The Surface Trials

By: H M Waugh    

Location: FIC WAU

Genre:  Science Fiction

Three days, three clues, one hungry planet.
Constant surveillance.
The entire universe watching every move.
Some will shatter. Most will fail.
A select few will make it through, instant celebrities.

Welcome to the Surface Trials. The only way into Starquest Academy.

For Amethyst Antares, Starquest Academy offers an escape from the prison of her home planet. For Rian - the uber-famous and expertly-disguised heir to the universe's two greatest dynasties - failure to get into his own academy is not an option. And Deneb? Well, he's an outlier...

But this year not everything goes to plan, and Amethyst and her squad find themselves playing for more than Starquest admission. To survive, they'll have to outsmart carnivorous creatures, share dangerous secrets, maintain trust and embrace the most shocking truth in the galaxy.

Set on a fascinating yet hostile alien planet, this pulse-pounding, high-stakes, elimination-quest novel will have readers on the edge of their seats.

 

This had me hooked when I read the blurb and didn't let me off the line until I was finished! A young adult, science fiction/dystopian story with more twists and turns than I expected.

It is a young persons version of the Hunger Games or Divergent series without the brutality but with the same messages. I am a huge fan of both and now this one too. I think this is the first of a series as there are loads of story lines not yet completed.

A fantastic book with themes of staying true to yourself, outwitting the system, surviving at all costs and working out who your true friends are. Those coupled with hideous beasts, trees of gloop, air attacks and a series of clues in a treasure hunt and who could resist?! Review by Sarah