Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Nova - Margaret Fortune

Nova
Margaret Fortune
DAW, Jun 2 2015, $24.95
ISBN 9780756410810

When the Aurora Colony fell, teenager Lia Johansen, her parents and other civilians became POWs living in the Tierstan Internment Camp.  Over the next two years she watched her only family die there before she left as a refugee on the Xenia Aneli ship arriving at the New Sol Space Station.

Upon taking her first step onto her new home, a clock activates in her mind in which she has 36:00:00 to live before she explodes as a suicide bomber killing and maiming many people at the station.  The human bomb also knows now she contains the memories of someone else, this sixteen years old Lia, but none of her own.  When a childhood friend of Lia, Michael greets her, she becomes confused by the influx of good memories that flood her conscious.  As her internal clock runs down to the final minutes, an error occurs that halts the mission.  As Lia wonders what to do since there is no contingency plan; she finds she prefers spending time with Michael and other new friends she has made; though she also questions whether her desires are hers or those of the original.

Targeting young adults, Nova is a gripping science fiction thriller that looks deeply into what memory is and the influence of friends.  Lia keeps the intriguing tale focused as she struggles to accept the recall of what she is and was, and what she was supposed to do as Nova to her friends.


Harriet Klausner

No comments: