Way Down Dark

October 24, 2016
After the Earth became uninhabitable, humans built generation ships as quickly as possible, packed them with as many people as they could, and sent them into space to look for a new home. This is the story that 17-year-old Chan has been told about her home, the Australia, her entire lifeâa desperate but hopeful scenario that sets the tone for adult author Smythe's (The Echo) trilogy opener and first foray into teen fiction. The Australia is dilapidated, and gangs have sprung up to control sections of it. Chan and her mother are part of the Free People, unaffiliated with gangs and trying to survive with what little humanity they can. The book opens with Chan's mother dying after doing everything she can to give her daughter the tools to continue on without her. When one of the gangs, the Lows, essentially declares war on the rest of the ship, Chan's mission becomes even more difficult. There's an overreliance on graphic brutality and narrative twists, but readers will want to see where Chan's grim story goes next. Ages 13âup. Agent: Sam Copeland, Rogers, Coleridge & White.

A British import with dystopian-blockbuster ambitions. A prologue briefly describes how overpopulation led to catastrophic climate change on Earth, which prompted the launching of a fleet of generation ships that are the only hope for human life. Seventeen-year-old racially ambiguous Chan Aitch hurtles through space in an interstellar transport called the Australia. Readers first meet her as she recalls accepting a knife from her dying mother to deliver the coup de grace. Unlike many of her genre ilk, Chan is the daughter of a well-respected leader of the "free people," and now she defends her group against the viciously encroaching Lows and the Bells, the lower-caste people characterized respectively as "savages. Vicious, nasty, the basest parts of us" and "idiots. Wonks. Driven by impulse rather than anything resembling logic." The other threat is ideological, as embodied by the Pale Women, an all-female religious cult. This information is delivered in an expository story told by Chan's grandmother, Agatha, following which Chan takes up the story, narrating in the genre-pervading present tense through a violent though unilluminating exploration of class struggle to a sequel-setup ending. In the end, this is just another in the overflowing "violently plucky heroine" sci-fi genre, an amiable though not particularly interesting book. (Science fiction. 14-18) COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 1, 2016

Gr 9 Up-Smythe writes an unforgiving science fiction novel where deaths are slow and one's basic human rights are hard-won. The spaceship Australia has long since gone from the refuge of people fleeing a dying Earth to a prison of those "lucky" enough to gain a spot on board. Generations have come and gone, trying to find a planet to populate, and all the while, an unfair socioeconomic system has developed aboard the spaceship. Seventeen-year-old Chan is not exempt from the atrocious realities of the Australia. Her mother played a major role in protecting many people from the gangs that were running loose. When she dies, Chan is forced to step into her mother's shoes. At first glance, it appears that the protagonist has no special qualities to enable her to fill a leadership role. However, it is the lack of obvious qualities that makes her so special. Her will to survive is a driving force throughout. Smythe brings the spacecraft Australia to life for readers, with rich descriptions and savage explanations of this sinister world in which Chan is forced to live. Although at times the story can seem straightforward, there are major plot twists that will leave teens feeling a sense of urgency to know more. The unpredictable narrative continually breaks the rules and presents a scary, twisted world in which no one can know what will come next. Although the work is comparable to recent dystopians, its mysteries are unique and the story is compelling. VERDICT Young adults will be drawn to Chan's realistic persona and addicted to a tale that leaves them wanting to know more.-Bernice La Porta, Susan E. Wagner High School, Staten Island, NY

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2016
Grades 10-1 Chan lives aboard the Australia, a spaceship teeming with rival gangs in a constant, violent struggle for power. She's lived there her whole life under the protection of her mother, who kept their segment of the ship fairly peaceful. But her mother's dead, and Chan must replace her as leader. In a coolly tight narrative, Smythe develops strong, diverse characters and a robust setting without getting bogged down in exposition and flowery descriptions, and what isn't related from Chan's perspective is offered in interstitial passages from an anonymous character, which provide additional insight into the mysterious origins of the ship. This trilogy-starter is brutal, packed with violence and gore, and Chan's drive for survival and hope for a better future drive the plot forward. Some readers might guess what the Australia really is before Chan figures it out, but there are plenty of twists and turns and frightening accounts of life on the ship in the meantime. Hand to readers looking for a grittier Hunger Games or those who loved the movie, Snowpiercer.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)