Available:*
Material Type | Library | Call Number | Item Barcode | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Book | Searching... Andover - Memorial Hall Library | TEEN FICTION JOHNSTON | 31330009039961 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Burlington Public Library | YA JOHNST | 32116003822182 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Groton Public Library | YA JOHNSTON | 37003701862477 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Hamilton-Wenham Public Library | Y JOH | 30470001896751 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Haverhill Public Library | YA/JOHNSTONE E | 31479007466328 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Ipswich Public Library | YA FIC JOHNSTON, E.K. | 32122002845323 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Lawrence Public Library | FIC JOH YA | 31549004878764 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Littleton - Reuben Hoar Library | YA F JOHNSTON | 39965002327210 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Merrimac Public Library | YA JOH | 32125001389649 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Methuen - Nevins Memorial Library | YA JOH | 31548003344760 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Newburyport Public Library | YA JOHNSTON | 32128004079886 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... North Andover - Stevens Memorial Library | TEEN JOHNSTON | 31478010172212 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... North Reading - Flint Memorial Library | YA FIC JOHNSTON | 31550002468160 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Tewksbury Public Library | TEEN FICTION JOHNSTON | 32132003261206 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... West Newbury - G.A.R. Memorial Library | YA JOH | 32135001526058 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Westford - J.V. Fletcher Library | YA F JOHNSTON (SF) | 31990004973611 | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
A thought-provoking new YA space adventure from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Star Wars: Ahsoka .
Set on a family-run interstellar freighter called the Harland and a mysterious remote space station, E. K. Johnston's latest is story of survival and self-determination.
Pendt Harland's family sees her as a waste of food on their long-haul space cruiser when her genes reveal an undesirable mutation. But if she plays her cards right she might have a chance to do much more than survive. During a space-station layover, Pendt escapes and forms a lucky bond with the Brannick twins, the teenage heirs of the powerful family that owns the station. Against all odds, the trio hatches a long-shot scheme to take over the station and thwart the destinies they never wished for.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up--Pendt Harland has only known life on her family's generation ship, traveling through space delivering ore and miners. Everyone is born with a magical ability, but when her family discovers that she is a gene-mage she is deemed useless and essentially starved until she can be sold to another ship. When the ship docks at Brannick station, Pendt sees her opportunity to escape and soon meets Ned and Fisher Brannick, the twin brothers running the station. Through some complicated legal maneuvering, they help protect Pendt from her family and she gives Ned the opportunity to join the resistance fighting the empire. But they know that one day Pendt's family will come back for her. The worldbuilding in this novel is phenomenal. Space opera fans will enjoy the backstory, station features, and technology, though other readers might find it overly descriptive. Pendt develops a loving bond with the brothers, especially after the loneliness and abuse she suffered at the hands of her family, that readers will adore. However, everyone seems a little too happy to the point of it feeling forced and unrealistic. The ending is anti-climatic but hints at a sequel. Characters are cued as white and Fisher is subtly identitfied as trans. VERDICT Buy if you serve a large population of science fiction readers.--Cathy DeCampli, Haddonfield P.L., NJ
Publisher's Weekly Review
A teen flees her emotionally abusive family in this slow-burning, character-driven space opera by Johnston (The Afterward). Since age five, Pendt Harland has been told she's useless, her magical gene-sense considered a waste of precious calories aboard her blue-eyed, white-skinned family's generational trading ship, especially compared to more desirable powers, such as the star-sense required of the ship's captain. As her 18th birthday approaches, Pendt vanishes into the depths of Brannick Station during a stopover, encountering Fisher and Ned Brannick, the twin brothers who run the station. To legally escape her family's clutches and aid the brothers with their own plans, she marries Ned, who soon joins the rebellion against the oppressive Stavenger Empire; she then grows closer to Fisher while building a life for herself. When her family returns, though, Pendt must use her powers to engineer an unorthodox, extremely dangerous solution. Johnston packs a lot of galaxy-spanning worldbuilding into a small space. Though some threads, especially surrounding the rebellion, feel underdeveloped, character elements--particularly Pendt's recovery from a lifetime of abuse--offer an affirmative arc about emotional healing and personal growth in the wake of trauma. Ages 14--up. Author's agent: Josh Adams, Adams Literary. (May)
Horn Book Review
On her family's long-haul space freighter, the Harland, Pendt knows that she is useless. Without "star-sense" or other valued skills, Pendt is left waiting until she can legally enter a contract at age eighteen to begin earning back the calories and oxygen she consumes. Watching her cousin forced into a pregnancy, however, Pendt begins to guess what sort of contract awaits her. She escapes at Brannick Station, where twin brothers Ned and Fisher Brannick suggest a deal: in exchange for a male heir, they'll protect her in the event that the Harland returns. (Fisher can't operate the Y chromosome-locked Net like his brother, and while the reason is treated discreetly, it makes the eventual Pendt/Fisher romance that much sweeter.) The world-building is compelling, offering up: the claustrophobic (and loveless) Harland; the station where Pendt is finally given the calories she needs to work her "gene-sense" magic; a galaxy-wide ruling body, the Hegemony, which holds the twins' parents hostage; and the rebellion that Ned would join if he weren't tied to the station. This engrossing, triumphal sci-fi tale is a gritty space-wizard drama in the tradition of Anne McCaffrey. Anita L. Burkam July/August 2021 p.114(c) Copyright 2021. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
In an oppressive science fiction world, a young woman discovers the meaning of family and autonomy. The Stavenger Empire has the galaxy in a stronghold, forcing its citizens into tyrannical relationships that prioritize specific lineages and skill sets while dampening rebellion. Pendt Harland lives on a merchant ship tied to her family line: Only Harlands can control the ship, and further, only those with specific abilities. Pendt, having gene-sense (the power to magically sense and alter aspects of organic matter), is considered useless in her family's strict hierarchy and so faces abuse and neglect until she comes of age and can be sent away to earn her keep outside the Family. When an opportunity to escape presents itself, Pendt leaves everything behind to start anew on a bustling space station. There, she meets twins Fisher and Ned, earnest boys also trapped in the churning machinery of the empire. Together, they might just find a way to loosen the holds that the society has on them all. With an emphasis on valuing chosen family, securing bodily autonomy, and challenging authoritarianism, this intimate, character-driven yarn brings stunning revelations in every chapter. With each mystery that reveals itself, the worldbuilding grows stronger, enveloping readers in a grounded universe that feels nearly tangible. A major character is trans; main characters are coded as White. A close-knit, endlessly cathartic gem. (Science fiction. 14-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
To be born on a generational merchant ship, as Pendt was on the Harland, is to live and die there as part of its crew and to produce the next generation of Harlands to do the same. With decades sometimes passing between station stops, each person aboard must earn the oxygen and calories they consume, but Pendt has long known that her family considers her worthless, possessing neither the star-magic needed to one day captain the spaceship nor a mathematical or electrical gift to keep it running. No, she is a gene-mage, who will only prove useful once she turns 18 and can be contracted out to bear children. Johnston gives readers a dystopian space drama that blends the spirit of Firefly with the heart of The Handmaid's Tale. It's a rewarding read that reflects on human trafficking, the value of human life, and the ethics of gene editing, all posited within the personal framework of almost-18-year-old Pendt's sudden bid for freedom during a station stop and the two brothers committed to helping her.