STAR FIGHTERS 1

April 2, 2012
In this action-heavy first book in the Star Fighters series, set in the year 5012, debut author Chase wastes no time in
getting right to the meat of the story. Eleven-year-old Peri is a first-year pilot trainee in the Intergalactic Force Academy, partnered with an acerbic half-Martian gunner, Diesel. While in training, they witness a terrible attack on Earth by aliens from the planet Xion. As part of a last-resort measure, Diesel and Peri are assigned to an experimental ship, Phoenix, where they meet Selene, a sassy mechanic. Their attempt to escape the alien invaders leaves them stranded in a distant galaxy, where they must fight for their lives. Cliffhanger chapter endings, ample technobabble, and lines like “What did you do, you cosmic wastoid?” give the story the feeling of a Saturday morning cartoon transferred to print (occasional bits of b&w spot art add to that effect). With plenty of adventure and a fair measure of whimsy, this is basic, fast-paced entertainment for young SF fans. Simultaneously available: Deadly Mission. Ages 7–10.

May 15, 2012
Grades 3-5 A long time from now, in a galaxy right here, a bunch of crab-clawed aliens invade the Milky Way. Peri, a first-year cadet at the Intergalactic Force Academy and half-Martian gunner Diesel escape the onslaught aboard a top-secret spacecraft called the Phoenix. After light-speeding through a deadly cosmic vortex into an unknown corner of the universe and discovering an engineer girl stowaway, the young space heroes engage the enemy in their own backyard. Chase festoons this blastoff to the Star Fighters series with all kinds of sci-fi brain candy like galactoscopic-sighted neon vaporizers and a spaceship that reacts to what its crew is thinking, contorts its physical dimensions to suit their needs, and is otherwise nineteen times faster, thirty-five times more advanced, and about a gazillion times cooler than even an imperial star cruiser. A handful of illustrations lend a zippy visual element. Though the intrepid adventure is cut a bit short, with the lads on the brink of their first serious operation, the second volume, Deadly Mission (2012), is also available.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)