Spinning Starlight

Gr 7 Up—Sixteen-year-old Liddi has grown up in the media spotlight as heir to Jantzen Technology Innovations, the corporation that invented most of the high-tech advancements in use on her planet and six others connected by transportation conduits. But an evil company employee traps her eight older brothers—inventors working for JTI—in the conduits and implants a device in Liddi's throat that will kill them if she speaks. She escapes to an uncharted planet where she must convince the inhabitants that she does not mean them harm, while trying to rescue her brothers. A young man named Tiav is willing to help, but communication is a problem. Liddi comes from a world where voice-activated machines are the norm, so she does not know how to read or write. Much of the book's action involves her frustrating attempts to communicate by picking out syllables on a com-pad. Eventually, with the help of some friendly aliens, she learns what she has to do. Lewis's update of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Wild Swans" is populated with intriguing planets and characters. Liddi is a likable and determined young woman, and her budding romance with Tiav comes as no surprise. But it is hard to believe that, coming from a technologically advanced society, Liddi (and everyone else on the planet) would have grown up illiterate. It seems like a contrived plot device and slows down what could have been a thrilling science-fiction adventure.