“Atherton – Rivers of Fire,” by Patrick Carman

“Atherton – Rivers of Fire,” by Patrick Carman is the stunning sequel to “Atherton – The House of Power.” The Atherton series is about a strange world created by a mad scientist.

In “Atherton – The House of Power” readers were introduced to young Edgar, an adventurous boy who dares to violate one of the most important rules of his strange world: “Stay away from the cliffs.” When Edgar starts climbing the cliffs that lead between the three levels of the world of Atherton he discovers that there is a deep and dark secret behind his world. The people of Atherton have been retrained so that they think that they have always lived on Atherton, but in truth their world is a scant thirty years old.

Atherton is giant man-made satellite that orbits the polluted, dying earth. Although this new world was created as a safe haven for people from Earth, it was created by a mad scientist named Dr. Harding. What is more, it appears that Atherton is not yet done developing. When the cliffs of Atherton collapse it sets of a chain of events that provokes civil war and throws the inhabitants of Atherton into great danger.

At the time that “Atherton – Rivers of Fire” begins Edgar is making his way to the middle of Atherton. Here Atherton's former paradise is now sinking into the center of the world and flooding with the very waters that Atherton's cruel ruler at one time held back to control the people. Edgar and his two friends Samuel and Isabel venture into the depths of Atherton in search of Dr. Harding, the strange man who created Atherton. Only he knows what is happening to Atherton and what will happen to his creation in the end.

Patrick Carman's Atherton series is simply amazing. The storyline has so many subtle details and amazing ingredients. Although the plot is intensely complicated, involving many characters and important developments, Carman does a good job of presenting the world of Atherton one piece at a time until it can stand along in the reader's mind. The characters in “Atherton – Rivers of Fire” are very well developed. Readers of this sequel will be happy to find out more about the enigmatic Dr. Harding and the secrets that he has built into his endless creation.

I definitely recommend “Atherton – Rivers of Fire.” The “Atherton” series is a great science fiction story that young readers are sure to enjoy.

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Inkweaver Review 2009-03-14T11:54:00-05:00

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