num_pages: 156
description: Fleeing the claustrophobic artificiality of the Moon Bubble, 14-year-olds Marty &amp; Steve illegally reconnoiter-the long-abandoned 1st Station &amp;, following a clue in the journal of "never recovered" Andrew Thurgood, plunge their mechanical crawler into a fragrant, fertile warren of caves. There the enveloping moss &amp; branches, the moving, metamorphosizing leaves &amp; undergrowth are all part of one gigantic sentient Plant which has also provided, for the surviving Thurgood, a lush earth-like orchard &amp; an orchestra tree programmed to play his favorite (now 70-year-old) tunes. The Plant will pamper them until, like the Odyssey's lotus-eaters, they'll relinquish all thoughts of escape. Marty's fight against euphoria, which involves arousing the lethargic, Plant-worshipping Thurgood, is quickly told--more quickly than the Lunarians-at-school episode at the beginning.
language: English
title: The Lotus Caves
titlecomplete: The Lotus Caves
genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Adventure, Speculative Fiction, Young Adult, Middle Grade, Novels, Childrens, Fantasy, Dystopia
ratings_count: 599
publisher: Hamilton