Saturday, December 29, 2012

Losers in Space by John Barnes - OPTIONAL


Barnes, John Losers in Space, 433 p. Viking (Penguin), 2012.  $19.  Language: R (30+ swears, 10+ ‘f’); Mature Content: PG-13 (undescribed sex; body parts); Violence: G.  

In a world where being a professional celebrity is really the only way to “have it all”, a group of spoiled misfits decide to make themselves famous by stowing away on a Mars-bound ship.  When everyone on board is killed except for the kids, the situation becomes desperate.  If they don’t actually access their brainpower for once, they are also as good as dead. 

If you can it past the self-centered first 80 pages of this book, you will find a very good hard-core science fiction novel.  You will find science, danger, intelligence, treachery and bravery – but the beginning makes this a hardsell to the true SF lover and I have a hard time believing that a person who really likes the beginning will have any chance of liking the rest of it.  This will be a hand-seller to exactly the right reader – who that is in a school, I have NO idea.  Personally, I enjoyed it after page 80 and was glad that I had read it.  

HS – OPTIONAL. Cindy, Library teacher

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