Guardian (Proxy)
Gr 8 Up—London creates an intricately high tech world in which the heroes find themselves on an action-packed quest to save humanity from a zombielike illness and thoroughly corrupt government. After the Jubilee and change in governments, Syd reluctantly finds himself the icon of the Reconciliation with a lovelorn bodyguard, Liam. Syd and Liam race against time and villains, all the while falling in love. This dystopian Detroit has the usual trappings of science fiction—hovercrafts, new ecosystems, gadgets—and the ideals of growing one's own food, communal property, equality, and the evil of debt. Much like Mao's Great Leap Forward (complete with a bedridden gangster leader and illegal "covetous" thoughts), people suffer while the government knowingly feeds off their misery. The message lacks subtlety: absolute power corrupts absolutely. This maxim is illustrated by the Council wittingly allowing people to die of the zombielike illness because the cure requires the rebuilding of the machine that once held them captive to corporations. The Council will destroy themselves if need be; they refuse to return to the old ways. Yet Syd and Liam are willing to fight to the death. Regrettably, Syd seems to have lost some of his moxy, and both characters are fairly two-dimensional, but Proxy (Philomel, 2012) fans will be satisfied with the constant action and the conclusion to Syd's story.—Laura Falli, McNeil High School, Austin, TX