Edenborn (Hardcover)

The Idlewild students entered real life prematurely - and reduced in number. Edenborn takes up their story some eighteen years later. The survivors divided the earth between them, and two of them (including Halloween) retreated into isolation, leaving only four individuals to pursue the mission they were given. Even with these four, divisiveness reigned. In a world population of just over a dozen people, two different families have come into existence. The European family consists of female clones engineered to be resistant to Black Ep (and thus not entirely human); the African family consists of clones who are essentially human and, as such, dependent on vitamins and drugs to keep the deadly virus at bay. One family maps a purely technological path to the future, while the other seeks a more human, spiritual path that looks both backwards and forwards at the same time. Student exchanges take place periodically, which makes for an interesting mesh of worldviews. The European girls reflect the austere scientific mindset of their "mothers," while the Africans follow the Islamic teachings of their "father." Meanwhile, Halloween, the protagonist of Idlewild, is almost completely absent from the scene until the latter stages of the book.

This carefully constructed new world soon finds itself in grave danger. The African children come under the attack of a variant of the Black Ep virus, while an unknown outside entity invades the virtual reality component of the European society, unleashing secrets that could tear that family apart. These changes are made most manifest in a child named Penny. Genetic engineering or no, Penny displays all-too-human traits; regarding herself as the best and brightest, she rebels when she doesn't get her way. That rebellion, in combination with the destabilization wrought by an outsider, threatens the very founders of this new world.

Nothing draws distant "relatives" together like looming tragedy, but the reunion of all but one Idlewild survivor by no means guarantees that disaster will be averted. We follow the whole story through the eyes of several narrators: a young voice from each family along with the seasoned voice of one of the founders. The blend of spirituality with scientific artificiality makes for an interesting contrast in lifestyles, while the madness of young Penny works like a virus of its own, distorting the whole experience into something increasingly dark and deadly. One longs for the return of Halloween, the voice and main character of the first novel, for his is in many ways the real voice of reason in this crazy post-apocalyptic world. His eventual return to the fold, however, comes too late to truly save the day. As in the utopia which inspired this novel's title, an outside agent succeeds in seducing one of the innocents and bringing about a dramatic fall from grace. Edenborn ends with both tragedy and a sense of hope, setting the stage for what should be a fascinating third entry in the series.