By LM Preston
Phenomenal One Press
ISBN: 9780984198900
366 Pages
LM Preston, in Explorer X-Alpha, takes pre-teens and young adults not only into the future but also to outer space and beyond! What an action-packed, magically futuristic, suspenseful ride!
Aadi really didn’t want to go to space camp—he didn’t mind going to a summer camp, and just about any sports camp would be great—but Mom and Dad had already signed him up because the company where they worked was sponsoring the space camp. Now they were trying to convince him that he would enjoy it. Aadi knew that only geeky kids were going to the TEGRC space camp. The Technical Exploration and Genome Research Corporation had tested the kids and they were to be the first group to learn about space travel and be able to give feedback to make it even more fun for other kids in the future.
He really wasn’t convinced, especially since there were guys going that he didn’t like, but to please his parents, he finally gave in. Fortunately, he had two secrets to take along. Ebu was a miniature robot he had made that had an intelligence chip; he was his friend and easily fit into his backpack. The other was between he and his mom. Just before he left, he swallowed a “telenex” a prototype that his mother had created which allowed them to secretly communicate!
Just over the first half of the book follows Aadi and his new team as they go through simulations of space travel and other preparations necessary for their first real flight. Aadi’s test had shown he was a natural leader; however, in the contest immediately before the first flight, he was beat out by another pair. They didn’t play fair!
Of course, that had not surprised the team (by the way, you can meet the entire team on the complementary web site!). Eirena had caught Aadi’s eye when they first met and the interaction between them was both competitive and friendly, so that when they finally paired up to travel to Mars, he was pleased to have Eirena as his partner.
For they had discovered much on the large space camp ship that had already alerted them to the possible danger they all faced. Many of the kids had become sick immediately after they had received immunization shots. Aadi’s team had sneaked into other parts of the big ship and knew what had really happened to those kids, even though they were told that those children had been returned home.
It was Aadi’s ability to communicate and report to his mother that started an investigation at home; however, there was no way to stop the flight to Mars from proceeding! And on that flight, almost immediately, the individual ships with each pair of children were sucked into a black starlit path by an invisible pull that took them directly into a wormhole.
Aadi and Eirena then crash-landed on Shrenas... Where Jantik, of Nutah, discovered them...
There is so much to do, so much to discover! Explorer X-Alpha, by LM Preston is the first in a series and you’ll want to start right now to find out what was discovered when the Explorer X team toured the ship and later what happened to Aadi and Eirena on Shrenas...and, ah, be prepared for some strange physical changes to both their bodies and minds! In space, anything is possible! Exciting and strange adventure waits for those who dare to attend...the TEGRC space camp!
G. A. Bixler
I read a story with similar type strong young characters when I was a teenager by Andre Norton. It isnpired me through high school and into my adult life. A fresh take that gets your teens thinking in today's challenging world of the right thing to do!!!
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