readers may struggle with Phaet’s curiously emotionless affect, as well as some of the more formulaic elements at play in this series opener. Ages 12–up. Agent: Simon Lipskar, Writers House.
