  | Full Text Reviews: Booklist - 02/15/2010 All is well on the spaceship Plexus. Decades into a journey that has left earth far behind, the couple thousand residents live a life of insulated security. Their social interactions are sensitive and enlightened, their meals prepared instantaneously, and a serene aura of peace makes their slow search for an inhabitable planet a tranquil one. But what’s that up ahead? A radiation field? Soon after the ship passes through, 17-year-old Cheney finds himself in the middle—literally—of a nightmare. (Warning: somewhat of a first-act spoiler ahead.) With shocking rapidity, the ship begins turning into a biologic organism: the walls become muscle, cables become veins, and simple devices like transport vehicles become equivalent to cellular defenders out to devour viruses—and the viruses are the humans. An unbelievably tense first half plateaus after a time, but that hardly diminishes the gooey, sticky, mucus-covered fun. Jinks’ well-thought-out environs and rational characters help ground this otherwise out-of-control interstellar thriller. - Copyright 2010 Booklist. School Library Journal - 04/01/2010 Gr 7 Up— Cheney, 17, has spent his entire life aboard a spaceship programmed to sustain life and find a habitable planet for its hundreds of human passengers. All has been well for decades—until the Plexus hits a radiation wave. At first, it seems to have passed through unscathed. But crew members soon begin to realize that something is wrong: the ship is becoming an organic organism, and it recognizes its human inhabitants as parasitic intruders. Eventually, Cheney finds himself leading an isolated group of children and teens who are fighting to defend themselves against the ship that has taken care of them for so long. This sci-fi/horror crossover is a quick read, despite some technical language, and Jinks keeps the action moving. Reluctant readers looking for science fiction that is actually set in space will be delighted with it.—Hayden Bass, Seattle Public Library, WA - Copyright 2010 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Bulletin for the Center... - 05/01/2010 For Cheney and his teen peers aboard Plexus, life on a spaceship is all they’ve ever known. Bound for the first habitable planet they can find, the Earth emigrants lead a bland but contented existence with all their needs met by a meticulously programmed ship that runs on carefully nurtured microorganisms. A chance encounter with a bizarre energy wave, however, transforms the very nature of Plexus; initially it seems to be deteriorating, which is scary enough, but the crew eventually begins to realize that it’s not actually falling apart but morphing into a huge organism that considers the humans dashing around its interior to be irritants. Plexus is in fact suffering a massive allergic reaction, and Cheney and his fellow crewmembers are up against a raging immune system. The premise is a gruesome delight, exploiting all the nightmarish possibilities of Slim Goodbody and Fantastic Voyage for a new generation. Admittedly, once that premise is established, there’s little left but to race around slimy innards in hope of shutting down the ship’s computer. Count on slimy innards, though, to be appealing enough to carry the day, as a band of intrepid kids save life as we know it and solemnly caution us against overreliance on technology. As if. EB - Copyright 2010 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Loading...
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