Momentum

by Saci Lloyd

Overview

In the near future, energy wars are raging across the globe, blackouts are a regular occurrence, and the privileged Citizens and the desperate Outsiders of London live very separate lives. Hunter is a Citizen whose father works for the government; yet he cannot help being fascinated by the Outsiders' ingenuity and, in particular their mastery of free running. When he meets Uma, an Outsider, he is quickly drawn into her world and finds himself racing against time—and against the government's cruel Kossak soldiers—to protect everything the Outsiders hold dear.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823427321
Publisher:	Holiday House
Publication date:	09/07/2012
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	827 KB
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Saci Lloyd has worked as a script editor for Camouflage Films, where she was involved in several projects including a $20m Columbia Tri-Star co-production, Amy Foster. She is now head of Media at Newham Sixth Form College

Editorial Reviews

Gr 7–10—Even though Hunter is a rich, privileged Citizen, he sometimes goes to the edge of the slums, where the Outsiders live, and practices jumping between buildings and moving acrobatically. It's a great distraction from reality, such as the power outages that happen frequently in this future, energy-diminished London. For Outsider Uma, jumping isn't practice, but a tool for a quick getaway. Outsiders make do with what they've got for food, energy, and anything else they need, but they're treated like criminals by Citizens and soldiers alike. Hunter and Uma cross paths while witnessing the murder of an Outsider boy, and again when Hunter watches as Uma, her cousin, and her aunt are taken into custody, falsely accused of orchestrating a plot to destroy the nuclear power plant that has taken years to build. After she escapes, Uma and Hunter work together to figure out how to protect the valuable piece of Outsider technology that she has been guarding, and how to find its rightful owner, the Keeper. This fast-paced novel reads like a movie script. Unfortunately, the same reluctant readers who would love the action will be turned off by the first few confusing chapters, and more advanced readers might be frustrated by the lack of depth. Also, while Hunter and Uma are interesting characters, there is little to make them sympathetic. Hunter's flashbacks to his past feel insincere, and Uma seems disconnected from hers. The action is great, but the story lacks the background it needs to pack its punch.—Kelly Jo Lasher, Middle Township High School, Cape May Court House, NJ

School Library Journal

In a near-future dystopia, a rich boy and a wrong-side-of-the-tracks girl find love while fighting the corrupt system. Hunter is bored with luxury. He's not just a Citizen (a coveted status in an energy-strapped London where most either scrabble for coveted permanent IDs or rebel as illegal Outsiders), he's also one of the wealthy 2 percent. While his friends entertain themselves in virtual-reality boxing matches, Hunter braves roof jumping in the favelas, the city's multiethnic slums. He has no desire to risk his life of privilege, but he crosses paths with the Kossaks, the brutal police force, as they casually murder a fleeing Outsider. Now Hunter's running with Uma, the Outsider girl who's hiding the linchpin of the whole rebellion. Hunter and Uma are defending the key to the Dreamline, the semi-magical underground Internet. The Dreamline is used globally by those illegally rebuilding Outside society into a model of green energy, peace and love, and the Kossaks want it gone. As the pair flee through the multilingual alleys, rebels educate Hunter with unsubtle polemic about "ordinary people...united under a common cause": anarchy, togetherness and energy independence. Political choices--and all choices in this world are political--spring more from mythic overtones or contemporary-world parallels than from consistent worldbuilding. Fun, roof-jumping adventure that could benefit from subtler Occupy ideology. (Science fiction. 13-16)

Kirkus Reviews