Gr 9 Up—Things have been bleak in New York City ever since "Big Black," the explosion that destroyed Con Edison and the two-week aftermath of darkness, rioting, looting, and murder. Residents interact with their cell phones more than with one another. For four New Yorkers, though, things are much worse than bleak. One day Laura wakes to find that no one remembers her existence. Mal's brother is missing, and his only lead is that Tommy was running errands for someone in an empty office tower that doesn't seem to conform to the laws of physics. Jon Remak is an agent for a cooperative of loosely aligned groups that tracks the Global Dynamic, an intricate network of indicators that can be used to predict human history. Mike Boothe is a teacher who finds a door in his high school's basement that did not exist before. The four meet in the course of their investigations and discover that they face an adversary that is bent on controlling all of humanity. Karp has created a terrifically gloomy set and peopled it with both very real characters and others that are eerily unreal. His Global Dynamic smacks of Asimov's psychohistory while the entire tone seems like something from Philip K. Dick. With plenty of action, challenging ideas, and bizarre antagonists, this one should appeal to a broad section of teens.—Eric Norton, McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids, WI
After "Big Black," a mysterious event "some years back" that temporarily plunged New York City into darkness, society became even higher tech and people became increasingly alienated. Now the existences of teens Mal and Laura have been erased from people's memories. Together they attempt to reclaim their pasts and destroy a technology that has taken on sinister goals. The story's intriguing premise is well played out.
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