Corn is king in the Heartland, and Cael McAvoy has had enough of it. It’s the only crop the Empyrean government allows the people of the Heartland to grow ? and the genetically modified strain is so aggressive that it takes everything the Heartlanders have just to control it. As captain of the Big Sky Scavengers, Cael and his crew sail their rickety ship over the corn day after day, scavenging for valuables, trying to earn much-needed ace notes for their families. But Cael’s tired of surviving life on the ground while the Empyrean elite drift by above in their extravagant sky flotillas. He’s sick of the mayor’s son besting Cael’s crew in the scavenging game. And he’s worried about losing Gwennie ? his first mate and the love of his life ? forever when their government-chosen spouses are revealed. But most of all, Cael is angry ? angry that their lot in life will never get better and that his father doesn’t seem upset about any of it. Cael’s ready to make his own luck . . . even if it means bringing down the wrath of the Empyrean elite and changing life in the Heartland forever.
Release Date: July 30, 2013
Well… I don’t know what to say about this book. The cover is dumb but the story isn’t bad, dystopian to be sure. Not sure what exactly happened to Earth as we know it, the book alluded to some amount of greed from the human race and then something scientific happened to more permanently separate the rich from the poor. And to keep the poor, poor, the rich control the poor by limiting their crops to grow and increase their taxes. Since the book is the first in a trilogy the first 2/3rd of the book involved setting the scene. The last part really took off and got interesting.
I liked the creative language used to avoid out right cursing. Avoiding the traditional curse words takes imagination and inventiveness. Certainly the world that was created was original, but not fully complete. There were some things missing from the backstory. I can’t put my finger on what was missing but something doesn’t work. And it took forever to get to the action part of the book. The real meat of the story that hooked you didn’t really start occurring until the middle of the book. I think the subsequent books will be better because the scene is already set. My hope is that some of my questions will be answered in other books, like what happens to a family that wins the lottery? Will Gwennie ever figure out whom she loves? Why does the corn grow like that? What happened to the sister? Will Pop reunite with the kids? And so on. I felt like the book left me with more questions than anything else.
While it seems that the civilization is ruled by the mutated corn the book does not really focus on it that much. Sure it is mentioned, but really more as an irritant than a ruling plot point in the novel. I think the more important lesson to learn is about the unequal treatment the poor endure at the hands of those who feel they are more important than everyone else. That is what drives the characters and the plot forward.
As you can see there are a lot of unanswered questions. Are there enough to get me to read the second book, maybe. I can’t say right now. If asked how I liked the book I would say eh. It was good but not great. I would recommend to teens from about 16 and up. While there was no explicit language or sexual activity, it was implied and there was some graphic violence.
3 Bards
Moving! 