Where the Rock Splits the Sky

February 15, 2014
In a bizarre post-apocalyptic future, Megan Bridgwater's world is defined by Western garb, gab and cliches. There are horses, saloons, outlaws, a stagecoach robbery, poker games--everything but cattle and rustlers. Alien Visitors who arrived 20 years ago have created a land of perpetual daytime: They've stopped the Earth's rotation, leaving the sun always in the sky and otherwise wreaking havoc. The Zone, a place of "[w]eird space-time wrinkles," stretches from the Midwest to the Pacific. Despite that, Megan, an expert tracker, heads out into no man's land to find her father. She's accompanied first by Luis, a Mexican blacksmith who eventually becomes a love interest, and joined by Kelly, an alien abductee who has missed the past 20 years. This threesome is determined to get from Marfa, Texas, to Spider Rock in Canyon de Chelly, Ariz., where they hope all answers can be found. Megan's formal, present-tense narration is reminiscent of Charles Portis. A weird concoction of familiar and strange elements, the plot challenges the characters in ways that cause them to draw on both magical and old-fashioned ingenuity. So much happens that the characters remain fairly flat, the violence has a cartoonish quality, and the climactic moment goes over the top. That doesn't stop the premise, unlikely as it is, from being cool as hell. For Western aficionados who don't mind alien outlaws in their shoot'em-ups. (Science fiction. 12-16)

COPYRIGHT(2014) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

April 1, 2014

Gr 9 Up-This novel tackles themes explored in Karen Thompson Walker's The Age of Miracles (Random, 2012) and H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds-an alien invasion has destroyed the moon and caused the Earth to stop spinning on its axis. Aliens attempt to inhabit human bodies and infiltrate cities; one particular area, the Zone, seems to be a playground of experiments for the aliens, with cities flying up into the air with rivers of stone and sand. A trio of friends, led by Megan, forage into the Zone in an attempt to find Megan's father, who presumably has answers to the invasion. Throughout the journey, the trio battle aliens-cum-humans, sleeping air sickness, and outlaws. The ending ties up rather too neatly, but fans of the genre will be pleased. Webb excels in descriptions of the highly imaginative alien environment; where the book struggles is with the thin character development.-Amanda C. Buschmann, Atascocita Middle School, Humble, TX

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2014
Grades 10-1 A Wild West world where the earth no longer rotates and the sun never sets is the setting for this bleak-future novel by British author Webb. Long before Megan Bridgwater was born, aliens called the Visitors crushed the moon into nothing but dust, causing the world to stop turning, an event that vaulted Texas into a place of Wild Weststyle martial law. Now 15, with her mother dead and father missing, Megan receives a strange map of the Zone, a dangerous wasteland, from a mysterious stranger who claims it's from her father. Determined to be a hero, Megan embarks on an adventure to fight aliens and find not only answers but her long-lost father. With her is her friend Luis (a farrier) and Kelly, an abductee whose entire town vanished for 20 years. Lots of blood, gunfire, and salty language pepper the pages of this novel from Webb (Six Days, 2011), who capably shapes a world that is equal parts western and futuristic science fiction.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)