A Toaster on Mars

Gr 10 Up—In this mash-up of a funny space tale and a detective story, Blake Carter, an agent with the Planetary Bureau of Investigation, has been assigned a new partner: a cyborg. Bartholomew Badde, an evil genius, has taken the world hostage by threatening electrical extinction via explosive device. Carter and his new partner must track down and stop Badde from destroying Earth. This narrative attempts to be as hilarious as Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. With a zany futuristic world that closely mirrors that of The Jetsons, as well as a host of bizarre alien characters, the author tries to blend wit, mystery, and science fiction. Unfortunately, the humor is delivered in such a heavy-handed way that it often falls flat. The characters feel wooden, and although the novel is filled with interplanetary action sequences, the overall pacing is not compelling. Many of the references to classic television, such as Star Trek and Snakes on a Space Station, would not be understood by average teens.