The Deserter

January 15, 2012
Months after The Inferior (2008) left off, this sequel finds cannibal Stopmouth journeying from the primitive surface where he lives to the high-tech world of the Roof, abandoning his tribe to save them. When Diggers close in on the Havens Stopmouth protects, he can't wait any longer for Indrani to return with weapons. The tribe's survival depends on Stopmouth's traveling to the Roof's advanced civilization to retrieve weapons and his wife. The reveals about the world of the Roof--both from Stopmouth's perspective and a new Roof-dwelling character's close third-person point of view--answer questions previously raised about the nature of Stopmouth's world while expanding into themes of morality and the nature civilization. The Roof is also endangered--a virus attacking nanotechnology renders society impotent, overcrowded and in crisis. The crisis inflames tensions between Seculars and Religious. The factions' power struggle's lynchpin is the missing Indrani, valued for a secret everyone needs to know--Stopmouth must somehow navigate this strange culture to get to her first. While sometimes disorienting through confusing plot points and lack of anchoring description, the rich characters and themes of moral ambiguity thrive in well-paced prose that encourages readers to overlook flaws. Eventually, the stakes have been raised just about as high as possible, inviting strong-stomached readers to return for the next book to see how the characters go about fixing their worlds. (Science fiction. 13 & up)

COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

April 1, 2012

Gr 8 Up- The Deserter picks up where The Inferior (Random, 2008) left off, with the barbarous meat-eater Stopmouth leaving his Stone Age home and storming the high-tech world above in search of his technologically savvy, vegetarian wife, Indrani. Pooling their resources and information, they soon come to realize that The Roof is doomed, and a handful of power-mad "elite" plans to hibernate aboard the ship that brought them to this inhospitable planet until a virus, which will soon destroy the city above and below as well all food sources, has run its course, leaving them the sole survivors of a dead planet. The narrative drags from time to time, a lack of historical background regarding the relocation to another planet creates confusion, and the author has sacrificed vital character development for dramatic action sequences. This might make a better movie than novel. Strictly for fans of the first book.-Jane Henriksen Baird, Anchorage Public Library, AK

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.