Figgy O'Connell

To the credit of this book, it was a pretty fast read, and I didn't find it DRAGGING like I did books such as Red Hill.

Other than that? Hmm....

Ok, so this premise had so much potential. I was picturing a cross between Earth 2 and Lord of the Flies.

This book is so not that. Not even close.

So, basically, about three hundred years before the novel starts, people evacuated Earth because of giant nuclear issue of some sort. Something that left enough radiation to make it unsafe for people to live there. It's not explained properly.

100 juvenile delinquents are sent to Earth as human guinea pigs, to see if the radiation has dissipated enough and if it's safe enough for the rest of the colony to join them. (Seriously, though, WHY ARE THEY STILL CIRCLING EARTH, 300 YEARS LATER?! Why didn't they, I don't know, LOOK FOR A NEW PLANET?!)

There are so many things wrong with this novel, which could have been fixed, but might have gotten in the way of the story.... Oh, sorry, I mean romance.

On the ship, people gather scraps of Earth made material - THREE HUNDRED year old Earth cloth - in order to stitch together gowns and the like. They have the facilities on the ships to make Scrubs and other clothes, but there's something about a ratty old, oil stained blue cloth that shows off your status. Yeah...

Each of the four narrators is constantly beating themselves up about what horrible people they are, worse than anyone else in their group, and after 150 pages, I really started to hate them for it. GET OVER IT, guys, you have SURVIVING to do!

It also bothered me how easily everything came to them.

- Bellamy had read about hunting, (had he READ about using a bow, too?) when he was on the ship, so he becomes their hunter, and brings back food after his first hunting expedition, and is a MASTER bowman. (He also studied everything he could about Earth when he found out his sister was being sent there... But he found out his sister was being sent there THE DAY it was set to happen.)
- When they decided to build a wooden structure using the trunks of trees, they started on it immediately, Wells suddenly knowing the best way to make the logs slot into each other and hold together. They didn't have to sit down and plan it out or anything.
- The freaking fire. Yes, I'm sure they OFTEN had to work out how to cobble a fire together from scraps of wood on the SPACE SHIPS, and getting it started without a lighter would be no problem at all. (There was no mention of having found a lighter in the wreckage that I can recall, when every other discovery was huge to the story.)

There was no conflict. Not real conflict.

So, one-hundred delinquents are sent to Earth, and there are NO disagreements between them? (There are a couple of arguments prompted by things, but they seem to resolve very anti-climatically. Nothing gets out of hand.)
Even if the colony has been super strict and locking people up for nonsense reasons, chances are SOME of the kids locked up WERE actually really messed up. Even a group of normal kids, suddenly out of their element and at risk of going hungry(that is to say, they know their protein packs are GOING to run out, but then deer-hunter Bellamy gets them animals, so they don't actually find themselves close to going hungry at all) there would be SOME arguments, SOME craziness.

I just get the feeling that Kass Morgan took the easy way out. Every time.

Oh, and the other thing that really bugged me? They're running out of oxygen? After 300 years?! In order to SURVIVE 300 years, they would need an oxygen plant. They mention that the last tree from Earth is set fire to, and put out, but then they also mention that Apples are grown on the ship. Apples don't grow on vines, guys. There were other trees.

Aaaaand, when they're running out of air, and the different ships are blocked off from one another by... A glass wall? This is done in order to keep the oxygen on the rich ship, and let the poor people suffocate and die first. Glass(the character, not the wall) climbs through an old air vent to get to the poor ship so she can at least die happy with her true love...

So... There's an air vent? Even a disused air vent shaft is a tunnel through the wall, covered by a grate, which would allow the oxygen to leave the rich ship and make it to the others. The air might be more stuffy, thinner, with a narrow opening letting it through, but air is STILL GOING TO GET THROUGH.

Also, what the hell, Wells? You IDIOT! Of COURSE there are other ways to save your true love, and if not... Well, she won't be alive to hate you anymore, will she? And you'll get over it, and more people will survive than if you freaking COMPROMISE THE AIR LOCK. I agree with another reviewer. Wells is a douche.

Maybe if there had been a little more description about the ship, and the planet, I might have found it more believable, but as it sits now it seems like Miss Morgan just couldn't be bothered working out the science in her science-fiction story.