Broken Promises

April 15, 2017
Kalli loses faith in Ellis and fights to free the girls housing the embryos of his dying alien species.Indian-American teen Kalli has returned to Earth with Ellis, who took her to his home planet, Istriya, in series opener Broken Worlds (2014). They've come to save the rest of the runaway girls who, like her, were kidnapped to host Istriyan embryos. The pods the girls are kept in can sustain life for nine days, and time is up. Ellis' spaceship crashes, leaving them both wounded. This is a minor hiccup in the coming ordeal. One girl wakes up early, a girl with blue hair who wasn't a runaway. White teen Hadley assumes her parents have left her at a conversion-therapy camp for gay teens--not kidnapped by aliens. Immediately, Kalli assumes the role of Hadley's protector. She discovers traces of Ellis' verbindi--an alien device that forces those hosting it to trust Istriyans--still in her own blood, spurring a crisis of faith. More Istriyans appear, bent on saving the species at all cost. Kalli must help Hadley escape, and she can't trust Ellis to be her savior this time. Nonstop action propels this sequel, leaving no room for character development. Kalli's sudden mistrust of Ellis is jarring, leaving the central relationship in awkward, underexplored territory. There's little mystery or romance left to draw readers back for the final installment. A middle volume only thinly held together by overdone alien tropes. (Science fiction. 13-18)

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May 1, 2017

Gr 7 Up-An action-packed adventure and light sci-fi tale that will be accessible to many types of readers. After a bumpy ride back from the now-destroyed planet Istriya, Kalli, a human, and Ellis, a humanlike alien from Istriya, are rushing to return the captured female runaways who were part of Ellis's mother's experiment to save the Istriyan species from extinction. There are two problems, though. When the spacecraft crash-landed on Earth, the blue injectable liquid that gives Ellis his superstrength and speed was destroyed, leaving him weak. Also, while Kalli was preparing each captured runaway to be returned to her home, the mistakenly captured runaway, Hadley, woke up and escaped with secrets of unbelievable proportion. Readers will find Kalli's character development a bit thin, as her feelings flip-flop throughout the book, but will appreciate Hadley's backstory, innocence, and personal strength. This second installment of a planned trilogy is a captivating page-turner. While Robinson offers teens enough context from Broken Worlds that new readers will be able to fill in the gaps, familiarity with the previous volume is a plus. VERDICT Purchase where the first entry is popular and for middle grade and YA collections trying to provide a different take on science fiction.-Kristin Unruh, Siersma Elementary School, Warren, MI

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