Author: Eric Walters
Publisher: Orca Book

Thirteen-year-old Houston Williams is smart. Very smart. So no one is surprised when he earns a scholarship to attend a prestigious NASA space camp. At the training facility he immediately bonds with his new team, including a girl named Teal. He also clashes with a girl on a rival team named Ashley, who matches or beats him in every exercise. The three of them impress the directors so much they are invited to join a top-secret research project that studies how space travel affects people of different ages. But only two of them will actually be going into space. Houston will do whatever it takes to make sure he's picked.

Eric Walters’s newest series opens with a contest disguised as a space camp. The premise—young teens training for and unknowingly competing for an opportunity to become an astronaut—is obviously appealing, especially to readers who like high-stakes adventure and stories about space. Through Houston’s eyes we get to see all the different elements of astronaut training, from puzzle building underwater to zero-gravity simulations in airplanes. These aspects of training are brought realistically and believably to life by Walters, who actually attended such a space camp as part of his research for this book. The concepts of commitment and teamwork carry throughout the novel.

The story itself, however, falls somewhat flat. There don’t seem to be any real stakes for the three teen characters, who go to the original camp in the same way any young person might go to a specialized camp during the summer: It’s interesting and it’s something to do. But it doesn’t actually matter. Ashley, one of the three, is initially set up as an antagonist, but she becomes a friend once they are chosen to undergo additional training. Captain Sutcliffe enters the story during their astronaut training as the new antagonist, but really comes off as just an inexplicably immature and spiteful adult, who actually has no bearing on whether the teens will be accepted into the mission or not. And instead of danger, suspense or hazard, the action scenes each turn out to be highly controlled exercises organized by NASA to test the youngsters, all of which undermines the agency of the characters. They are carried along by the adults in the book.

This novel begins with an exciting premise but ultimately reads more as a description of the training regimen of astronauts than a compelling story about young people overcoming obstacles. Those who have an interest in space and astronauts will enjoy reading this book. A sequel is forthcoming. Hopefully, once the teens are actually in space, they will be empowered to meet challenges and perils that only they can resolve.

- Mark David Smith