The Ether: Vero Rising (An Ether Novel)
Screenwriter Molinari debuts with an action-packed but derivative novel that kicks off the Ether series. Vero Leland is a 12-year-old whose youthful fascination with heights and flight presages a startling discovery: he's a guardian angel. He is taken to the Ether—an upper-air world—for training, and the narrative alternates between his life in suburban America with his fellow middle-schoolers and his life in the Ether with his angel peers in CANDLE (Cathedral of Angels for Novice Development, Learning, and Edification). The Ether allows for some highly imaginative adventures, but training young students to wield their powers is a familiar trope, and novelists offering an edifying Christian alternative to the fictional worlds of Percy Jackson and other super-powered young heroes have gone to the angelic well a lot (Jonah Stone, the Halflings series). The good-versus-evil dynamic and quick pacing of scenes owe both to movies, given Molinari's experience, and to Christian thrillermeister Frank Peretti. Molinari offers some engaging characters and exciting moments, but falls short in terms of imagination. Ages 9–12. Agents: Jan Miller and Nena Madonia, Dupree Miller & Associates. (Feb.)