1* for the audiobook edition as the narration was good; 0.5* for the book itself
This review probably contains spoilers

Let me preface my comments on this book by saying that I am a reader who has a well-developed ability to suspend disbelief. I can accept (or indeed not even notice) unlikely coincidences and improbabilities while reading if the story is exciting, though they might bother me afterwards if they are too blatant. However, MacHale stretched my disbelief to the breaking point starting with the premise of the whole story & piling on additional unbelievable things as it progressed. I don’t know if MacHale is ignorant, a poor writer or just thought that the pre-teen audience of this would be too naïve to notice the book’s many logical flaws. This is NOT science fiction because there is no science and there are several aspects which are directly contradicted by science!

Let’s start with the premise: fossil fuels are about to run out and the world is in a severe energy crisis. A pretty good premise for a science fiction story! But immediately there are some ridiculous assertions upon which the entire plot rests – a) humanity’s very existence is threatened by the approaching loss of electricity (“Earth will die”!) and b) the only way to keep having electricity is to get a power source from an unspecified location in outer space. Perhaps the author is right in assuming that 10-12 year-old readers will have difficulty in conceiving of a world without electricity (despite the thousands of years of history in which man did just that!) but it is a bad premise to state that not just man but the planet itself would somehow be threatened by it. In addition, even kids should be aware that there is already existing technology for creating electricity by solar, wind, hydroelectric and nuclear power. But we are expected to believe that the U.S. government would spend millions or billions of dollars developing a space craft to retrieve ‘the Source’ from deep outer space rather than develop those technologies. I suppose that is almost more believable than the idea that these kids & everyone else have to go to bed at 9 pm because the power cuts leave them in the dark at that time (hello, ever heard of candles??).

But that’s not the most ridiculous part! The method of space travel that has been developed to get ‘the Source’ requires that the astronauts be under the age of 14. For some unspecified reason, anyone even one day older than 14 faces medical problems which could be fatal! And to further insult the reader’s intelligence, the author doesn’t even try to make this absurdity conform in the slightest way to biological knowledge. I could possibly conceive by a wild stretch of imagination that there might be some sort of interaction of the space travel with the astronaut’s biology that would be different after puberty. After all, there are lots of changes in our bodies during puberty. But MacHale doesn’t use puberty as the danger point but the specific age of 14. I guess that is because people reach puberty at different times and he wanted a ‘deadline’ which wasn’t vague. Plus, having a specific age meant he could have 2 male & 2 female characters without the worry about the fact that girls generally reach puberty first.

The silliness continues: the protagonist, Dash Conroy, is 12 and a half making him 6 months too old to qualify for this mission (since he would turn 14 while aboard the space ship). But not to worry – the commander has a secret new drug that Dash could take that would stop his cells from aging while on the mission! Does he want to talk it over with his mother? No? Okay then, no need for the U.S. government to get parental consent before giving a child an unknown, untested drug with potentially lethal consequences!

Then once they are in outer space, using an unexplained Gamma Drive which presumably takes the ship faster than light speed (since it only takes them 15 days to reach a planet “in deep space” past hundreds of stars), the book dives from improbable to actual impossibility. Even though they are light years away, they have instantaneous radio communications with Earth, not even a 10 second delay. Radiowaves, as with all electromagnetic radiation, travels the speed of light – communication between the ship and Earth would have significant delays if it was even possible.

Once we finally are told more about ‘the Source’, my ability to listen without rolling my eyes deserted me. The ingredients needed (I refuse to call them elements as that word already has a specific scientific meaning which does NOT apply to these ingredients) to create this “energy source which can stop the world from going dark” include the tooth of a dinosaur-like creature on this alien planet. Now how in the world did the Source’s inventor discover that without ever having such a tooth to analyze?? What aspect of this tooth is required & how did he know that the tooth had it? And worse, this theory of how the Source is going to work is assumed by all, including whoever funded this harebrained mission, to be so certain that there is no possibility that it might fail! A complete lack of understanding of how inventions, particularly scientific & technological inventions, are created. And just in case there wasn’t enough suspense in the story (what with Dash risking death if he is late or misses one of his daily doses of his miracle drug), we now find that the voyagers will have to construct the Source in order to have enough power to return to Earth. Not to worry, though, as the inventor himself is secretly aboard even though he is over 14!

Ranting over.
I did enjoy the competition between the 8 12-year-olds to see which 4 would be selected to travel in space. ( )

Four stars for its intended audience. Three stars as an adult- it felt a bit like the bedtime stories I tell my kids, "And then... And then... And then..." But it was entertaining enough to keep my interest and not annoy me. The online portion was not for me- the code requires referring to a key at the front of the book to discover a color code that you have to use an online key to input characters which then unlock "extras". The one message I bothered decoding was a Top Secret memo that contained details you already know by the end of the book.
I think I will read these with my kids. Nothing violent, no bad language and nothing inappropriate though there are several scenes of suspenseful action. ( )

3.5 *

This book is everything that I expected it to be. It's a short crazy space oddity where a group of 4 kids are expected to save the earth and the future of the human race. This book is in the vein of 39 Clues where each book is written by a different author, each leaving their own perspective. D. J. MacHale has done a great job setting up the series and getting things underway. I can not wait to see how the series progresses. I am glad it’s only 6 books. ( )

My son is 12 and he loved me reading him this book every night. It's a great read aloud. I love that in this book the kids are the heros! In the Voyager, earth is in trouble and the kids need to go to the far reaches of the universe to get elements to save our planet. Adults can't go because they can't handle the Gamma Speed. So after a grueling elimination session, only 4 kids are chosen for this special voyage. I like that one of the chosen is a girl, Piper, who is in a wheelchair. This is not a disadvantage. At one point, she is able to pull a boy out of freezing cold water because of her wheelchair. She is a great asset to the team and a vital part of their mission. This book shows about true leadership in their fearless leader Dash and how to work well as a team. I love that this book has some great sci-fi elements like a really cool robot named Steam that goes on the mission with them and a really cool spaceship. I think kids will love this book and the many books to come after in this series. I would love to recommend this book to kids who love space, technology, and great adventures. These 4 kids that are chosen in this book go on to have great adventures and learn how to work as a team. They are smart, intelligent, and fearless. These are all great character qualities that I want to pass on to my kids so I think this is a great read. Yes, kids can save the universe!

1* for the audiobook edition as the narration was good; 0.5* for the book itself
This review probably contains spoilers

Let me preface my comments on this book by saying that I am a reader who has a well-developed ability to suspend disbelief. I can accept (or indeed not even notice) unlikely coincidences and improbabilities while reading if the story is exciting, though they might bother me afterwards if they are too blatant. However, MacHale stretched my disbelief to the breaking point starting with the premise of the whole story & piling on additional unbelievable things as it progressed. I don’t know if MacHale is ignorant, a poor writer or just thought that the pre-teen audience of this would be too naïve to notice the book’s many logical flaws. This is NOT science fiction because there is no science and there are several aspects which are directly contradicted by science!

Let’s start with the premise: fossil fuels are about to run out and the world is in a severe energy crisis. A pretty good premise for a science fiction story! But immediately there are some ridiculous assertions upon which the entire plot rests – a) humanity’s very existence is threatened by the approaching loss of electricity (“Earth will die”!) and b) the only way to keep having electricity is to get a power source from an unspecified location in outer space. Perhaps the author is right in assuming that 10-12 year-old readers will have difficulty in conceiving of a world without electricity (despite the thousands of years of history in which man did just that!) but it is a bad premise to state that not just man but the planet itself would somehow be threatened by it. In addition, even kids should be aware that there is already existing technology for creating electricity by solar, wind, hydroelectric and nuclear power. But we are expected to believe that the U.S. government would spend millions or billions of dollars developing a space craft to retrieve ‘the Source’ from deep outer space rather than develop those technologies. I suppose that is almost more believable than the idea that these kids & everyone else have to go to bed at 9 pm because the power cuts leave them in the dark at that time (hello, ever heard of candles??).

But that’s not the most ridiculous part! The method of space travel that has been developed to get ‘the Source’ requires that the astronauts be under the age of 14. For some unspecified reason, anyone even one day older than 14 faces medical problems which could be fatal! And to further insult the reader’s intelligence, the author doesn’t even try to make this absurdity conform in the slightest way to biological knowledge. I could possibly conceive by a wild stretch of imagination that there might be some sort of interaction of the space travel with the astronaut’s biology that would be different after puberty. After all, there are lots of changes in our bodies during puberty. But MacHale doesn’t use puberty as the danger point but the specific age of 14. I guess that is because people reach puberty at different times and he wanted a ‘deadline’ which wasn’t vague. Plus, having a specific age meant he could have 2 male & 2 female characters without the worry about the fact that girls generally reach puberty first.

The silliness continues: the protagonist, Dash Conroy, is 12 and a half making him 6 months too old to qualify for this mission (since he would turn 14 while aboard the space ship). But not to worry – the commander has a secret new drug that Dash could take that would stop his cells from aging while on the mission! Does he want to talk it over with his mother? No? Okay then, no need for the U.S. government to get parental consent before giving a child an unknown, untested drug with potentially lethal consequences!

Then once they are in outer space, using an unexplained Gamma Drive which presumably takes the ship faster than light speed (since it only takes them 15 days to reach a planet “in deep space” past hundreds of stars), the book dives from improbable to actual impossibility. Even though they are light years away, they have instantaneous radio communications with Earth, not even a 10 second delay. Radiowaves, as with all electromagnetic radiation, travels the speed of light – communication between the ship and Earth would have significant delays if it was even possible.

Once we finally are told more about ‘the Source’, my ability to listen without rolling my eyes deserted me. The ingredients needed (I refuse to call them elements as that word already has a specific scientific meaning which does NOT apply to these ingredients) to create this “energy source which can stop the world from going dark” include the tooth of a dinosaur-like creature on this alien planet. Now how in the world did the Source’s inventor discover that without ever having such a tooth to analyze?? What aspect of this tooth is required & how did he know that the tooth had it? And worse, this theory of how the Source is going to work is assumed by all, including whoever funded this harebrained mission, to be so certain that there is no possibility that it might fail! A complete lack of understanding of how inventions, particularly scientific & technological inventions, are created. And just in case there wasn’t enough suspense in the story (what with Dash risking death if he is late or misses one of his daily doses of his miracle drug), we now find that the voyagers will have to construct the Source in order to have enough power to return to Earth. Not to worry, though, as the inventor himself is secretly aboard even though he is over 14!

Ranting over.
I did enjoy the competition between the 8 12-year-olds to see which 4 would be selected to travel in space. ( )