Planesrunner

Starred review from October 17, 2011
In this first YA novel from noted SF writer McDonald (The Dervish House), 14-year-old Everett Singh is still dealing with his parents’ divorce when his quantum physicist father is kidnapped, and both the police and Everett’s father’s boss are acting strangely. Then Everett is emailed a complex computer program, the Infundibulum, which allows Everett, no slouch at math himself, to map out an infinite number of alternate worlds. Everett learns that his father was kidnapped because the governments of the so-called Ten Known Worlds want the Infundibulum for themselves. Soon he winds up in an alternate “electropunk” England in which sophisticated dirigibles rule the skies; there he meets Sen, the pixyish pilot of the Everness, who initially attempts to steal his computer, but becomes a close ally. Athletic, brilliant, and always ahead of the game, Everett is too perfect, but it doesn’t detract from the book’s fun. McDonald writes with scientific and literary sophistication, as well as a wicked sense of humor. Add nonstop action, eccentric characters, and expert universe building, and this first volume of the Everness series is a winner. Ages 12–up.

Starred review from November 1, 2011
Science fiction rules in this stellar series opener about a boy who travels to parallel universes. What joy to find science fiction based on real scientific concepts. Fourteen-year-old Everett Singh sees his physicist father kidnapped from a London street and learns that he'll have to travel to another universe to save him. Dad cleverly sends Everett a map to the multiverse, knowing that Everett has the smarts to decipher it. Dr. Singh invented the "Heisenberg Gate" that allows travel between worlds, leading to the discovery of nine parallel Earths. Everett sneaks through the gate to get to a parallel London, where he meets Sen, a scrappy girl, and her airship crew, who will help him rescue his father. Meanwhile, he must evade the powerful politician who wants his map. In his debut for teens, established science-fiction writer McDonald builds a world just different enough to charm readers into believing, populating it with entertaining, quirky characters, spicing up the story with Punjabi cooking and a secret dialect (complete with glossary) and explaining the multiverse theory in readily comprehensible terms. Suspense rules, and Everett's advantages come from both his football goalie skills and his intelligence. Shining imagination, pulsing suspense and sparkling writing make this one stand out. As Sen would say, "fantabulosa bona." (Science fiction. 12-16)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

February 1, 2012
Grades 8-11 Fourteen-year-old Everett Singh discovers that parallel worlds are not so theoretical after all when his physicist father is kidnapped from a London street and Everett is thrown into a pandimensional multiverse conspiracy. On E3, an electric steampunk parallel world, Everett searches for his father while evading the authorities with the help of Sen Sixsmyth, an Airish girl. As in Burgess' A Clockwork Orange (1962), a slightly altered language (a glossary is included) gives the story an off-kilter and timeless feel, and big world issuesincluding prejudice in several formsare filtered through the characters' struggles. The novel does this with subtle humor, paying homage to several classic sf tropes, including the bigger-on-the-inside concept most commonly associated with Doctor Who. Compelling characters populate this richly imagined, complex parallel world in award-winning McDonald's debut young-adult novel, the first in the Everness series. The fast-paced, action-filled plot and cliffhanger ending will leave readers eagerly awaiting Everett's next adventure.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2012
After he unlocks a map of all the parallel worlds in the universe, Everett Singh follows his kidnapped father to an alternate "electropunk" London. There, he meets Sen, a street-smart teen girl, and joins the crew of the airship [cf2]Everness[cf1]. McDonald's gorgeous world-building and fast-paced plot will thrill fans of steampunk and science fiction.

(Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)