During the nuclear war on earth, the Earth developed a radioactive surface, and for centuries afterwards what was left of humanity lived in spaceships above Earth’s surface. One hundred juvenile delinquents are to be sent to Earth to re-colonise and discover if it is possible to live on the thought-to-be-uninhabitable planet, but they are all expected to die. They survived.
The ships had started to run low on food supplies and air, so they are hoping to inhabit earth once again.
The book consists of four points of view, Clarke, Wells and Bellamy (who are sent to Earth), and Glass, who barely escaped the expected suicide mission. During the book, we glimpse in each characters’ past life and relationships, which they ponder in their thoughts. Even though Glass escaped being sent to Earth she has yet to learn that staying on the ship means certain death.
At first I didn’t think I would enjoy this book, because I don’t really read sci-fi and I got a little confused between the alternating characters’ views and pasts, but I soon adjusted and enjoyed the book thoroughly. An absolutely fascinating read, I haven’t read anything similar and I found the synopsis intriguing as we got to see views from the collapsing ship and Earth, which turns out not to be radioactive any longer.
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