The Deserter

Gr 8 Up—The Deserter picks up where The Inferior (Random, 2008) left off, with the barbarous meat-eater Stopmouth leaving his Stone Age home and storming the high-tech world above in search of his technologically savvy, vegetarian wife, Indrani. Pooling their resources and information, they soon come to realize that The Roof is doomed, and a handful of power-mad "elite" plans to hibernate aboard the ship that brought them to this inhospitable planet until a virus, which will soon destroy the city above and below as well all food sources, has run its course, leaving them the sole survivors of a dead planet. The narrative drags from time to time, a lack of historical background regarding the relocation to another planet creates confusion, and the author has sacrificed vital character development for dramatic action sequences. This might make a better movie than novel. Strictly for fans of the first book.—Jane Henriksen Baird, Anchorage Public Library, AK