Search - Zenith

Reviewed by JodiG. for TeensReadToo.com

Once again, Mara is setting sail, fleeing from one unstable place to the promise of others. Again she is headed north and again she is bringing bedraggled and hopeful survivors with her. Everyone is searching for the same thing. A safe place. A home. Land.

In a world where global warming has melted all of the polar ice caps and the world has been flooded, there doesn't seem to be much to hope for anymore. Mara led her family and friends north only to find that the New World city of New Mungo wasn't the salvation they had hoped for. Mara's cyberworld friend, Fox, has stayed behind to battle the corruption, while she sails north with Rowan, the Treenesters, the Urchins, and other escapees from New Mungo in search of the land Mara is sure exists.

Along the way, Mara will meet Tuck, a boy who has only ever lived on the sea. He lives on a floating "city" of connected boats, barges, and bridges, among people with a history of piracy. The navigational course that Fox programmed for Mara's ship didn't include such a civilization - and the ship causes damage to Tuck's people. He joins his people in pursuing the great ship with vengeance in his mind.

But, Tuck's people aren't the biggest threat facing Mara and the refugees of New Mungo. The safety of a distant land may also offer more danger than they ever imagined. And the very act of living is a hard-earned accomplishment as lives are won and lost in this inhospitable new world.

ZENITH is an exciting sequel to EXODUS; I found it to be even more intense and thrilling than the first novel. Julie Bertagna continues to describe a world that could be all too real if threats of global warming aren't taken to heart.