Talker 25 - Hardcover

McCune, Joshua

3.35

439 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 006212191X ISBN 13: 9780062121912

Publisher: Greenwillow, 2014

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Debut author Joshua McCune's gritty and heart-pounding novel is a masterful reimagining of popular dragon fantasy set in a militant future reminiscent of Paolo Bacigalupi's Ship Breaker and Ann Aguirre's Outpost. The Horn Book called it "absolutely gripping and absolutely horrifying."

It's a high-school prank gone horribly wrong--sneaking onto the rez to pose next to a sleeping dragon--and now senior Melissa Callahan has become an unsuspecting pawn in a war between Man and Monster, between family and friends and the dragons she has despised her whole life. Chilling, epic, and wholly original, this debut novel imagines a North America where dragons are kept on reservations, where strict blackout rules are obeyed no matter the cost, where the highly weaponized military operates in secret, and where a gruesome television show called Kissing Dragons unites the population. Joshua McCune's debut novel offers action, adventure, fantasy, and a reimagining of popular dragon lore. "The story packs significant punch."--Publishers Weekly

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Review:

"Absolutely gripping and absolutely horrifying, Talker 25 is a sort of fantasy Gulag Archipelago, an account of the stripping down of humanity under extreme duress. That McCune manages an upbeat ending is a surprising feat, but readers will be left shaken by what came before."--The Horn Book

Absolutely gripping and absolutely horrifying, Talker 25 is a sort of fantasy Gulag Archipelago, an account of the stripping down of humanity under extreme duress. That McCune manages an upbeat ending is a surprising feat, but readers will be left shaken by what came before. --The Horn Book"

From the Back Cover:

"Wakey, wakey, everyone."
It's Monday. I think.
Technically, I've been here a week.
Feels like forever.

Melissa Callahan has always hated the dragons. They destroyed her mother, her family, her home. And now she's been charged with collaborating with them, with being an insurgent, and she's been thrown into a cell to . . . well, to what? Think about her nonexistent crimes? Think about how great her life once was? Think about James and her father and her brother and the lies? Think about escaping, when everyone knows that's impossible since the ice stretches forever and the cold is unbearable and the dragons can't hear her anymore.

Melissa Callahan is OTG. Off the grid. And so is Talker 1 and Talker 2 and Talker 3, 5, 7, 11, 22, 26 . . . all of them talking, constantly talking, into the void. All of them waiting for an answer.

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