Overview
Ghost is part of an anarcho-punk airboard gang who live to break the rules. And there's a good reason - their world, Saga, has a strict class system enforced by high-tech electronics and a corrupt monarchy. Then Ghost and her gang learn the complicated truth. Saga isn't actually a place; it's a sentient computer game. The Dark Queen who rules Saga is trying to enslave the people of New Earth by making them Saga addicts. And she will succeed unless Ghost and her friends - and Erik, from Epic, and his friends - figure out how to stop her in time.
Synopsis
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
Editorials
VOYA
AGERANGE: Ages 11 to Adult.In a sequel to his highly acclaimed Epic (Viking, 2007/VOYA June 2007), Kostick introduces another world-in-a-computer-game. Saga, the world in question, started out as a game but over a two-thousand-year period, it has diverged and become real. Saga is ruled by a corrupt Dark Queen who has plans to live forever by compelling the inhabitants of New Earth to reprogram the original game. Unfortunately for her, a remnant of the game of Epic is left when she takes over New Earth's computers, and Cindella Dragonslayer, the avatar name of a sixteen-year-old game player, is immune to her powers. Other troubles are brewing in Saga as well. Young people, growing disillusioned with the card system that keeps society stratified and many people at a bare subsistence level, are starting to rebel. Among them is a mysterious airboarder named Ghost who has no memories of her life before the age of nine-but she does have an uncanny ability to slow time. The plot and pacing are near perfect in this tale of a world cramped by fear and tradition. The characterization is a bit weak-the Dark Queen seems like a bare caricature-and some problems are too easily resolved. But for both fans of the first book as well as new readers, this sequel is a sure winner. Compulsively readable and palpable (the descriptions of airboarding are a near-physical experience), it will appeal to SF fans across the board. Reviewer: Ann Welton
April 2008 (Vol. 31, No. 1)
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 ChancellorSchool Library Journal
Gr 9 Up- Living under the oppressive rule of a 2000-year-old Dark Queen, the inhabitants of the violent world of Saga are downtrodden. To survive, Ghost and her friends raid malls, ride airboards, and try to subvert the class-driven system. When they meet the swashbuckler Cindella Dragonslayer, first introduced in Epic (Viking, 2007), they are perplexed. Her clothes, her mannerisms, and her magical abilities are absurdly out of place. Saga is a virtual-reality game and Cindella is the avatar of Erik Haraldson, the winner of the previous iteration of the game. Saga's characters are now sentient beings, and the Queen has enslaved Erik's world with a drug that forces them to play or die. She will only release them if Erik makes her children immortal, but if he complies, the people of Saga will suffer. Erik and Ghost must each find their own way to defeat the Queen. The plot elements of this complicated, fast-paced novel are not fully integrated, and readers who have not read Epic will be puzzled by the importance of Cindella/Erik. The moral conflict between Erik's peaceful society and Ghost's violent one has the potential to be an interesting examination of how the worlds function, but this idea is never fully addressed. Despite these flaws, readers will find the adventures of anarchic teens on floating skateboards compelling. Give this to fans of video games and readers of James Patterson's "Maximum Ride" series (Little, Brown).-Heather M. Campbell, formerly at Philip S. Miller Library, Castle Rock, CO