Way Down Dark
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Seventeen-year-old Chan's ancestors left a dying Earth hundreds of years ago, in search of a new home. Generations later, they are still searching . . .
Every day aboard the interstellar transport ship Australia is a kind of hell, where no one is safe, no one can hide. Indeed, the only life Chan's ever known is one of endless violence. A life of survival. Fiercely independent and entirely self-sufficient, she has learned to keep her head down as much as possible, careful not to draw attention to herself amidst the mayhem. For the Australia is a ship of death, filled with murderous gangs and twisted cults, vying for supremacy in a closed environment with limited resources and no hope.
And then one day Chan makes an extraordinary discovery--there may be a way to return the Australia to Earth. But doing so will only bring her to the attention of the fanatics and murderers who control life aboard the ship, putting her and everyone she loves in terrible danger.
Is it worth endangering her life and the lives of her few friends and loved ones for an uncertain return to a home world that may be uninhabitable? Especially since to do so she must descend into the deep dark in the bowels of the ship, which is piled high with the bodies and the secrets of the dead . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
After the Earth became uninhabitable, humans built generation ships as quickly as possible, packed them with as many people as they could, and sent them into space to look for a new home. This is the story that 17-year-old Chan has been told about her home, the Australia, her entire life a desperate but hopeful scenario that sets the tone for adult author Smythe's (The Echo) trilogy opener and first foray into teen fiction. The Australia is dilapidated, and gangs have sprung up to control sections of it. Chan and her mother are part of the Free People, unaffiliated with gangs and trying to survive with what little humanity they can. The book opens with Chan's mother dying after doing everything she can to give her daughter the tools to continue on without her. When one of the gangs, the Lows, essentially declares war on the rest of the ship, Chan's mission becomes even more difficult. There's an overreliance on graphic brutality and narrative twists, but readers will want to see where Chan's grim story goes next. Ages 13 up.
