Saga

The breathtaking sequel to the multistarred Epic!

Ghost is part of a street hacker airboard gang who lives to break rules. When they realize that their world—Saga—is being periodically invaded by strange human beings, they don't know what to do. That is, until they learn the complicated truth: Saga is not just their world. It is a sentient computer game, the replacement to Epic on New Earth, and it's addictive. The Dark Queen who controls Saga is trying to enslave both its people and the people of New Earth. And she'll succeed unless Ghost and her friends—and Erik, from Epic, and his friends—figure out what to do.

KLIATT

In Ghost's world, several laws have been universal for as long as she can remember: social status is determined by the different-colored cards carried by every member of the public, and the Dark Queen rules over all of Saga with iron control. Of course, 15-year-old Ghost cannot remember anything that happened to her before age nine. As she befriends the exotic Cindella Dragonslayer—whose abilities can only be described as "magic" and who seems under the impression that Saga is simply a computer game she is playing—and encounters the Dark Queen's confidant turned would-be assassin Michelotto, Ghost begins to realize that Saga's continued existence depends on her ability to unravel its history and her own. Nearly every exciting storyline today is spun off into a video game, but Saga finally turns the tide by revealing a world originally created by human programmers that eventually became sentient. Numerous gaming elements remain to appeal to teenage readers—such as the matter-repelling airboards on which Ghost and her friends travel—but the narrative also delves deeper than one might expect into questions of stereotypes, social standing, and morality. While its beginning roots it in 1984-genre literature, Saga's guardedly optimistic ending allows it to appeal to a much wider YA audience. Reviewer: Cara Chancellor

Conor Kostick lives in Dublin, Ireland.