The 13th Continuum

Gr 7 Up—A thousand years after the destruction of life on Earth, survivors of continuums to which the chosen were evacuated generations ago have been summoned by the Beacon to return and repopulate the planet. With communications severed among continuums, drastically different parallel worlds developed. Teen engineering prodigy Myra Jackson lives in the 13th Continuum, a totalitarian underwater world oppressed by a superstitious quasireligious order that forbids mention of The Surface or life before the descent. Myra senses something awry and attempts to unravel the mystery with the help of her computer-savvy little brother and three friends. Meanwhile, on the Second Continuum, 16-year-old Aero Wright lives in a militant outer-space world where citizens are raised to value bravery and strength while suppressing emotions and human connections. Skilled warriors like Aero, able to morph weapons at will, have traveled through space in search of habitable planets—to no avail. The journey back to Earth may be the only hope for people of either continuum, but at what cost? The plot-driven narrative gathers momentum in the second half as the protagonists grapple with do-or-die decisions. Conflicting romantic attractions are left unresolved, awaiting future installments.