After hours (no exaggeration) of wandering around aimlessly at Barnes and Noble with my trusty friend, Tony, I finally found something for this category. Granted there is tons and tons of traditional Sci-Fi that fits this category, but that doesn't interest me as much. Instead, I discovered a book called The 100 by Kass Morgan. Well, I felt like a moron because apparently this is a trilogy and there are already two completed seasons of a TV show of it, but I was just figuring this out.
Part of this book is set on a spacecraft where humanity has lived for hundreds of years because of a nuclear war making Earth's surface radio active. We never find out (at least in book one) how they managed to build the spacecraft and evacuate people while Earth was being nuked, but whatever. The other part of the book is set on Earth.
The Chancellor of what's left of humanity has decided that it is time (300ish years later) to try to go back to Earth. He realizes that they cannot live on the ship forever and that their oxygen supply has about been depleted. On this ship, juveniles who are arrested (for whatever reason) are held in prison until their 18th birthday. Once that comes, they are given a retrial. At their retrial they can either be pardoned or executed. Because oxygen levels are running dangerously low, no one is getting pardoned. So, The Chancellor decides to send 100 of these young prisoners to Earth as lab rats to see if the radiation levels have gone down enough to be safe to bring down the rest of the human population.
This book follows the stories of four of these lucky 100. Clarke is a girl who has been sentenced for something she is not guilty of -- but she's hiding a secret. Wells is The Chancellor's son who only commits a crime so he can be sent to Earth in hopes of protecting Clarke. Bellamy is the only one who has seen his 18th birthday, but forced his way onto the ship to Earth so he can take care of his sister, Octavia, who is there because she steals stuff. Finally there is Glass. Glass was supposed to be on the ship but escapes and runs back to find Luke, the boy who she was protecting when she was sent to prison.
Once the group crashes into Earth, there are so many things that they encounter. Of course their ship crashed so they lost a lot of their food, medical supplies, tools, etc. People are wounded and hungry. There is a fire. I mean, crazy stuff all around. Not to mention that they are all criminals in one form or another. However, the ending of this volume leaves us with a big ol' cliffhanger.
Meanwhile, back in space, Glass and Luke discover that their time is rapidly running out. The ship goes into lockdown and two of the three colonies have been cut off from all oxygen so that the "privileged" colony has the best chance of survival.
This is a very fast, easy read. It isn't the best thing I have ever read, but it is definitely an entertaining story. I really look forward to reading the other two books (as soon as this Reading Challenge is over).
3.5 Stars