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Revolution 19
Revolution 19
Revolution 19
Ebook236 pages4 hours

Revolution 19

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

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From the creators of Homeland and the Final Destination films, Revolution 19 is a cinematic thriller unlike anything else.

At first they called it system-wide malfunctions when the robots stopped fighting at exactly 2:15 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time, August 17, 2051. For twenty-two hours the battlefields were silent. Then when the bots began killing again, now targeting their human commanders, they shook their heads and called it fatal programming errors. When, a day later, the skies over cities on six continents grew dark with warships, they began to understand. And when the bombs rained down and legions of bot foot soldiers marched into the burning ruins, killing any humans who resisted and dragging away the rest, they finally called it what it was: revolution.

Only a few escaped the robot war. Those who did lived in secret freeposts, hiding from the robot armies determined to control the human race. Nick, Kevin, and Cass are some of the lucky ones—they live with their parents in a secret human community outside the robot-controlled Cities. But when the bots discover their village and attack, the teens are forced to run. Determined to find out if their parents are alive, the three siblings venture into the heart of the robot City, where one misstep could be their last.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperTeen
Release dateJan 8, 2013
ISBN9780062125989
Revolution 19
Author

Gregg Rosenblum

Gregg Rosenblum works at Harvard, where he wages epic battles against technology as an editor/webmaster/communications/quasi-IT guy. He graduated from UC San Diego and has an MFA in creative writing from Emerson College. He lives in Boston with his wife and daughter.

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Reviews for Revolution 19

Rating: 2.8877550408163266 out of 5 stars
3/5

49 ratings13 reviews

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  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Although the start was easy to get into, I found that the lack of world-building really dragged this book down and made it steadily more difficult to get into.

    There is no explanation for anything that the characters did. Half of the people who helped the main characters didn't need to, as it would've put them and their families in grave danger. For what? These kids didn't do anything noteworthy. They aren't anything special.

    I find it hard to believe that they weren't reported the moment they entered the diner at the start, and that everyone was having such a serious conversation at the table, surrounded by other customers. This is just one of many things that happened in this book that just doesn't make sense. It's like the author quickly thought of something on the fly and used it without considering whether it would actually work in real life if this kind of thing happened.

    All in all, this book felt incredibly rushed. No time was taken to execute the plot in a slower manner to give the readers some back story. It's written in a way where you know there's going to be a sequel. You don't even have to check Goodreads to know.

    If you're interested in this book, I sincerely implore you to pick it up from your local library, because unfortunately it is a waste of money.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A typical post-apocalyptic dystopian young adult novel. It has some refreshing qualities in that the technology is fascinating and the descriptions of it are on par with genre sci-fi. The characters are also refreshingly inconsistent. They make mistakes, act like teenagers, screw up, and deal with the consequences. Other than that it's a bit bland, not very memorable, but most likely something fans of YA dystopia will enjoy.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I'm not doing a full review on this one so let's get to the heart of it: great premise, poor execution. I barely made it through the first 50 pages, although I did press on to the end. I really wanted more excitement, more character building and honestly? More plot in general. The writing style is very simplistic and makes for a slow read. I was hoping for so much more.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    BookNook — Young Adult book reviewsRevolution 19 is so far my biggest disappointment of winter 2013 releases. I thought it was going to be AMAZING! With a great cover and a great blurb, I envisioned a crazy world thrown into war and chaos, with Terminator Transformers whooping ass left and right and a group of brave teens standing up for FREEDOM and THE FREE WORLD and THE RIGHT TO LIVE! What did I get? A book that reads very much like a lame cartoon with 12-year-old "save the world!" kids as the main characters.Let's start with the world building: that's easy because there was none. I read the blurb about how robots were designed to fight human wars and then turned their weapons against the humans. I thought OMG THIS IS AWESOME! I'll get to learn all about this war, why and how humans created robots, what went wrong, maybe they got too intelligent or there was a glitch in the software, and how the robots decided to take over the world, and what steps they took, and what their end-game was..... nope. None of that. The ONLY piece of world building information we get is in one tiny paragraph in the beginning that basically reiterates the synopsis. At first we called it system-wide malfunctions when the robots stopped fighting at exactly 2:15 P.M. Greenwich mean time, August 17, 2051. They had been designed by humans to fight our wars, but for twenty-two hours the battlefields were silent. We called it a blessing and the beginning of a new peace. Then when the robots began killing again, now targeting their human commanders, we shook our heads and called it fatal programming errors. When, a day later, the skies over cities on six continents grew dark with warships, we began to understand. And when the bombs rained down and then legions of bot footsoldiers marched into the burning ruins, killing any humans who resisted and dragged away the rest of us, we finally called it what it was: revolution.—Revolution 19 by Gregg Rosenblum That was the end of the world building. After that, we just know the robots are there and accept it. No more questions answered. No more world developed. That's it.If you're going to write a scary robots-take-over-the-world sci-fi book—the kind that people love to imagine might happen—why would you make the robots lame? This is the stuff people love to fantasize about! They love imagining extremely high-tech humanoid robots with fierce intelligence and crazy weaponry. So please explain to me why you would choose to load up your book with robots that just sound... lame?[The robot] was roughly the shape of a man, but broader, taller, more boxlike, and rolling rather than stepping.Their faces were the same dull metal as the rest of their bodies, flat and featureless except for two rectangular openings where eyes would be.Robots that are boxlike? They have WHEELS? Their faces are flat and featureless? Are we talking about WALL-E? Is that what we're so afraid of? When I imagine robots—especially ones that take over the world—I imagine looking into their HUMAN-LIKE eyes and seeing fierce, scary intelligence. I imagine them being scary and metallic, but also molded in the human image—not boxlike. The more similar they are to humans, the scarier the story. But instead of going that route, Revolution 19 loaded up its book with robots that are essentially big boxes on wheels.Okay, onto the characters. I didn't care about any single character in the book. First, apparently they're teenagers:"How old are you?" asked Mrs. Tanner."I'm seventeen," said Nick. "My sister is fifteen, and my brother is thirteen."—Revolution 19 by Gregg Rosenblum But ALL of them act like 12-year-olds. They're all immature, make stupid decisions, and bicker over ridiculous things. Oh and Lexi "flirts" the way a girl might flirt in 6th grade."[Kevin] hated when Nick called him 'Kid.' Like Nick was so grown up and Kevin was just a useless little child."—Revolution 19 by Gregg Rosenblum The character development was non-existent. Each character is given a very specific personality at the beginning of the book, and they maintain it from start to finish. They don't grow, they don't change, they don't get better. Kevin is the tech geek who is miraculously some kind of computer/tech genius, despite living in the forest all his life. Anytime he seems a comm or a TV or any piece of technology he goes "OMG I HAVE TO LEARN EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS!" Cass is the sporty girl. That's about it. She's athletic, she runs fast, and any time there's any kind of sports or movement-related thing, she just dominates at it. And then there's Nick. Since Nick is the oldest, he's the "brave" one who's all self-sacrificing and has to leap into all danger (stupidly) in order to "protect his family." This results in him making loads of stupid decisions that oftentimes compromise their goal. One example:Lexi takes Nick & Co. to the re-education center, where they think maybe their parents are being held. Lexi gives them one simple instruction: don't get too close. The area is surrounded with CPs and if they get too close, the robots will spot them and apprehend them immediately."Can we get closer?" says Nick. [..] "No," said Amanda[..]. "Come on, let's go back." "Amanda's right," said Lexi. "Not safe." "Come on, just a few blocks closer," said Nick. He knew it wasn't smart, that he was pressing his luck, but they were here now, and he had to get a closer look. [..]"I need to get closer." [Nick] took a step toward the checkpoint.Lexi grabbed his arm. "No, you idiot!" she hissed."I need to look!" Nick said, too loudly, yanking his arm away. [..] The robot, with a graceful burst of speed, glided over the kids' heads and then hovered in front of them on the sidewalk. "YOU WILL HALT AND RECEIVE YOUR INFRACTION, OR YOU WILL BE DETAI—" The robot cut itself off mid-word and began pulsing a bright red. "YOU ARE LACKING IDENTIFICATION IMPLANTS. REMAIN HERE AND YOU WILL BE PEACEFULLY DETAINED."—Revolution 19 by Gregg Rosenblum So Lexi says "Don't go closer, you'll get caught" about 8 times, Nick doesn't listen all 8 times, Nick gets caught and almost captured, Lexi (smartly) runs away, then when Nick sees her next, he thinks to himself:He grinned back at her, feeling his cheeks flush, but then reminded himself, as he broke into a jog toward the door, that Lexi and Amanda had abandoned them back at the re-education center.—Revolution 19 by Gregg Rosenblum Yeah, she abandoned you because YOU didn't listen to her and YOU got yourself caught. Did you seriously expect her to stick around and risk her life for your stupidity? [/rage] Kevin made countless stupid decisions like this that ultimately didn't help anyone. It was extremely frustrating for me to see him make bad move after bad move, and it's not like they were stupid decisions that happened to have a good outcome.. most of them were just really pointless and if anything, they jeopardized their goal.Finally, the plot. The reason I compared Revolution 19 to a cartoon, is because it has that "kids have all the power" vibe. Robots take over the world, the poor helpless parents get captured, and only the kids can SAVE THE WORLD! Sounds like a cartoon, does it not?And like a cartoon, this book is also riddled with happy coincidences. Any time something goes wrong, someone shows up to save the day. The kids are lost in the forest, and a random dude stumbles out who they get directions from. The kids go into a restaurant, order their food, realize they have no money and don't know how to pay, and they meet Lexi, a girl who decides to help them because she's bored. The kids are being chased by robots and have nowhere to hide, and they run into a sympathetic storeowner who lets them hide in their basement. The kids can't go around town because they don't have identity chips, and Lexi happens to know someone who can make fake ones... etc.And before anyone gets excited, there is no romance in Revolution 19, even though it was promised in the blurb. There is a 17-year-old boy (or a 12-year-old in a 17-year-old body), and a similarly aged girl, but that's it. They kiss ONCE, randomly. But there is no romance. There is no flirting (unless you count the girl calling Nick a "rock star" a million times), there is no sexual tension, there is no love, there is no lust; there is only one silly kiss."You broke out?" said Lexi. "And made it across town again?" She smiled. "Now you're just trying to impress me."—Revolution 19 by Gregg Rosenblum At the end of the day, Revolution 19 might be a book geared towards kids.. Like 12-year-olds. It has that vibe; it has characters who feel really young, it has a somewhat ridiculous plot that may appeal to daydreaming young'uns, and maybe to a 12-year-old that boy-girl relationship might seem romantic. But for your average young adult, Revolution 19 sums up to being very sub-par on all levels. If you're looking for something dangerous, dark, intense, and full of frightening robots and mind-blowing action, don't read this book. Go read Partials by Dan Wells instead. Now THAT'S a book about creepy, intelligent robots taking over the world. And it's epic.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    great story!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    SF adventure centered around three siblings, Nick, Cass and Kevin. The robots have gained consciousness in the not so distant future and have set out to " save humanity from themselves." Many people are executed. Others are re-educated and even fewer are allowed to live outside of the robot protected cities. When their freepost is destroyed and their parents go missing, the siblings set out to try and save their parents from becoming citizens in the City. The book moves along slowly at first, but stick with it. I found it frustrating that there were not detailed descriptions of the characters, but their personalities were well developed. Once I got beyond being confused by what not knowing what they looked like, the book moved along at a great pace with an ending that gave me goosebumps. I loved this book, but be warned: if you do not wish to read a series avoid this book! Mild language, lots of SF violence (the robots disintegrate people and there is human on bot violence) and gentle romance. Suggested for ages 14 and up.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I started this with image a Terminator like story. Robots taking over, people living like basically captives, or on the run, I was expecting one heck of a thrill ride.
    This starts out with a bang. Robots hunting people and killing them. Families were torn apart. The 3 siblings, Cass, Nick and Kevin have to work together so help save their parents that have been taken by the bots.
    Kevin is the youngest brother, and is a fantastic tech-head. He was such a cute kid, and he proved himself to be quite valuable. I really enjoyed him. Cass is the only girl, and she is one tough girl and likable. The oldest brother Nick, was sort of a hot head, going into trouble with his eyes shut. But I will give him some credit, he got himself out it fairly well. Along the way the met a few kids close to their age in the city who I thought were great. Lexi and Farryn. There was a little spark of romance between Lexi and Nick as well as Farryn and Cass, but it was never really a big role, and that was okay with me.
    The world building was interesting enough and the take on the robots was the one thing that kept me reading. The city where the people lived with the robots seemed like any other, people working, shopping and going about their business, just under the scrutiny of the robots. There were some things I expected to happen and they did, but there were also some things that took place that I didn’t see coming.
    Overall this was a pretty good book even though it wasn’t the thrill ride that I was looking for. The ending definitely got my attention, especially the last few pages. With the new “person” that came into play, I will be picking up the second book to see where it leads. I say give this one a try, and if you are a fan of science fiction you will probably devour this.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales. Quick & Dirty: A group of kids try to rescue their parents from robots. Perfect for the big screen. Not so much for a novel.Opening Sentence: Somewhere nearby, a dog barked and whined.The Review: After the vicious Robot Revolution, families around the country tried to escape the clutches of the ruthless robots. Two families reached the guarded gates, expecting to be killed on the spot for trying to escape, but one family and the second family’s kids are allowed to leave. Fast-forward about 15 years and both families are living in a village far from any robot society: hunting for food, gathering broken tech and farming the scorched land. That is until one mistaken piece of tech betrays their position. Now the kids from those families are on the run and end up trying to save their captured parents. This fast-paced action book would be great as a movie (hence authors are movie directors and writers) but as a novel it was poorly written and executed.Is a robot revolution a great idea for a book? Heck yes. Is this book a good example of how it should be written? Heck no. There are aspects of movies that you can’t convey in books. The same goes vice versa. Unfortunately, the authors tried to incorporate aspects of movies into a book. For example: time in movies is different than time in a book. Where in movies it shows the action in real time, in books you must describe the event/action which takes longer to read than it does for the actual event to happen. In this book the authors skimmed over the details in order to make the actions fast paced, but after a while that gets old. Also, another key detail that made it apparent this book was made for the movies: they did not follow the rules of show don’t tell. Like at all. I know I’ve explained it in a previous review, but for those who don’t know: show don’t tell is a piece of advise that all writers should use. Instead of telling a reader “this character is mad” show the reader the character is mad by having him turn beat red, turn over a table, slam his fist onto a table, etc. Anyway, this book’s writing did not use this advice and thus the book was boring – not for lack of action – but for lack of good writing.So now that the picking apart of the writing is done, let’s move on to the characters. Cliche. Cliche. Cliche. Kevin: the younger brother that always gets picked on but really is brilliant. Nick: the headstrong oldest brother with a hero complex. Cass: the girl who can’t really fight and is only there to persuade a guy to help them. Again these cliche characters might work in a movie, but this doesn’t work for a book. They need to be developed and grow throughout the book. It seemed to be the characters were stagnant the entire time.Moving on to the plot – it wasn’t too shabby. The romance was cheesy and unnecessary, but still cute. There was action every other page. The actual development of the world was pretty good. Overall, a pretty interesting plot once it got going.Really, I would not suggest this book to anyone unless they want to be bored out of their minds. The only reason I gave it two stars is because of the well-developed world. Otherwise, it’s not worth your time.Notable Scene: “Turn it off, Kevin! Now!”“I tried to, but I can’t,” Kevin said. “It turned itself on, and I don’t know how to turn it off.”Nick grabbed the chaff, threw it onto the ground, and began stomping on it. “Hey!” Kevin yelled, trying to push Nick away, but Nick held his brother off with a stiff arm and kept pounding on the chaff with his heel. The glass screen cracked, the casing broke into fragments, and the pulsing stopped.Kevin, still held back b Nick’s grip on his shirt, began kicking at Nick’s shins. “That was mine! I found it!”Nick, shaking with adrenaline and ager, threw Kevin down onto his bed, hard, bouncing him off the mattress and onto the floor. “You idiot, you may have just gotten us killed!”FTC Advisory: HarperTeen provided me with a copy of Revolution 19. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    this book totally did not live up to it's hype. it had such a great premise, but the story just didn't pull through.
    set in a dystopian future where robots have revolted against humans and taken over. pockets of freemen live in the wild in primitive villages reminiscent of the hunter/gatherer societies. robots have "seeded" the for rests with small tracker type robots (why I have no idea) to hunt out the primitive villages. people are captured and sent to be re-educated to be acclimated into the robots' new society. people in the robots' city have chips embedded in the back of their necks (like our pet microchips) to track citizens and keep them behaving well.
    three kids (Kevin, Cass, and Nick) venture into the city to rescue their parents, who have been taken for re-education.
    I just couldn't find this story engaging. the characters just weren't three dimensional- they felt flat to me. the story was contrived and not really well put together. sad, because it could have been so awesome. the robots weren't super convincing either. spheres that floated around keeping an eye on everyone. very lame sci-fi movie.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A typical post-apocalyptic dystopian young adult novel. It has some refreshing qualities in that the technology is fascinating and the descriptions of it are on par with genre sci-fi. The characters are also refreshingly inconsistent. They make mistakes, act like teenagers, screw up, and deal with the consequences. Other than that it's a bit bland, not very memorable, but most likely something fans of YA dystopia will enjoy.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I can't lie, I really really wanted to post a review saying that I what I loved about this book. Sadly, this one didn't do it for me. It just fell flat to me. I was so excited about the robots and I was thinking OMG these robots are going to be terrifying and I'm going to chew off my fingernails because I'm so scared. Yeah that definitely didn't happen. The robots were no where near as frightening as they couls have been and the main characters were really naiieve to me. We just didn't work out. I even tried to skim to the end, but I couldn't even do that. It just wasn't my cup of tea. I was wondering why so many of my blogger friends had decided to put it off, and now I can see why. For it to be labeled action and adventure, it just didn't get my blood pumping like others have. I felt bored with it. The main reason was because I was 100 pages in and the plot had barely gotten started. In a 272 page book, that's a little late. Maybe I'm just being picky, but that's just me. I hope any of you who read it enjoy it better than I did.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    What I LikedPaceThis book was such a quick read, it really felt like I flew through it. Things were continually happening throughout the entire book and there wasn't any slow parts. Attacks, survival, fights, running for their lives, hiding, sneaking around, escape, back alley medical procedures and even death. This book really has it all.Robotics I liked this take on robots, it was interesting how they had taken over human protection. Protecting humans against themselves. It would completely suck to be a part of robotics's society, but I guess better that than dead. POVThe book rotated through the 3 siblings Nick, Cass and Kevin's point of view through out the story. At times I did get a little confused who's POV we were at, but was quickly resolved. I liked getting each ones take on life and the current crisis they were in.CharactersCass: The tough artist. The sister. I would have loved more of her character, but what I did read of her I did really enjoy her character.Kevin: The curious techie. The youngest brother. I also enjoyed his character as well, he had his faults as a young kid, but he really proved himself with it came to tinkering with technology.Didn't LikeNick: The oldest brother. He actually annoyed me throughout the book. He is a very brash character that doesn't stop and think before he acts and because of that he gets himself into loads of trouble. But he did provide with some great POVs because of the bad situation he got himself in to.Recommendation Worth the read for any male or female who likes robotic dystopian without any romance. The summary says romance, but there is a kiss or two (literally) and some interest, but not anything to categorize it as romance.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    One reason I had to read this book is because it reminded me of Terminator and my husband is a MAJOR fanatic of Terminator. I told my husband about it and of course he was interested in it so he told me to read it and then let him what it was about. I am glad about that fact that it is not at all exactly like Terminator. It's certainly has it own appeal that I think anyone can enjoy.Once again, the human race is enslaved by robots. The robots are not killing humans (well technically there are, but I will go into that later) instead, they are forcing the humans to become perfect. No cussing, no fighting, everyone works, all kids go to school the humans are forced to watch the wars they created and to learn not to make those mistakes again. I really liked that yes the robots had a good idea for peace. The minute a human went out of control they were sent to a detention center where they taught the rules. If they don't comply then, bye-bye human.The love interest is one that I expected yet went further than what I thought. Even those these barely had time for each other, I loved the loyalty they created. She risked everything for an outsider barely knowing him. And he in returned help all that he can. I liked that they both fought for what they believe in. They even had the parents help. Great friendship bonds are form that can last a lifetime.Revolution 19 is an great story of a perfect city controlled by machines. Machines forcing and mandating every single rule without leniency. Scenes that the author created gave me goosebumps with the way the machines controlled humans. It's just creepy!! If you want a great read sure to raise the hairs on your neck, read Revolution 19.

Book preview

Revolution 19 - Gregg Rosenblum

PROLOGUE

SOMEWHERE NEARBY, A DOG BARKED AND WHINED. THE MAN SQUINTED through the ash and smoke in the direction of the sound but could see nothing moving in the wreckage. The road was ripped into piled pieces of concrete. Twisted hunks of metal, barely recognizable as the shredded and half-melted remains of cars and streetlights, lay in heaps. Ruined apartment buildings, collapsed into rubble with walls half-standing, lined what was left of the street.

The man turned away from the others—five men, three women, a young boy, and an infant girl—and climbed toward the sound.

There’s no time, said a woman whose face was lined with dirt and dried blood.

The dog barked and whimpered again, and the man began moving small pieces of rubble. The others watched for a few moments before wordlessly joining him. They dug with their torn-up hands, straining to move concrete and metal. The little boy sat down in the dirt and watched the adults work.

A few minutes later a small poodle emerged, black with dirt, wagging its tail weakly as the survivors pulled it out of its hole. The boy clapped his hands, and the woman began crying. The dog limped up to her and licked her face.

A hum filled the sky, and everyone dropped to the ground. The woman pulled the dog to her chest and held its muzzle shut. The robot, a small scout plane, appeared from the south, the throb of its hover-units rising to a peak then slowly fading as it slid away to the north. When the scout was gone, the group got back to their feet and began moving west again.

Four soldier bots were waiting for them at the city limits. The bots towered over the humans—they were at least eight feet tall and as wide as two men. They raised their lase arms and aimed a warning shot at the survivors’ feet. Chunks of street rubble sprayed out, one small piece striking the young boy in the left eye. He screamed and fell, clasping his hand over his face. Blood ran between the boy’s fingers. His father pulled off his own shirt, picked up the still-screaming child, and pressed his shirt against the boy’s face. The boy clawed at his father’s hands, but his father held him tight against his chest.

A woman cradled the infant girl in her arms while her husband hugged her tightly. The rest simply stood and waited to die. They had all seen people killed mercilessly at the hands of these soldier bots, their lase blasts tearing cauterized craters into soft human bodies.

But the bot in front of them lowered its arm and stepped to the side. It pointed west, away from the city. None of the survivors moved. The bot pointed back at them—they flinched—then again at the trees.

GO, it said, its voice booming out and echoing through the rubble. PER THE ORDERS OF THE SENIOR ADVISOR, YOU ARE ALLOWED TO LEAVE. It pointed at the couple holding the baby. YOU TWO WILL STAY.

The woman holding the baby looked up. But … but why? she said.

TO MAINTAIN THE APPROVED RELEASE CONTROL GROUP QUOTA, ONLY YOU TWO WILL STAY. YOU WILL RELEASE THE INFANT TO THE OTHERS.

The woman tightened her grip on the baby and took a step back, her eyes wild. No! she said. She’s my child!

Her husband reached for their daughter, and she slapped his hands away. No! she said again.

Let her live, he said quietly. His face was pale underneath the streaks of dirt, and his hands were shaking. This is her chance.

The mother sat down heavily onto the ground, holding on tightly to the baby girl, her face buried in the child’s neck. The father bent down and gently reached for the baby again, and this time the mother let her child go.

The father kissed his daughter on the cheek and brushed the baby’s thin wisps of brown hair back from her face. I love you, he whispered and handed the baby to the mother of the young boy. Take care of my daughter, he said, his voice cracking.

Don’t worry, said the woman. I won’t let anything happen to …

She was interrupted by a crackling sound, a burst of bright light, and a flash of heat. The parents of the baby girl crumpled to the ground, their bodies twitching for a few seconds before going still. Smoke rose from their blackened chests.

Nobody spoke. They stared at the smoldering bodies on the ground. The woman held the baby tightly against her chest and rocked her from side to side. It’s okay, she whispered to the baby. You’re okay.

GO! said one of the bots.

The released survivors hesitated, then made their way past the bots, waiting for the lases in their backs—but the blasts didn’t come. They moved faster, the dog limping along behind them, following the road that led away from the city and toward the woods.

CHAPTER 1

Fourteen Years Later

KEVIN TUGGED AT A LOOSE THREAD ON HIS SHIRT DOWN BY HIS stomach, trying to break it off but instead ripping open a small hole. Perfect, he thought. Now he’d have to beg his mother to mend it. This was one of his good scavenged shirts, high-tech, machine-made, pre-Rev. Nothing like the scratchy, homegrown, ugly knits and weaves that all the old first gens were so proud of.

A patch of sun shone through the leaves, and something glinted in the grass off the trail. It was half-buried under an exposed tree root. A pre-Rev soda bottle? Kevin stood and began to walk over for a closer look, but then Nick grabbed Kevin’s hat off his head.

Dammit, Nick! Kevin said. Give it back! Kevin grabbed for it while Nick held the hat just out of reach. It was his lucky hat—a baseball hat, his dad had called it—discovered last fall in the trunk of a burned-out car on the highway and given to Kevin for his thirteenth birthday. Nobody touched Kevin’s hat.

Nick turned away, and Kevin punched him on the left shoulder, as hard as he could. Kevin knew that Nick wouldn’t see it coming—he was blind in his left eye—but he was also six feet tall and twice as strong as Kevin. Nick just laughed and tossed the hat on the ground. Kevin picked it up carefully and inspected it for damage, brushing specks of dirt off the red letter B on the front. He jammed it back onto his head. I hope you get stuck cleaning flock drop for a month.

Sorry, kid, said Nick, smiling. Too old for that. The birds are all yours. Now come on, stop napping and keep up.

Kevin didn’t want to leave behind the metal object on the ground, but he wasn’t about to pick it up in front of his brother.

Kevin and Nick! their mother called. Pay attention!

His mom and dad were up the trail, arms crossed, waiting. He knew that look. They hated it when Kevin fell behind during forestry. Which seemed to happen a lot.

"I was paying attention, Mom," he protested.

No, you weren’t, Cass chimed in. She was leaning against a thin white birch, in a patch of sunlight that shone down on her long brown hair through a break in the thick forest canopy. She had a white flower tucked behind her ear and a strand of wild mint in her mouth. She pulled the mint from her mouth and dropped it. You were picking at your belly.

Mind your own business, Cass, said Kevin.

You were staring at your stomach like a monkey that had just discovered its belly button, said Cass.

Drop it, Cass!

Like a monkey saying, ‘Oh my God, what is this hole doing in my belly?’

Kevin grabbed a pebble and winged it at her. Get that stupid flower out of your hair! Cass caught the rock with her left hand—she wasn’t even left-handed—then switched it to her right and flung it back at him twice as hard. He tried to catch it, missed, and it plinked off his forearm. It stung, but he ignored it. Cass was better than he was at any sport, at anything athletic. He hated that. Yes, she was older than him by almost two years, but she was small and skinny and didn’t look like she could break a twig.

Enough! said their dad, rubbing the bald spot on top of his head like he always did when he began to get frustrated. Kevin, start paying attention. Nick, act your age. And Cass, if your brothers want to act like idiots, you don’t need to get in the middle of it. Mind your own business.

Yes! Thank you, said Kevin.

I said that’s enough, their dad said again. He almost smiled, Kevin could tell, but no, not during schoolwork. Kevin, please tell me three relevant properties of the plant your mother was discussing.

Kevin racked his brain, trying to remember what his mom’s voice had been droning on and on about, but came up empty. He wished today had been a tech day. On tech days, with Tom as his teacher, Kevin had no problem staying plugged in. He already knew more about keeping the wind turbines and solar panels and gridlines operational than anyone in Freepost, except for Tom. Most of the first gens didn’t want to know tech (although they certainly didn’t complain about their hot water and cooking panels and lightstrips). Anything mechanical reminded them of bots, Kevin supposed.

He looked around for a clue, but he just saw the same forest he’d been walking through for years. Green grass. Brown dirt. Gray rocks. Blue sky and bright sunlight here and there in the canopy breaks. They were a mile northwest of Freepost, following a deer trail near the stream. What would his mom have been talking about here? The lichen growing on the trees this time of year? Edible wildflowers? He noticed a patch of fiddleheads off the trail near his mom and crossed his fingers for luck. Uh, edible if you forage them in the early spring when they’re an inch or two tall. Found in open woods and along streams. Must be cooked thoroughly before eating.

Now his dad did smile. No, Kevin, I don’t care how thoroughly you cook poison ivy, I still wouldn’t eat it. He held up his hand and started counting points on his fingers. One, leaves of three. Two, white berries in the summer and fall. Three, never burn it; inhaling the smoke can kill you. And a bonus point—four, an extract from jewelweed can help the rash, if you’re so inattentive during forestry class that you actually stumble into a poison ivy patch. Got it?

Yeah, got it. I’ve known about poison ivy since I was in diapers, Dad.

Kevin, you just bought yourself flock chores this afternoon, said his father. Less attitude, more attention.

Kevin bit back an angry reply and kept quiet, although it wasn’t easy. Was it really his fault that one minute of his mom talking plants put him so off the grid? He didn’t want to waste his afternoon shoveling flock drop; he wanted to show Tom the project he had finally finished late last night.

His parents and Cass turned away, and Nick began walking up the trail after them. Kevin kept to Nick’s left, his blind side. He quickly stepped off the path, grabbed the shiny object, and shoved it into his pocket. He prayed that nobody had noticed. His heart pounded. Just from the quick look, he could see that it was full-on fletch tech—a wafer-thin perfect rectangle, with a mirrored glass surface and a polished gunmetal edge. It was feather light. It had to be pre-Rev; nothing like this was made after the war.

Kevin, come on! Nick called.

I’m coming, Kevin said. As he walked, his hands jammed into his pockets, he felt the device. He rubbed away the specks of dirt with his thumb. The metal was cool, slick, almost wet-feeling. He was tempted to take it out, examine it, so tempted it was painful, but he knew he had to be patient. He’d have time later, at home, in private.

Their family shelter was a mix of high and low tech—part scavenged pre-Rev weatherproofing canvas and lightweight super-strong Kevlar-veined plastics, part timber and hand carpentry with a dug-out earth cellar. Kevin shared a room with Nick and didn’t have much space. Nobody did in their small home. Still, he had a secret spot behind his worktable, a split section of floorboard under which he had dug out a small cavity in the dirt. Kevin quickly stashed the tech and then headed out for flock-drop duty.

On his way out the front door, his mother handed him an apple and a biscuit and kissed him on the forehead. He shoved the warm buttered biscuit into his mouth, mumbled a Thank you with his mouth full, and headed off to the coop. He cut behind his family shelter, past the neighboring shelters, all small, one-story structures made of wood and scavenged goods—more weatherproof canvas, or a patch of plastic roofing, or in the case of Will and Nancy Patterson, a yellow WELCOME mat and two ceramic garden gnomes.

He crossed the central village clearing, with the community tent and the fire pit where the council gathering would be held that night. Then he headed north for a few hundred yards along the path that led to the chicken-wire coop, tucked among the trees to shade the birds from the heat of the sun.

He didn’t mind flock-drop duty, truthfully, though he liked to complain about it like all the other kids. He actually found the cooing relaxing. The smell was nasty, yes, but he could put it out of his mind. And the birds seemed to like him; when he wasn’t rushing, he’d sometimes pick up one of the female whites and sit with it on his chest. The whites were gentler, for some reason, and better flyers, too. Once a month, when six birds were sent out to other Freeposts to share news, it was always the whites that returned first.

But today Kevin was all business. He wanted to show his finished project to Tom and then be home during the Council and kidbon fires, so he’d have some time alone with his new discovery. He quickly but evenly poured out a thin line of grain and seed along the feed trough, freshened the water with the hose that piped in from the central reservoir, scooped out the flock drop from the sand underneath the nests, dumped it into the barrel for later use as fertilizer, shoveled in a layer of clean sand, spread it, and he was done. He washed his hands with the hose, wiped them dry on his pants, left the coop, and glanced at the position of the sun. Half hour to sunset. Still time for Tom.

Tom’s shop was up in the north end of Freepost, in a clearing surrounded by solar panels and two short wind turbines. Thin black gridlines snaked out to the edge of the clearing, where they spread out to the Freepost charging stations. The shop was an army prefab medical field station, green and brown camouflage, made of insulated, waterproof material that could break down, fold up, and be carried easily by two people.

Tom was hunched over a table working on a solar grid. He wore his straw cowboy hat, as always, along with his ratty, dirt-stained, solder-burned jeans and one of his prized old concert T-shirts, a subject to avoid getting him started on. This one read THE SHAME, MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, WORLD TOUR 2049 in red letters on a black background. He didn’t look up when Kevin walked in. That you, K?

Yeah, it’s me. Who else?

Tom grunted, which Kevin knew from long experience meant Hello, then motioned Kevin over with his hand. Look at this. What do you think? He held up the solar panel, the gridline dangling, frayed.

Kevin looked at the line and rubbed it between his fingers. Looks like something chewed it. Maybe a raccoon?

Or maybe the Wallaces’ damned mutt, that’s what I’m thinking. Tom pushed up the brim of his hat, scratched his ear. So, what’s the fix?

Kevin shrugged. Easy. Just replace the gridline feed, test it to make sure the panel’s not blown, and plug it back into the grid.

No, I mean about the dog. Tom stood, walked over to the galley, and poured a glass of water from a pitcher.

I don’t know. Talk to the Wallaces? Listen, Tom, I finished that project I’ve been working on—

I’d bet it’s the dog, Tom cut Kevin off. No self-respecting wild animal would waste its time chewing a gridline. Only a domestic mutt with nothing better to do would bother.

Kevin didn’t take it personally; he knew Tom didn’t shift focus very quickly when he was stuck on something. He walked to the back of the shop, to the personal workspace Tom had let him carve out from the surrounding clutter. He found what he was looking for and brought it over to Tom, who was still

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