Island of the Sun

May 1, 2016

Gr 4-6-The intrigue and excitement continue in this dystopian sequel. Twelve-year-old Eleanor and her companions have been branded terrorists by GET (Global Energy Trust) for destroying the energy-producing Arctic Concentrator and must leave the frozen North pronto. Educated by Eleanor's mysterious powers, the group have come to believe that a rogue alien planet is using the strange, twisted contraption to rob Earth of its energy. Their aim is not only to shut down the Arctic machine but to proceed to Peru, Egypt, and the Himalayas, where other concentrators are known to exist. They intend to save the increasingly freezing Earth and all its inhabitants. GET's Preservation Protocol plan is more selective: only a chosen few will be allowed to survive, while millions of others will perish. On the way to Peru, Eleanor is witness to a preview of this possible outcome: Mexico City is awash with refugees living in squalor, while others, protected by armed guards and walls, live a privileged existence. Readers will be carried along in this page-turning tale that ends on a cliffhanger. Kirby keeps the plot moving with hair-raising adventures involving reanimated mummies and underwater temples.

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March 1, 2016
With the all-powerful Global Energy Trust hot on the trail, this sequel to The Arctic Code (2015) finds Eleanor and her ragtag band of allies mounting assaults on more of the alien devices that are rapidly forcing Earth into an ice age by sucking up its "telluric energy." Eluding armed G.E.T. agents as they go, the fugitives leave Alaska's deep freeze behind to fly south toward Lake Titicaca--pausing, in an ironic touch, to gape at Mexico City's massive sprawl of refugees from icy North America. The eldritch Concentrator is buried at a nexus of ley lines deep within submerged Incan ruins, and reaching it so that Eleanor can mentally kill the artificial intelligence that operates it isn't going to be easy. Nor, for that matter, will escaping afterward, as betrayal leaves some group members in G.E.T. hands. Next stop: Luxor, another Concentrator, and another narrow escape. The author shoehorns in so much continuing conflict between Eleanor and her overprotective mother (both white), and also between another scientist and his two biracial sons (black/white), that the story often seems more about parent-child issues than saving the planet. Still, as Eleanor leads the way toward the Himalayas and a possibly climactic attack on the last and most powerful Concentrator, she'll plainly be facing a new cascade of deadly dangers and soul-wrenching choices. A baroque premise fuels a reasonably adventuresome middle volume. (Science fiction/fantasy hybrid. 11-13)

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