103. The House of Power by Patrick Carman

The House of Power by Patick Carman
Illustrated by Squire Broel
Atherton, Book 1

Pages: 330
Ages: 9+
Finished: June 6, 2009
First Published: 2007
Genre: YA science fiction
Rating: 4.5/5

First sentence:

It won't be long now.

Reason for Reading: It has been quite a while since I've read any science fiction and this series intrigued me very much. With the last book in the trilogy coming out this year I decided to start from the beginning. I received a review copy from Hatchette Book Group.

Comments: Edgar is an orphan who lives on the middle tier of a three tiered planet. His tier, Tabletop, is an agricultural world growing figs and producing rabbits and sheep. The top tier, The Highlands, is a powerful world full of the ruling class who have full control over the planet's water and they use this as punishment and incentive to keep production up. At the bottom is the Flatlands. No one knows anything about the Flatlands, they appear dusty, dry and full of rocks and whether anyone or anything could even live down there little speculation exists. Edgar in the meantime has an inborn need to climb. Even though climbing the cliff between tiers is forbidden upon bodily harm or even death he sneaks out each night climbing the cliff looking for something. He knows not what, just a feeling and a brief memory from his toddlerhood of a man telling him something special is hidden in the cliff for him and so he searches.

Absolutely fabulous! I can't say how much I enjoyed this book. The premise is so unique and the directions the plot takes you are full of surprises. Edgar is 11 and he befriends a girl, Isabel, who is about 9. Both characters are strong and have a realistic relationship with each other; Isabel "bothering" Edgar to a certain degree yet a deep trustful friendship forms. Isabel is an independent girl who shows respect for her parents even when running off to join the adventures. An especially captivating story, one that makes you just need to read "one" more chapter and it kept an expectant smile on my face the whole way through.

Only one little quibble and my regular readers will see this coming. The book ends in the middle of the story with a cliffhanger. This stops me from giving a full rating of 5 stars. I like each individual book in a trilogy to be a whole book in and of itself while being a part of a greater whole. No cliffhanger endings! Anyway fortunately this isn't 2007 and I don't have to wait another year for the next book. In fact I have the next book sitting on my bedside table and will be starting it probably tomorrow. I can't wait to see what happens next. Highly recommended but make sure you have book 2 waiting right beside you!