The year is 2035. After eco­log­i­cal dis­as­ters nearly destroyed the Earth, 26 survivors—the last of humanity—are trapped by an alien race in a ster­ile enclo­sure known as the Shell. Fifteen-year-old Pete is one of the Six—children who were born deformed or ster­ile and raised in the Shell. As, one by one, the sur­vivors grow sick and die, Pete and the Six strug­gle to put aside their anger at the alien Tesslies in order to find the means to rebuild the earth together. Their only hope lies within brief time-portals into the recent past, where they bring back chil­dren to replen­ish their dis­ap­pear­ing gene pool. Mean­while, in 2013, bril­liant math­e­mati­cian Julie Kahn works with the FBI to solve a series of inex­plic­a­ble kid­nap­pings. Sud­denly her pre­dic­tive algo­rithms begin to reveal more than just crim­i­nal activ­ity. As she begins to real­ize her role in the impend­ing cat­a­stro­phe, simul­ta­ne­ously affect­ing the Earth and the Shell, Julie closes in on the truth. She and Pete are con­verg­ing in time upon the future of humanity—a future which might never unfold. Weav­ing three con­sec­u­tive time lines to unravel both the mys­tery of the Earth’s destruc­tion and the key to its sal­va­tion, this taut adven­ture offers a top­i­cal mes­sage with a sat­is­fy­ing twist.

Review:

Hav­ing been a fan of Kress’ work for years, I couldn’t wait to get this book in my hands.  This amaz­ing book kept me inter­ested to the very last page.  While there are three time­lines within the story, Kress’ abil­ity to weave the three together with­out los­ing the reader aston­ishes.  Her beau­ti­ful sto­ry­telling mas­ter­fully crafts a tale of mys­tery and intrigue.  Many ques­tions arise and they are answered as the story comes to its impres­sive cli­mac­tic end.  While this is only one short book, per­fect to read in a day, it reminds me of read­ing the ‘Beg­gars’  trilogy.

I highly rec­om­mend you read this book, espe­cially if you are a fan of Kress’ work and if not, what a won­der­ful book to start your obses­sion with her writing.