In this much-anticipated sequel to The Search for WondLa, Tony DiTerlizzi (the Spiderwick Chronicles) answers many of the lingering questions with futuristic world-building and confident storytelling.
The first book ended with a startling realization: Eva Nine, who believed she was the sole human in a world of aliens, meets another human--a pilot named Hailey, who arrives to "bring [her] back home" from the wilds of Orbona. This sequel picks up the morning after, as Hailey Turner recharges his ship to take Eva and her Caerulean friend, Rovender Kitt, to the human city of New Attica, "where a bright and beautiful new future awaits." During their passage, Eva meets someone like her, a "reboot"--Sanctuary-born humans "raised by ancient technology so that mankind can once again rule the world." He warns Eva that the city operates under too many rules and promises made by Cadmus Pryde, the visionary behind the reboot initiative.
DiTerlizzi expands Eva's world with the exciting addition of New Attica. Its technology may be ancient to the Atticans, but it will seem advanced for readers, with inventions such as a Divination Machine that reveals a puzzling scene from the future with Eva and Cadmus Pryde. Eva's hopes for a better world cause her to put blinders on, until she is ready to examine the mounting evidence and face the truth about her world. In the process, she must question what constitutes family and loyalty. DiTerlizzi's masterful two-color illustrations in blue and black ramp up the tensions. The trilogy's end can't come soon enough. --Adam Silvera, assistant, Books of Wonder, New York