This is a fun sci-fi / space opera series for younger middle grade readers, featuring a contest to get into space, a team of four winners, and simulations that prepare them for the challenges they'll face on a two-year mission. I know it's a bit older, but given the weight many of these authors carry in kid-lit circles, I felt it worth reading and recommending for the holiday season.
The set up is that the Earth has depleted all fossil energy sources and is experiencing wide-spread electricity blackouts. Enter Project Alpha, ostensibly judged by Commander Shawn Phillips, but actually conceived and controlled behind the scenes by Chris, a boy-genius who supposedly designed the technology to go into space and find the elements that will form the Source, an unlimited power source for Earth. (I'm not entirely convinced Chris is human, but I'll have to read more to find out.)
Project Alpha starts as a nationwide competition and is winnowed down to eight finalists, who make up the bulk of the story. Only four kids are chosen, but don't count the losers out of the competition.
They're chosen after facing simulation challenges presenting situations they'll encounter while on the two-year mission in space. One is against a Raptogon, a sort of Tyranno-Velociraptor hybrid on a jungle-like planet. Another is a yeti-like being in a frozen tundra. Another is a bunch of sneaky, intelligent robots in an entirely engineered structure with moving floor tiles (kinda like a video game).
The twelve year olds are chosen because anyone over the age of 14 can be harmed by the space travel technology utilized on the Cloud Leopard. Except for Chris.
The Alpha teen captain, Dash, is older than anticipated and has to take drugs to delay the onset of puberty, and if he doesn't take his meds on time, every day, he could die before coming home from the mission. That's a tall order for any 12-year-old to adhere to. The other three winners are Gabriel, who wants to be a pilot; Carly and Piper, who uses a cool hovercraft insted of a wheelchair.
The first planet the kids go to is the Raptogon planet, and the challenge is to extract a tooth from one of the huge hulking beasts. I won't spoil how it ends, just know they have to come together as a team to accomplish their mission.
It sets it up nicely for book 2. This was a quick, easy read, fun for middle grade readers interested in science fiction and space travel who still haven't quite given up their fascination of dinosaurs. Enjoy!
In the second book, the Alpha team onboard the Cloud Leopard -- Dash, Piper, Carly and Gabriel, guided by th enigmatic Chris -- learn the Omega Team's following them and they have an edge: a leader, Colin, who looks strikingly like Chris.
More on that later.
They are now competing for the second element, Magnus 7, found only on Meta Prime, which is a world split between two sides of warring robots. One side is led by Lord Garquin, the other by Lord Cain. The element they seek is contained in a little robot named TULIP, who they have to search for amidst the hordes of robots flinging lava bombs at each other.
What Team Alpha doesn't know is their leader, Chris, created the war on his first visit to the planet aeons ago, which is why he knows so much about how to train the kids to face the planet's challenges.
While Team Omega's fully briefed on the situation, and they quickly get the upper hand. How?
I won't spoil how it ends, just know, now both teams are head-to-head in this competition and Dash is a bit too trusting -- of everyone, really -- to fully get the upper-hand for some time to come.
This book only existed in one format at my public library: on CDs! It took me forever to listen to it in the car. The biggest thing I took away from this book was that I'm not an audio book reader / listener. I finally started listening with a pen and paper nearby, so I could take notes. This will be the vaguest of all the reviews I write, because nothing in the audio book really "stuck."
The two teams head to Aqua Gen (I have no idea if this is spelled correctly, because I listened, I didn't read it) and Dash's team heads down to the surface, leaving Piper (who doesn't swim well) to run the analysis on where to find the element, pollen slither. It comes from the ocean floor, and rises to the surface.
It starts with Dash's log entry, saying he's left a crew member behind. An ominous start. But then the book skips back in time to the start of the mission, so you're reading to find out which member does he have to leave behind?
Right off the bat, Dash and Carly and Gabriel try to use the water skis, jet skis, essentially to find a pollen slither slick, and they're knocked off by the planet's biggest predator, Predator Z. The other team, Team Omega, leads the planet's pirates right to the kids, who take them hostage while Ana and her team seek out the source of the pollen slither.
The pirates are then attacked by another form of predator, I forget which, and other pirates attack those pirates, and Dash's team's new ally, the first pirate leader, manages to keep them safe. Dash finally gets a hold of STEAM, the little robot, to bring the ship down close and they're let free to find the source of the pollen slither. Notably, the pirate captain gives him a ring of processed pollen slither, a token of their alliance.
In the meantime, Piper's been unable to reach them, so when she finally figures out where the pollen slither's coming from, she conquers her fears and hops into the submarine to descend to the bottom of the ocean to mine it. But Team Omega gets there first, and the second set of pirates, the ones who attacked Dash and his team on the surface, are prowling underwater, as well.
I won't ruin how it ends. I loved the non-linear storytelling. I just wish there were new editions, so my library could purchase a new (non-audio) copy.
Alpha team's rebounding after their first defeat to Team Omega in book 3, when they fail to get the element, Pollen Slither, on planet Aqua Gen.
Now they have to collect a thousand toxic pellets from Stingers, batlike creatures living on planet Infinity in underground caves. To do so, Chris tells them they'll have to avoid Sawtooth Land Eels and cooperate with the Jackals, but avoid becoming prize trophies in their collections.
Once on the planet, they learn the Jackals have abandoned their scientific outpost, leaving only one scientist and a former friend of Chris' behind. Team Omega has opted to avoid the Jackals altogether, which gets them into hot water, fast.
I won't spoil how Team Alpha collects the stinger pellets (it was really ingenious, good thinking, Gabriel!) nor how or why the other team fails. I kinda feared the book would fall into the "rise to the challenge of the week" rut .
Instead, there's another plot twist by Colin and Anna that involves an Alpha Team member that works well within the plot and it rounded out the story, giving it a bit more gravitas and stakes.
Enjoy!
The two teams head to the ice planet, Planet Tundra, to extract an element found only in the ice crystals in the blood of enormous walrus-like creatures called Ice Crawlers. They consume teeny, tiny ice grasshopper-like creatures that swarm on the planet's surface, which is ravaged by wind storms. Exposure to the freezing temps is fatal to the kids. So you kinda know, that's where all this is headed.
The book starts with Piper trying to escape her captivity on Team Omega's ship. She's not been harmed, but she's bored to tears waiting for Team Alpha to rescue her, so she starts to plan her own escape.
On Team Alpha, Gabriel is planning Piper's rescue. He just has to wait until Dash and the others leave for the Tundra surface so he can get the ball rolling.
Of course, once Dash and Carly are actually on the planet, nothing goes as planned. Team Omega is there too, with Anna beating them to the Ice Crawlers (and coming up empty, but Dash and Carly don't know that. They crack the windshield on their vehicle racing to the Ice Crawlers and have to seek shelter in a cave before they freeze to death. They get their own ice crystal sample (I won't ruin it and say how), but by then Anna's in trouble, her vehicle having been flipped into a strange lake of a mercury-like substance that will surely kill her. Dash does the right thing, and needs Colin and Gabriel's help just as Gabriel is about to implement his rescue plan...
I won't spoil how it ends! This was a great, fun read!
Team Alpha comes back after getting the zero crystals on planet Tundra. But then Team Omega's ship, the Light Blade, explodes, and everyone fears Piper is killed in the blast and that the Aqua Gen element, Pollen Slither, is destroyed. Mission over. Earth will go totally black. Dash will die for nothing.
But then Piper survives and brings the Pollen Slither with her, so the Alpha Team now has the upper hand. The Omegas are forced to work with Team Alpha, and they learn the Cloud Leopard is so much more fun than the Light Blade was -- the tunnels, great food, screens for gaming, Chris is kind and encouraging, etc.
Colin is locked up in Chris' room, although not for long and not without making several attempts to escape and sabotage the teams' arrival at the new planet, Dargon, where they're supposed to work with Elves and Ogres to gather fresh dragon cinder. (Kinda cheesy, I know. I prefered the totally made-up alien animals, but suspend belief and just go with it...)
But Colin causes the Cloud Leopard to slip out of Gamma speed too soon, making it near-impossible for the kids to arrive at Dargon in time. Dash is days away from dying, as his supply of injections is running out and the kids have to use one to get them to Dargon in time.
I won't spoil the rest of the plot twists along the way, or how they end up finding a better solution to this world's problem than Chris did, aeons ago. Just know, it's a satisfying end to the series.
Enjoy!
