The Prey: 1 (Prey Trilogy) - Softcover

Isbell, Tom

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062216023 ISBN 13: 9780062216021

Publisher: Harperteen, 2016

Synopsis

"A compellingly drawn dystopian future." --BCCB

The Maze Runner meets The Hunger Games in this heart-pounding trilogy--now in paperback.

Orphaned teens, soon to be hunted for sport, must flee their resettlement camps in their fight for survival and a better life. For in the Republic of the True America, it's always hunting season. Riveting action, intense romance, and gripping emotion make this fast-paced adventure a standout debut.

After a radiation blast burned most of the Earth to a crisp, the new government established settlement camps for the survivors. At the camp, sixteen-year-old "LTs" are eager to graduate as part of the Rite. Until they learn the dark truth: LT doesn't stand for lieutenant but for Less Thans, feared by society and raised to be hunted for sport.

They escape and join forces with the Sisters, twin girls who've suffered their own haunting fate. Together they seek the fabled New Territory, with sadistic hunters hot on their trail. Secrets are revealed, allegiances are made, and lives are at stake.

As unlikely Book and fearless Hope lead their quest for freedom, these teens must find the best in themselves to fight the worst in their enemies.

Catch the rest of the series in The Capture and The Release!

About this title

Review:

In Prey, bestselling author Michael Crichton introduces bad guys that are too small to be seen with the naked eye but who are no less deadly or intriguing than the runaway dinosaurs that made 1990's Jurassic Park such a blockbuster success. High-tech whistle-blower Jack Forman used to specialise in programming computers to solve problems by mimicking the behaviour of efficient wild animals--swarming bees or hunting hyena packs, for example. Now he's unemployed and is finally starting to enjoy his new role as stay-at-home dad. All would be domestic bliss if it were not for Jack's suspicions that his wife, who's been behaving strangely and working long hours at the top-secret research labs of Xymos Technology, is having an affair.

When he's called in to help with her hush-hush project, it seems like the perfect opportunity to see what she's been doing, but Jack quickly finds there's a lot more going on in the lab than an illicit affair. Within hours of his arrival at the remote testing centre, Jack discovers his wife's firm has created self-replicating nanotechnology--a literal swarm of microscopic machines. Originally meant to serve as a military eye in the sky, the swarm has now escaped into the environment and is seemingly intent on killing the scientists trapped in the facility. The reader realises early, however, that Jack, his wife and their fellow scientists have more to fear from the hidden dangers within the lab than from the predators without.

The monsters may be smaller in this book, but Crichton's skill for suspense has grown, making Prey a scary read that's hard to set aside. It's not without minor flaws: the science in this novel requires more explanation than did the cloning of dinosaurs, leading to lengthy and sometimes dry academic lessons. And while the coincidence of Xymos's new technology running on the same program that Jack created keeps the plot moving, it may be more than some readers can swallow. But thanks in part to a sobering foreword in which Crichton warns of the real dangers of technology that continues to evolve more quickly than common sense, Prey succeeds in gripping readers with a tense and frightening tale of scientific suspense. --Benjamin Reese

Review:

Readers will appreciate the irony and subtle, deeper meanings in character and location names as Isbell shapes his own vision of a dark world. Pair this with other blockbusters about hope in the midst of despair and danger, Veronica Roth's Four, Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games, and James Dashner's Maze Runner--ALA Booklist

"Avid dystopian fans will anxiously await the next installment."--School Library Journal

"A compellingly drawn dystopian future."--Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

About this edition

• Publisher: Harperteen
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0062216023
• ISBN 13: 9780062216021
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 432