Standalone that could be a Trilogy
Sometimes I am in the mood for the genre entailing a plot aimed at the young adult audience, in a dystopian future, but without a lot of world-building - just enough to set the scene. There’s usually teenage angst and romance, as well as evil political machinations by the adults. It’s what I would label easy escapist reading.
This is what I had anticipated with this latest offering from Ally Condie, who wrote the “Matched” trilogy, even though this book is a stand-alone novel.
Poe Blythe, 17, lost her true love Call two years earlier when their gold-dredging ship was raided. Since that time, Poe devoted herself to avenging his death, using her skills as a mechanic to devise armor for her colony’s remaining dredger. The armor was designed to tear to shreds any raider who tried to get onto the ship.
The “Admiral” of Poe’s colony, which was called The Outpost, selected Poe to lead the next and presumably last gold-dredging voyage on a new river, The Serpentine, because, the Admiral states: “This is the most important voyage yet….I don’t want anything to go wrong. I want the killing mechanisms to work.”
With a crew selected by the Admiral, Poe captains the dredge and it manages to collect more gold than ever before. But it is clear there is a traitor on the ship loyal to the raiders, and before long, they are all in danger. Poe doesn’t know whom to trust anymore - could the traitor be her one friend among the crew? Or the handsome First Mate who reminds her of Call? Or the sweet young boy who is the cook? And why would anyone be loyal to the raiders (who call themselves “Drifters”) in any event? Poe learns, of course, that the people she thought were good were evil, and the supposed “bad guys”? Another mystery she has to figure out. And what about new love? Would it be “disloyal” to Call? What, in the end, is the better way to guide your life: hate and revenge, or love and rebuilding?
Discussion: I was surprised to find this was a standalone rather than a trilogy, because so much about the story is unexplained, especially the dystopian set-up, and the object that turns out to be the motivation behind the Admiral’s behavior.
We also don’t learn much about the characters, not even Poe, except in an almost humorous passage, when the boy who seemingly falls for Poe because he thinks she is a good person explains that “You know what someone builds, you know them.” Um, Poe built a boat that is a killing machine. Just saying.
Evaluation: I wasn’t wild about the story, but would have continued, had there been a follow-up, just to find out what was going on.
This is what I had anticipated with this latest offering from Ally Condie, who wrote the “Matched” trilogy, even though this book is a stand-alone novel.
Poe Blythe, 17, lost her true love Call two years earlier when their gold-dredging ship was raided. Since that time, Poe devoted herself to avenging his death, using her skills as a mechanic to devise armor for her colony’s remaining dredger. The armor was designed to tear to shreds any raider who tried to get onto the ship.
The “Admiral” of Poe’s colony, which was called The Outpost, selected Poe to lead the next and presumably last gold-dredging voyage on a new river, The Serpentine, because, the Admiral states: “This is the most important voyage yet….I don’t want anything to go wrong. I want the killing mechanisms to work.”
With a crew selected by the Admiral, Poe captains the dredge and it manages to collect more gold than ever before. But it is clear there is a traitor on the ship loyal to the raiders, and before long, they are all in danger. Poe doesn’t know whom to trust anymore - could the traitor be her one friend among the crew? Or the handsome First Mate who reminds her of Call? Or the sweet young boy who is the cook? And why would anyone be loyal to the raiders (who call themselves “Drifters”) in any event? Poe learns, of course, that the people she thought were good were evil, and the supposed “bad guys”? Another mystery she has to figure out. And what about new love? Would it be “disloyal” to Call? What, in the end, is the better way to guide your life: hate and revenge, or love and rebuilding?
Discussion: I was surprised to find this was a standalone rather than a trilogy, because so much about the story is unexplained, especially the dystopian set-up, and the object that turns out to be the motivation behind the Admiral’s behavior.
We also don’t learn much about the characters, not even Poe, except in an almost humorous passage, when the boy who seemingly falls for Poe because he thinks she is a good person explains that “You know what someone builds, you know them.” Um, Poe built a boat that is a killing machine. Just saying.
Evaluation: I wasn’t wild about the story, but would have continued, had there been a follow-up, just to find out what was going on.