Losers in Space
Titling such an intelligent sf novel Losers in Space is itself an act of bravery, and it displays Barnes’ refreshing insistence on not taking himself too seriously. In 2129, lazy children of celebrities simply try to get video of themselves (preferably naked) “splyctered” into endless chunks of media, thereby attaining the desired rank of a professional celebrity. To expedite this, nine spoiled teens stow away on a ship headed to Mars—a publicity coup!—only to be lost in space when the rest of the ship explodes. Even worse, one of them is a psychopath. Rather than turn this into a reality-show farce, Barnes (Tales of the Madman Underground, 2009) uses the situation to bring out the best in each teen, proving that all have more to offer than they ever expected. In a move reminiscent of Louis Sachar’s The Cardturner (2010), Barnes sequesters the “hard” sf science into skippable “infodump” sections, an interesting experiment that only half works. Still, this is a highly unusual offering with an unexpected message about the potential usefulness of celebrity. Grades 9-12. --Daniel Kraus