Drift

by Megan Hutchins

Overview

Tenjat joins a dangerous defense to protect his island home from the monsters who threaten it in this fresh YA fantasy inspired by Mayan and Indian folklore.

There's no place for love on the shores of Hell.

Tenjat lives on the shores of Hell, an ocean filled with ravenous naga monsters. His island, a massive Turtle, is slowed by the people living on its back. Tenjat is poor as poor gets: poor enough, even, to condescend to the shame of marriage, so his children can help support him one day.

But Tenjat has a plan to avoid this fate. He will join the Handlers, those who defend and rule the island. Handlers never marry, and they can even provide for an additional family member. Against his sister's wishes, Tenjat joins the Handlers. And just in time: the Handlers are ramping up for a dangerous battle against the naga monsters, and they need every fighter they can get.

As the naga battle approaches, Tenjat's training intensifies, but a long-hidden family secret-not to mention his own growing feelings for Avi-put his plans in jeopardy, and might threaten the very survival of his island.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781620141465
Publisher:	Lee & Low Books
Publication date:	06/01/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	400
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	11 - 17 Years

About the Author

M.K. Hutchins has had short fiction appear in Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show and Daily Science Fiction. She studied archaeology at BYU, which gave her the opportunity to compile histories from Maya glyphs, excavate in Belize, and work as a faunal analyst. She blogs about books, board games, and fiction-inspired recipes at mkhutchins.com. Drift is her debut novel.

Editorial Reviews

"Hutchins draws on ancient lore about a cosmic turtle and creates a world in which people live on the backs of the large creatures... A magical fantasy with legs (and flippers)." — Booklist

"Original worldbuilding and cosmology spice up a save-the-world romantic adventure... Readers will find watching Hutchins' unusual magical rules bring about startling consequences for family and political structure utterly fascinating. Totally fresh." — Kirkus Reviews

"Well-developed characters match the complex setting... Fantasy and speculative fiction fans are the obvious audience here, but readers of historical fiction or those interested in a more anthropological take on the battle between good and evil may find this to their liking as well." — Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"The world-building is clear and well-developed; details about the setting's mythology are deftly integrated into Tenjat's story and will engage high fantasy fans. Themes of marriage, family, friendship, and loyalty are evident throughout." — School Library Journal

A fantastic adventure set in a stunning, original world, Drift is the kind of book that draws you in so completely that you'll believe you are living on an island on the back of a turtle, fighting off water spirits, and claiming your own magical treasures. Some of the best worldbuilding I've ever read. " — Sarah Beth Durst, author of Vessel and Conjured

Junior Library Guild Selection

From the Publisher

2014-05-04
Original worldbuilding and cosmology spice up a save-the-world romantic adventure.Five years after fleeing their Turtle-back island home in the dead of night for a treason he was too young to understand, Tenjat and his sister Eflet scrape out a living as subsistence farmers on the back of a different massive Turtle, Island Gunaji. While Tenjat is determined to become a warrior Handler in order to care for his sister, Eflet is disgusted with his goal. But since Eflet (inexplicably) won't tell Tenjat why his clever plan is so flawed, he sees no alternative. A man who doesn't pass the Handler tests or apprentice to an artisan has no choice but the shameful life of a hub, or husband, disgracefully burdening the Turtle with children. Luckily, Tenjat passes the Handler tests; less luckily, he feels disgustingly hubbish about Avi, the young woman who is his Handler trainer, who must whip Tenjat into shape in order to save Island Gunaji from starvation, rampaging nagas and the enslaving hordes of other Turtles. Though too much of what Tenjat needs to know is revealed through Eflet, her revelations are so intriguing that her nigh-omniscience is less distracting than it could be. Readers will find watching Hutchins' unusual magical rules bring about startling consequences for family and political structure utterly fascinating.Totally fresh. (Fantasy. 12-14)

Kirkus Reviews