Burn Out
It’s 300 years after an asteroid hit the sun, throwing our planet into the kind of heat that blisters skin after one minute of exposure. Tora, 17, is the only one in her area left alive, and she lives in a bunker, rationing recycled water and waiting until the day it runs out. Then she is assaulted by a gang of roving interstellar traders who want the stash of bioweapons Tora’s dead father created before being killed. When the lot of them are besieged by Consulate ships, Tora and the renegades are forced to form an uneasy alliance. Well, not that uneasy when it comes to “scruffy” (that’s your signal, readers) James. Helvig’s debut is not well served by the constant modern slang and the lust that disrupts Tora’s thoughts even during life-or-death situations. But though the world building is foggy, there’s a pugnacious grit and scrappy energy to the prose, and the general theme—who, if any, of these raiders can be trusted?—will keep readers on their toes until the final pages. Grades 7-10. --Daniel Kraus