Eight years ago and eight light years away, a supermassive star died.
Tonight, a supernova tsunami of high energy will finally reach Earth. Dark skies will shine bright as a new star blooms in the heavens and within a year everyone over the age of thirteen will be dead, their chromosomes irreversibly damaged.
And so the countdown begins.
Parents apprentice their children and try to pass on the knowledge they’ll need to keep the world running.
But the last generation may not want to carry the legacy of their parents’ world. And though they imagine a better, brighter future, they may not be able to escape humanity’s dark instincts…
This book was another mixed bag for me. I liked the concept of children inheriting the Earth and was very interested in how it would turn out. The direction it took was not unexpected given the premise, but I felt that perhaps the author did not have as firm a grasp on how children’s minds work. One such example was commentary that children did not put as much value on life as adults do. I would argue that this is untrue and found the concept of a ‘war game’ with children highly unbelievable.
It felt at times that the author was struggling with the direction and as a consequence there was no real conclusion. Just a chapter serving as an epilogue after an unexpected end.
I would have personally liked to have read more about the first generation of the Supernova Era and how the final game played out.
Shari Sakurai 