Overview
Journey to the sun with a space-faring holy order, a drunken pilot and the young teen caught between them.
Bartholomew hasn't had a lot of life experience. As a novice monk aboard the spaceship monastery Prominence, he spends his days in worship and creating exquisite sun-fired pottery. These trips to the sun are the only life Bart has known. Then, while training to be a pilot with Gary, the ship's hard-drinking captain, Bart hears tales of life beyond the bulkheads.
Life is quiet until, one fateful trip, Bart is plunged into more trouble than he's ever known. Two rescued castaways turn out to be interstellar thieves. A cleaning of the ship's bilge leads to a shocking encounter with a giant eel. And then, disaster: when the Prominence reaches the closest point in its orbit around the sun, the engines fail.
With only hours before the ship incinerates, Gary devises a plan, but it will save just a few of the ship's 70 occupants. As temperatures and emotions soar, Bart heads into space, risking everything to save them all.
Monks in Space is filled with zero-gravity action, memorable characters and mounting anxiety as the end of hope draws near. Readers will thrill to this electrifying adventure.
Synopsis
An action-filled juvenile novel set on a spaceship monastery tells how the quiet life of a novice, Bart, turns into a series of disasters and he must risk everything to save just a few of the ship's 70 occupants.
School Library Journal
Gr 6-9
In a spaceship abbey (a church and living quarters) flying through outer space, Bart prays to Sol, the god of the Copernican order. A 14-year-old novice monk, he is training to be the pilot of the Prominence with Gary, the only non-monk onboard. Bart foils thieves trying to steal from the abbey, flies naked through zero-g, and accidentally finds a way to save the ship when a malfunction sends it hurtling toward their "god" and total incineration. In a religious order that prays to the sun and doesn't believe in the afterlife, Bart must find his way through temptation, in the form of a female thief, to discover what he wants in life. Teens will enjoy this humorous, well-written futuristic tale with a twist.-June H. Keuhn, Corning East High School, NY
Editorials
Canadian Materials
Monk's climax is wonderfully exciting, and the last 70 pages are nearly impossible to put down. Recommended.— Caitlin Campbell
Canadian Materials -
Monk's climax is wonderfully exciting, and the last 70 pages are nearly impossible to put down. Recommended.School Library Journal
Gr 6-9
In a spaceship abbey (a church and living quarters) flying through outer space, Bart prays to Sol, the god of the Copernican order. A 14-year-old novice monk, he is training to be the pilot of the Prominence with Gary, the only non-monk onboard. Bart foils thieves trying to steal from the abbey, flies naked through zero-g, and accidentally finds a way to save the ship when a malfunction sends it hurtling toward their "god" and total incineration. In a religious order that prays to the sun and doesn't believe in the afterlife, Bart must find his way through temptation, in the form of a female thief, to discover what he wants in life. Teens will enjoy this humorous, well-written futuristic tale with a twist.-June H. Keuhn, Corning East High School, NY