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Teenagers Competing to Travel to Outer Space

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There’s been a weird sort of mini-trend among YA science fiction lately: teenagers competing to travel to outer space. I’ve noticed three that have all published within six months of each other. In each example, a shady organization run by shady people needs to send teenagers to complete a secret mission, or a mission that is not what it seems, in outer space. The only thing is, there are a limited number of spots available – not enough for the number of candidates vying for the jobs. What follows is a fierce – possibly deadly – competition as the teens strive to outfight and outwit each other for the opportunity to attain glory, wealth, and affordable health care for their families. The books focus wholly on the competition; expected sequels will likely focus on the completion of the mission itself. Each book has a different, potentially believable, reason for the need to send teenagers and not grown, trained astronauts.

I’ve read the first two out of the three below and thought both were quite good. They’re packed with action and a ton of fun details about what the future will look like (it’s not great). Despite their similarities in plot, the tone of each is different, as is the narrative voice. Each author has also devised their own set of unique tests to put their competitors through. The casts of characters are diverse and distinct from each other. Still, the competition aspect makes them seem very, very similar. I’m interested to read The Final Six to see how it deviates (or doesn’t) from the other two. To be honest, I love this trope so much I probably wouldn’t get tired of reading a dozen stories featuring it. Then again, I’m also a huge fan of space travel in general and am thrilled to see so many books featuring it hitting the shelves recently.

Synopses are from Goodreads.

Nyxia by Scott Reintgen

Emmett Atwater isn’t just leaving Detroit; he’s leaving Earth. Why the Babel Corporation recruited him is a mystery, but the number of zeroes on their contract has him boarding their lightship and hoping to return to Earth with enough money to take care of his family.

Forever.

Before long, Emmett discovers that he is one of ten recruits, all of whom have troubled pasts and are a long way from home. Now each recruit must earn the right to travel down to the planet of Eden—a planet that Babel has kept hidden—where they will mine a substance called Nyxia that has quietly become the most valuable material in the universe.

But Babel’s ship is full of secrets. And Emmett will face the ultimate choice: win the fortune at any cost, or find a way to fight that won’t forever compromise what it means to be human.

Dare Mighty Things by Heather Kaczynski

The rules are simple: You must be gifted. You must be younger than twenty-five. You must be willing to accept the dangers that you will face if you win.

Seventeen-year-old Cassandra Gupta’s entire life has been leading up to this—the opportunity to travel to space. But to secure a spot on this classified mission, she must first compete against the best and brightest people on the planet. People who are as determined as she to win a place on a journey to the farthest reaches of the universe.

Cassie is ready for the toll that the competition will take; the rigorous mental and physical tests designed to push her to the brink of her endurance. But nothing could have prepared her for the bonds she would form with the very people she hopes to beat. Or that with each passing day it would be more and more difficult to ignore the feeling that the true objective of the mission is being kept from her.

As the days until the launch tick down and the stakes rise higher than ever before, only one thing is clear to Cassie: she’ll never back down . . . even if it costs her everything.

The Final Six by Alexandra Monir

When Leo, an Italian championship swimmer, and Naomi, a science genius from California, are two of the twenty-four teens drafted into the International Space Training Camp, their lives are forever altered. After erratic climate change has made Earth a dangerous place to live, the fate of the population rests on the shoulders of the final six who will be scouting a new planet. Intense training, global scrutiny, and cutthroat opponents are only a few of the hurdles the contestants must endure in this competition.

For Leo, the prospect of traveling to Europa—Jupiter’s moon—to help resettle humankind is just the sense of purpose he’s been yearning for since losing his entire family in the flooding of Rome. Naomi, after learning of a similar space mission that mysteriously failed, suspects the ISTC isn’t being up front with them about what’s at risk.

As the race to the final six advances, the tests get more challenging—even deadly. With pressure mounting, Naomi finds an unexpected friend in Leo, and the two grow closer with each mind-boggling experience they encounter. But it’s only when the finalists become fewer and their destinies grow nearer that the two can fathom the full weight of everything at stake: the world, the stars, and their lives.

 

A Few Cybils Reads – Part I

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The Adjustment by Suzanne Young

The Program, the government’s attempt to end the suicide epidemic among teenagers by forcibly wiping the memories of depressed or suicidal teens, has been exposed and ended. Teens who went through it are being reintegrated into society. One of these returners is Tatum’s boyfriend, Weston. He doesn’t remember her at all, but Tatum is sure that their connection can be rekindled. When she hears about the Adjustment, a system that uses donor memories to help bring back erased memories in Returners, she’s skeptical but optimistic. Of course, because this is a Program novel, nothing about the Adjustment is what it seems.

Suzanne Young knows how to write teens that act and speak like teens. At this point, her series has grown a bit stale for me (this is the fifth book in the series, which consists of three sets of duologies), but readers who love her style of writing and love the conceit behind this series (which has always felt a bit thin to me) will enjoy this installment. Familiar characters from the other duologies make important appearances, which is always fun for series regulars. I appreciated the direction Young ultimately took Tatum and West’s relationship, and a twist ending will spur readers to grab the next volume in their story as soon as possible.

 

Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust

I love a good fairy tale retelling, and this is a really good one. It’s a take on Snow White that divides its time equally between Lynet, the Snow White character, and Mina, the stepmother character. Lynet is the girl made of snow – she was crafted by a magician from snow and the magician’s blood in the dead queen’s image at the behest of the king. Mina is the girl made of glass – she was ill as a child and her father, the same magician who created Lynet years later, crafted her a glass heart to save her life. When Mina marries Lynet’s father, the two (woman and girl) become close. But the machinations of the men in their lives – the king and the magician – eventually pit them against each other.

This is an explicitly feminist reimagining of the classic story, with the men in power doing their best – both actively and passively – to prevent girls and women from realizing and acting upon their own power, even from forming deep and lasting friendships with other women. Both Mina and Lynet are told from an early age that if anyone ever loves them, it will be for their beauty. They internalize this message, and their actions are based alternately on accepting it and lashing out against it. Bashardoust’s writing is really beautiful, and she adds layers to each of her characters slowly and deliberately. Mina is no villain, and readers will desperately wish for a happy ending for both leads, even when it looks like one’s happiness can only be secured with the demise of the other.

Renegades by Marissa Meyer

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Hello, fair Stacked readers! I bring you this special Thursday post as part of the Choose a Side: Renegades Blog Tour for Marissa Meyer’s new book Renegades, which publishes November 7. I don’t do a whole lot of blog tours (I mostly find them boring), but I make an exception for an author whose books I really love, and Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles fall into that category. (You can read my very enthusiastic review of Cinder from 2012 over here. Possibly the cheesiest line from this review is the one that gets quoted on the paperback copies.)

In Renegades, the first of two books (at least so far), Meyer leaves fairy tales behind and shifts gears to superheroes. These aren’t terribly different topics, really – my favorite fairy tale characters are mostly superheroes in some way anyway. In Gatlon City, a special group of prodigies (humans with superpowers) called Renegades protect everyone – or they’re supposed to. When Nova, a prodigy herself, was a small child, the Renegades didn’t show up when it mattered most, and people she loved died. Now that Nova is almost an adult, she’s determined to infiltrate the Renegades and take revenge. Nova is one of the Anarchists, the supervillains of Gatlon City and the foil to the Renegades. The story alternates in third person between Nova and Adrian, a true Renegade who has secrets of his own.

I love a good revenge story, and Meyer does a great job here, even though I wasn’t entirely sold on Nova’s motivation at the beginning. Her own superpower – the ability to induce sleep – is an interesting one, and the way the Anarchists have helped her hone it and actually put it to practical use is clever. Meyer is very good at multiple points of view (she introduced a new character in each of her four Lunar Chronicles books and managed to keep each POV different and interesting), and Nova and Adrian are no exception. They both have rich backstories, well-developed voices, and distinct personalities.

The story itself is interesting, as is the world in which Meyer has placed her characters. While the easy thing is to label the Renegades the good guys and the Anarchists the bad guys, that’s not the story Meyer is trying to tell. Instead, she explores the gray areas between the good and the bad – and the ways in which the good and bad coexist within a single group and a single person. The plot is suspenseful throughout and there’s a whopper of a twist ending (I’m such a sucker for those).

Part of the conceit for this blog tour was that we were supposed to choose a side: Renegade or Anarchist? Without having read the novel, I picked the Renegades, which is actually off-brand for me (I’ve been embracing my Slytherin side lately). But I figured the Renegades were probably the winners, and I like winning too. (Hello yes, I am a Slytherin.) After reading the book…well, I’ll let you read and decide which side you would choose.

Fans of the Lunar Chronicles will definitely eat this up, as will those who can’t get enough of the superhero tie-in novels being published lately. There’s a lot of tropey superhero goodness that Meyer pulls from, but she also throws in her own touches, and it feels fully like a Marissa Meyer book. It’s really solid and a ton of fun.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Most Anticipated Fall Reads

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What’s on your reading list for fall? I’m eagerly anticipating a couple of sequels (one more than a decade in the works) plus a couple of new books from favorite authors.

Jane, Unlimited by Kristin Cashore

Release Date: September 19

Synopsis: Jane has lived an ordinary life, raised by her aunt Magnolia—an adjunct professor and deep sea photographer. Jane counted on Magnolia to make the world feel expansive and to turn life into an adventure. But Aunt Magnolia was lost a few months ago in Antarctica on one of her expeditions.

Now, with no direction, a year out of high school, and obsessed with making umbrellas that look like her own dreams (but mostly just mourning her aunt), she is easily swept away by Kiran Thrash—a glamorous, capricious acquaintance who shows up and asks Jane to accompany her to a gala at her family’s island mansion called Tu Reviens.

Jane remembers her aunt telling her: “If anyone ever invites to you to Tu Reviens, promise me that you’ll go.” With nothing but a trunkful of umbrella parts to her name, Jane ventures out to the Thrash estate. Then her story takes a turn, or rather, five turns. What Jane doesn’t know is that Tu Reviens will offer her choices that can ultimately determine the course of her untethered life. But at Tu Reviens, every choice comes with a reward, or a price. (Goodreads)

Why I’m anticipating it: Cashore is a talented writer, and she writes feminist, sex-positive, imaginative fantasy for teens. She’s not super prolific: her most recent book, Bitterblue, was published in 2012. A new release from her is noteworthy. Early reviews call this book ambitious, genre-bending, and challenging, all things I can appreciate.

The Book of Dust Volume 1: La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman

Release Date: October 19

Synopsis: Eleven-year-old Malcolm Polstead and his dæmon, Asta, live with his parents at the Trout Inn near Oxford. Across the River Thames (which Malcolm navigates often using his beloved canoe, a boat by the name of La Belle Sauvage) is the Godstow Priory where the nuns live. Malcolm learns they have a guest with them, a baby by the name of Lyra Belacqua… (Goodreads)

Why I’m anticipating it: In my very first post for Stacked, I wrote about how His Dark Materials was and is the most important series of books I’ve ever read. Pullman has been working on this companion book (now a companion series) for well over a decade, and I’ve been anticipating it just as long. The fact that it’s actually completely written now, with a synopsis and a publication date and a cover, is almost beyond belief.

The Empress by S. J. Kincaid

Release Date: October 31

Synopsis: It’s a new day in the Empire. Tyrus has ascended to the throne with Nemesis by his side and now they can find a new way forward—one where they don’t have to hide or scheme or kill. One where creatures like Nemesis will be given worth and recognition, where science and information can be shared with everyone and not just the elite.

But having power isn’t the same thing as keeping it, and change isn’t always welcome. The ruling class, the Grandiloquy, has held control over planets and systems for centuries—and they are plotting to stop this teenage Emperor and Nemesis, who is considered nothing more than a creature and certainly not worthy of being Empress.

Nemesis will protect Tyrus at any cost. He is the love of her life, and they are partners in this new beginning. But she cannot protect him by being the killing machine she once was. She will have to prove the humanity that she’s found inside herself to the whole Empire—or she and Tyrus may lose more than just the throne. But if proving her humanity means that she and Tyrus must do inhuman things, is the fight worth the cost of winning it? (Goodreads)

Why I’m anticipating it: The Diabolic was my favorite book of 2016. It was intended as a standalone and it works well as one, but I am eager to see where Nemesis’ story takes her next. Kincaid has a winning combination of setting, plot, and character in this series – it’s rare that I read science fiction with such imaginative world-building executed so well.

Renegades by Marissa Meyer

Release Date: November 7

Synopsis: The Renegades are a syndicate of prodigies—humans with extraordinary abilities—who emerged from the ruins of a crumbled society and established peace and order where chaos reigned. As champions of justice, they remain a symbol of hope and courage to everyone…except the villains they once overthrew.

Nova has a reason to hate the Renegades, and she is on a mission for vengeance. As she gets closer to her target, she meets Adrian, a Renegade boy who believes in justice—and in Nova. But Nova’s allegiance is to a villain who has the power to end them both. (Goodreads)

Why I’m anticipating it: The Lunar Chronicles is one of the best YA science fiction series written in the past decade. While I enjoyed Meyer’s follow-up, Heartless, it wasn’t nearly as good. Renegades is her return to science fiction, which I think suits her better. I’m curious to see how Meyer fares with a story not based upon a fairy tale or other classic tale, and of course, I always love a good superhero book.

“What If” and Choices in SF: Version Control by Dexter Palmer and Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

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I’ve been on an adult science fiction kick lately, seeking out the hottest and best recent standalone titles. Monica Byrne’s The Girl in the Road kicked it off earlier in the year, and since then, I’ve been craving more of the same. Two titles – Version Control by Dexter Palmer and Dark Matter by Blake Crouch – have helped sate this craving. Fortunately for me, not only are they well-written and exciting science fiction, they also feature two interlinking tropes that I can’t get enough of: time travel and parallel worlds.

version control palmerIn Version Control, physicist Philip Steiner has been working on a Causality Violation Device for the past decade. This is really a fancy phrase for time machine, but he hates it when anyone calls it that. A time machine is fiction; the CVD is real. Or it would be, if it worked. He and his assistants are on test number three hundred something and the result is always the same: nothing. On the surface, Palmer’s novel is about Steiner, his wife Rebecca Wright, Steiner’s lab assistants (also respected scientists), and Rebecca’s best friend Kate. It traces Rebecca and Philip’s meeting and marriage, their respective jobs (Rebecca works for the dating site where she met Philip), their relationships with their friends, and the fallout from Philip’s obsession with the CVD. Perspective shifts at times between all of these characters, though it focuses mainly on Rebecca (with Philip a close second), and much of the novel seems to be a story of a marriage that is falling apart. As the novel progresses, it becomes clear that Rebecca and Philip suffered a tragedy a few years ago, one they haven’t really recovered from.

But this is science fiction, so that isn’t the whole story. From the beginning, readers will notice small details that are different about the world Rebecca and Philip inhabit. It’s the present-day, but self-driving cars are ubiquitous. The president will pop up on people’s electronic devices every so often, addressing them by name and complimenting them on a particular detail of their dress, for example. It’s…weird. Off-putting. Intriguing. Rebecca has a general feeling that something isn’t quite right, and when others start to feel this too, psychologists put it down to a side effect of the overuse of technology like smartphones. But because this is a science fiction novel, readers will know right away it has something to do with the Causality Violation Device, that folly of Philip’s that has never shown any evidence of actually working.

Palmer’s novel is clever in many ways. It’s divided into three parts, each more intriguing than the last. The finale is elegantly perfect, reasonable in context of the “physics” Palmer has created for his story, and satisfying in a story sense as well. In fact, I wish I knew some people who had read this so I could discuss the ending with them and just how perfect it is. His version of time travel is also fascinating, different from any other kind of time travel I’ve read about before in fiction.

The book is a big self-indulgent at times. It’s long and wanders down a few paths that aren’t strictly essential to the main plot, like the world of online dating. But in Palmer’s capable hands, these lengthy asides are fascinating, and they lend further insight into this world that is just barely wrong. He tackles casual sexism and racism through a couple of characters’ points of view as well. The asides and deeper themes give the book a more literary feel. One Goodreads reviewer wrote that this book might be “too SF for the Literature with capital L-lovers and too literary and ‘normal’ for the die hard SF-lovers” which I thought was apt. But if you love both Literature and SF, you’ll love Version Control.

dark matter crouchDark Matter is also the story of a marriage, though the tone is quite different. Whereas Version Control was deliberate and thoughtful, Crouch’s story reads much more like a thriller. Jason Dessen teaches physics at a mid-rate local college in Chicago. He’s married to Daniela, who gave up a promising art career to stay home with their son Charlie, whom she became pregnant with before the two were married. Jason himself gave up a much more lucrative physics career because their son (who was born premature) and his marriage required more time than he could give as a scientist stuck in a clean room for twelve or more hours each day. He often wonders what his life would have been like had he not had to do that; he wonders if Daniela has regrets, too. But overall, he’s happy with his choices.

Then one day, as he’s driving home, he’s abducted by a masked stranger. He’s knocked out; when he wakes, he’s in an unfamiliar laboratory and the people around him are welcoming him back home. But this world is not his world. He and Daniela never got married. Charlie was never born. People seem to believe he’s a celebrated scientist who won a major award and has been missing for the past eight months. After a brief time believing he may be crazy, Jason figures out he’s actually been forcibly sent to another version of his world, one where he made the choice to break up with Daniela when she became pregnant and pursue his career instead. Crouch shows us that the person who abducted Jason is now inhabiting his own life, sleeping with his wife and raising his son. Original Jason embarks on a journey to get back, no matter how impossible it seems. His love for Daniela drives him, haunting him across the multiverse as he runs into version after version of her.

The major fault I found in Dark Matter was its drawn-out beginning. It took too long for Jason to finally realize he’s not crazy, he’s not in his own world, and there are in fact infinite versions of the world that he now has the ability to travel through. Anyone who’s read any SF will have figured all of these things out long before; this concept is not new to the genre and is a primary reason why many readers will have picked up the book in the first place. While the beginning is interesting in a character sense, it’s once Jason learns the truth that the story really takes off. Crouch’s multiverse is fascinating, and I loved reading about the many different realities – terrible and wonderful and just plain weird – that Jason explores on his journey to find the one where he belongs. About a quarter of the way from the end, the story goes full-on bananas in the best kind of way, and I was worried that Crouch had written himself into a corner. But he found the solution for his characters (the only one possible, really), and the end is supremely satisfying.

Interestingly, the words “abortion” and “rape” are never used. In the world that Jason wakes up in initially, Daniela was pregnant and then she wasn’t. In Jason’s original world, Jason’s abductor is having sex with his wife without her knowledge of who he truly is. I don’t know if these two elisions were a conscious choice on Blake’s part, but they are two more aspects of this book for the reader to unpack.

The common themes between Version Control and Dark Matter are obvious, and they’re ones science fiction is perfectly suited to tackle. Are my choices permanent, or can they be changed? Should I even wish to change the past? Would I have turned out to be the same person I am now had I made a different choice – big or small – five years ago? Fifteen years ago? What is it that makes me uniquely me? How much impact do my choices make upon the rest of the world? Readers will come away from both of these novels pondering these timeless, thorny questions. Both books are highly recommended.