The Starbound Trilogy: This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner
Hyperion Books, 2014. ISBN 9781743319703
(Age: 16+) Highly recommended. The People of Avon are at war on a
still-terra-forming planet. They think that there are only two sides
to the war: military and rebel forces. How wrong they are . . .
Following the journey of military captain, Lee Chase and rebel
leader, Flynn Cormac, two of the most notorious names on Avon, this
second instalment fights to show that La Roux Industries was working
in secret throughout the galaxy. During their first meeting Captain
Chase and Cormac fight tooth and nail to gain the upper hand. Chase
is the superior fighter and famous for being a bloodthirsty killer,
while Cormac is simply fishing for information. He is well educated
for the Fianna and at first Chase thinks that he's an off worlder,
but her hopes are quashed when she is drugged and taken east to a
secret facility that Cormac had discovered. It wasn't military and
it wasn't Fianna. Confused and frightened, Cormac takes Chase to the
caves where the Fianna live, hoping to make a trade with the
military for information. He is desperately worried about his planet
and why it isn't progressing. After three generations of colonists
the planet is still unable to support life. But this mystery is too
mysterious for the Fianna, and for the military as well. The pair
become outlaws from their own homes and must forge ahead to discover
the truth and save their people from the Fury, a mind altering
illness which drives people to murder one another without
discrimination.
Unexpectedly, the second instalment introduces new main characters
into the trilogy while Tarver and Lilac La Roux keep a low profile,
hiding in some far corner of the galaxy, only to come out when most
needed.
Although I am no lover of science fiction I would highly recommend
this for young people over the age of sixteen who have an interest
in sci-fi and romance.
Kayla Gaskell, age eighteen.