The Challenger by Anders Aaslund

When I first encountered the adorably named Pea, a chubby little ball-shaped hoverbot who serves as Imogen Hart’s personal assistant, I was immediately sucked into the story. The Conestoga, where Imogen’s family resides, has been travelling through space for a thousand years in search of the planet Alamea, which will eventually become home to the original Travellers’ descendants.

Imogen is one of the people chosen to be the first on the planet’s surface when they arrive. She is a Pioneer and a Planetwalker. She is the leader of the Cannonballs, one of the teams in a Conestogan game played in a zero gravity arena, and she is also an AI nerd and a brilliant athlete.

However, Imogen is having a breakdown at the beginning of “The Challenger” because her best friend Ellie has just passed away, and under mysterious circumstances. Lex, Ellie’s brother and a potential love interest (though Imogen calls him “full of himself” and says he has “the too cool for school look”), tries to help her.

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However, it isn’t until she receives a coded message from Ellie that she realises there is a serious problem. By allowing us to observe Imogen and her family’s daily activities, the world of the enormous Conestoga is vividly evoked, and we are also carried along by the plot. Critical information is inserted at the right times.

For example, if we ever wonder how a quarter of a million colonists and their descendants have survived for over a thousand years, we are informed that everything has been meticulously recycled (ellie’s funeral is rather goryly referred to as a Reclamation). Although there is a fair amount of unusual terminology (meals are “fabbed” in an “assembler,” the train is a “Mag”), it is all very understandable.

Imogen is a deserving heroine, if a little too prone to emotional outbursts and foolish fits of rage. All of the characters are three dimensional and not just caricatures, including the coach of the Cannonballs. Throughout The Hunger Games, Katniss remains the same.

I find the love aspect of things interesting (will Joshua win?) and the attempts made by the authorities to stop the young people from understanding Ellie’s message lead to many heart-pounding incidents. While leaving us eager to read more in the series, the ending is satisfying. Overall, a fantastic read.

About The Book

Things are going wrong for AI nerd Imogen Hart. Her best friend takes her own life just as they prepare to set foot on planet Alamea—mankind’s new home. When the ruling elite aboard the colonial spaceship Conestoga attempt to rewrite the past, Imogen connects the dots and uncovers an age-old secret that threatens the future of a quarter of a million passengers.

Her destiny shattered, Imogen must employ every dirty trick in her arsenal and fight for the truth. But shaking things up turns out to be much more dangerous than Imogen ever imagined—and time is running out.