Thursday, May 02, 2019

Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi (2012)

A randomly picked up book from the library young adult section. Not bad. But of course, only the first in a trilogy. We have an earth divided into those that live in Pods, protected from the dangerous Aether or electrical storms that could destroy all in their path. All their basic needs are taken care of and to prevent boredom, they wear a Smarteye, through which they communicate and spend most of their waking hours in worlds of their choosing. Others have been left on the outside to fend for themselves. They appear to live in villages that try to survive by farming and hunting.Aria is from a Pod, a Dweller a Mole, Perry an Outsider or Savage. They meet briefly, when Aria ventures into a forbidden Pod containing a forest and fruit trees and when Soren, a boy from her Pod, attacks her, Perry rescues her. Aria gets cast outside after the incident, left to die. Perry finds her and they start their arduous adventure together - mistrusting and not understanding each other - until they do. I could not begin to explain Perry's situation, but his too is precarious. His brother is the leader of their village and has a son Talon, that Perry loves very much, but who is ill and getting weaker. At one point, the Dwellers kidnap Talon, and Perry feels it his duty to go rescue him. Aria's goal is to find her mother. Before she was exiled, she had not heard from her mother for a while, but a message had appeared in her Smarteye from her mother that she was unable to retrieve before all fell apart. Their goal is a haven of sorts headed by Marron, who could fix her Smarteye and help them towards their goals. On the way they have to deal with hunger, fatigue, the electric storms, cannibals, wolves, a strange child Cinder, but they do run into Perry's old friend Roar, which helps to have another person on their team, plus Aria can speak to him much more easily than Perry. Like this well enough to go look for the next book.

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