Description
An epic page-turner full of twists you won't see coming, set on an alien planet where, under the watch of a galaxy-wide TV audience, Ammy Antares and her fellow competitors must complete a challenging quest to gain entry into an elite interplanetary academy.
Three days, three clues, one hungry planet.
Constant surveillance.
The entire universe watching every move.
Some will shatter. Most will fail.
A select few will make it through, instant celebrities.
Welcome to the Surface Trials. The only way into Starquest Academy.
For Amethyst Antares, Starquest Academy offers an escape from the prison of her home planet. For Rian - the uber-famous and expertly disguised heir to the universe's two greatest dynasties - failure to get into his own academy is not an option. And Deneb? Well, he's an outlier...
But this year not everything goes to plan, and Amethyst and her squad find themselves playing for more than Starquest admission. To survive, they'll have to outsmart carnivorous creatures, share dangerous secrets, maintain trust and embrace the most shocking truth in the galaxy.
Set on a fascinating yet hostile alien planet, this pulse-pounding, high-stakes, elimination-quest novel will have readers on the edge of their seats.
Review
Set in a futuristic, intergalactic world is a game where 100 competitors begin a three-day trial to see who, and how many, can make it to the pickup point. The ability to decipher clues and codes is a must.
These are called the Surface Trials, a universe-wide phenomenon that is streamed live throughout the universe. Success gains up to 20 people access to the famous Starquest Academy. The contestants come from many planets, but few from Ammy’s domed planet of Proxima have been allowed to compete. This is because many of her people have mindbreaker abilities, which caused havoc throughout the universe years earlier. But Ammy has been tested for these abilities and has been passed fit to play.
Each group is placed into teams of five, but no one expects five from any group to get through.
So when their group, now down to four, encounter evil carnivorous plants and nearly lose their second member who is badly injured, they don’t know why he doesn’t get medivaced out to safety. But things are about to heat up, and Ammy cannot hide her secret for much longer...
The heir to the kingdom, Rian Amalthea, has also been disguised and planted in the trials. Could he be in Ammy’s group?
This is a terrific intergalactic novel with themes of trust, working together, extreme survival skills and not believing everything that you have been taught to be true. Filled with people eating plants and enormous insects, it will keep readers aged from 12 to 15 years entertained through to the end.
