Title: Yanked! (An "Out of Time" novel)
Author: Nancy Kress
Publisher: Avon Science Fiction
Year: 1999
ISBN: 0380799685
Description: 246 pages; 18 cm.
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Yanked! is part of the shared universe created by well-respected author
David Brin.
The year is 2339. Mankind has overcome the problems of war, pollution, disease,
and crime. However, in the process, it has lost its ability to persevere, or, as
they say in the book, they have lost their "grit". But a problem has arisen in paradise --
one that the "grit-less" people cannot seem to overcome.
Aliens have come in contact with Man, bearing gifts. Gifts that are supposed to
help Mankind mature into an interstellar race. The aliens (called the Gift Givers)
have been helping a number of immature races reach for the stars through a program
called the Nine Steps. Unfortunately, they haven't actually told Mankind what the
Nine Steps are. The goal of Mankind, and the other immature races, is to complete
the Nine Steps in order to receive special powers, such as immortality and telepathy.
Mankind attempts to use the gifts (which also came with no instructions) in order to
fulfill what the Nine Steps are believed to be. The first two steps have already been
successfully completed, but, now, Mankind is stuck trying to discover and complete
Step Three.
Two of the gifts that the Gift Givers have given are time/teleportation ports,
and "sally ports" which enable ships to travel interstellar distances instantaneously.
Unfortunately, t-porting and going through sally ports is fatal for anyone over
the age of 17. One of the first colonization ships that Earth has sent off, goes through
a sally port, killing all the adults on board. As the captain was dying, he came
to a startling discovery -- what Step Three was all about. His discovery, and the
surviving children crash land on the planet Jump. The good news is that a t-port
exists on Jump. The bad news is another immature race -- a hostile, violent race --
is also there. And they're about to steal the Step Three discovery, and put all of
Mankind into jeopardy.
In order to retrieve the information, and to rescue the survivors of the crash,
children have been "yanked" through time to travel to Jump, foil the efforts of the
deadly Panurish, and get the survivors back home.
This book is intended for young adult readers -- something that isn't mentioned
anywhere on the cover. Having said that, for a young adult ("juvenile") novel, it's
quite good. The story is straightforward. The characters are somewhat 2-dimensional,
but Kress manages to tell a decent tale that has some excitement and drama.
Score: 78 out of 100. I kept having trouble dealing with the young adult level of the
writing, but it is well written (if simple) and is a nice, quick, easy read.
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