“What if you were bound for a new world, about to pledge your life to someone you’d been promised to since birth and one unexpected violent attack made survival – not love – the issue?”When the human race made survival on earth nearly impossible, two spaceships, launched one year apart, are headed towards New Earth to repopulate. The residents of the New Horizon were mostly Christian while the Empyrean housed the heathen population. Forty-three years into the mission, the New Horizon struggles with infertility and no children have been born since leaving Earth. Its sister ship solved the fertility issue and has an entire generation in training to take over. But when one ship’s crew is determined to populate New Earth with their beliefs, lives become endangered.
The residents of the Empyrean are initially excited when they spot the New Horizon through their windows. When questions to Captain Jones about the other ship’s unexpected arrival go unanswered, the ship’s mood quickly turns to fear. Sixteen-year-old Kieran Alden is the Captain’s favorite. He was the first child born aboard the Empyrean. His parents are concerned with the New Horizon’s sudden appearance but Kieran has other things more pressing on his mind. He has met Waverly Marshall in the ship’s orchard. Fifteen-year-old Waverly is the ship’s oldest female and Kieran’s girlfriend. A relationship between the two of them was expected by most everyone aboard the ship even though Kieran’s family is one of the few Christians on board. When Kieran proposes, Waverly is taken aback. She feels that she is too young to make a commitment and become a mother even though having children is essential to their mission. Kieran would do anything Waverly asked him to. But Waverly also holds a soft spot in her heart for the sullen and unpopular Seth Ardvale.
Panic ensues when some of the crew from the New Horizon forcibly enters the Empyrean. Some of the Empyrean adults are immediately killed and Waverly gathers all of the children in the auditorium. The invaders make their way to the children and separate the girls from the boys. The New Horizon members leave the boys behind and take the girls to a shuttle. Another skirmish breaks out when the remaining adults try and stop the shuttle from leaving. Waverly watches in horror as the crew of the New Horizon continues to shoot but one man offers her a choice; come aboard the shuttle or the shooting will continue and takes aim at Kieran. As she backs aboard the shuttle, Seth begs her not to and she makes eye contact. Kieran notices and both boys are devastated.
Why has the New Horizon attacked the Empyrean if their missions are the same? What has happened to the missing parents? Why were only the girls taken and for what purpose? And what happens when the Empyrean’s engines have a nuclear meltdown?
Join the adventure as the boys are separated from the girls and survival not love becomes the issue. Broken into parts, the reader is left hanging as to what happens to one group while the other group begins their story. Readers will be left hanging at the end eagerly awaiting book two in the series.
Visit Amy Kathleen Ryan's website.
Sounds like we'll have to read this one!
ReplyDeleteSash and Em