From Publishers Weekly
In 1996, Eddie hates the changes that have taken place in his country since the Joint Chiefs of Staff dumped the U.S. president and the military took control of the newly named United Secure States of America. Liberal teachers are replaced by spies; rock concerts are illegal and recordings of certain groups are banned during a period of "Moral Renewal." Explosive electronic sparrows hover in the branches and high wires, photographing illegal activities and attacking people on the command of the New Cops. Then Eddie's girlfriend is threatened and he meets others who are part of an unorganized resistanceand he decides to fight. This bleak, futuristic scenario has been done and overdone in books, films and TV; here it's reduced to simplistic, sarcastic pulp. Eddie's narration reads like John Wayne talking with a bullet clenched between the teeth. Right wing or left wing, the political lines are blurred and will probably offend or confuse everyone. And readers looking for action and adventure best look elsewherethis one is talk, talk, talk.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 8 Up Despite its obviously commerical purpose, the first book in a science fiction series predicated on a right wing overthrow of the U.S. government is very good. (Succeeding books will be written by different authors.) High-school student Eddie Ludlow is just trying to get on with his own life under the new United Secure States of America, a police state in which rock music is available only on the black market and where teachers who encourage thinking disappear. The increasing repression coupled with his girlfriend's father's involvement in secret weaponry make Eddie a ready candidate for a growing underground resistance movement. His first-person narration of both the fast-paced action and his own developing awareness of and committment to liberty are authentic in style and psychology. Resistance to a religious/military takeover was the theme of Robert Heinlein's Revolt in Two Thousand One-Hundred (NAL, 1955) , well worth rereading in this year of celebrating the Constitution's bicentennial, but De Haven's 1996 is so close to our own world that its impact on teen readers may be greater. Carolyn Caywood, Virginia Beach Public Lib .
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
