This is one of those books that I brought home from the library and it didn't even hit the kitchen table, it was snatched up right away by my son, who loved the first one!
Mace Blazer has taken off his helmet, exposing to the world he's an underage 12-year-old TURBO racer -- driver of vehicles that have wheels, wings and can go underwater. His driving is strictly illegal, but the race organizers decided to allow him, given his huge world-wide following. And he gets a big, ugly head about it. His arrogance is hard to read, in the beginning.
Meanwhile, fellow underage racer and good friend Aya is still afraid to take off her helmet, because she's yet to win a big race like the Gauntlet Prix in her helicopter-type TURBO racer.
Enter a new racer on the qualifying circuit, Leading Man, aka 'Rad Thad,' or actor Thaddeus Hightower, in an amazing TURBO racer that seemingly can't be beat.
Except by Aya, but only just.
No one can explain how he's doing it. Leading Man has no prior racing experience and apparently doesn't know racers, not the way Mace, Aya and Dex do. Something doesn't add up.
And then Mace almost kills a mother and child in a high-speed race on city streets. (My son LOVED the Mazagatti!) He's ready to hang it up, call it quits from racing forever.
Until his friend Dex disappears. Mace discovers the secret to Hightower's "prowess" behind the wheel -- he's not piloting at all. He's warming a chair, and that's it. An artificial intelligence, strictly banned by the TURBO committee, is piloting the craft.
A military power is developing and testing the AI on TURBO race courses before launching it at the world.
It's up to Mace and his crew to stop it -- by out thinking and out driving it and the general who's wielding it.
We LOVED this sequel! We're hoping there will be a third in the series.
