Hughes' A Crack in the Sky

Hughes, Mark Peter. A Crack in the Sky.
Hardcover copy generously donated by Mr. Hughes.

Eli has been proud of his family's involvement in InfiniCorp, which protects its workers from the disease and environmental dangers of a dystopian future world by maintaining dome cities. When Eli notices that the pixels in the sky are experiencing more than temporary difficulty, he tries to find out the truth, which brings him into contact with Foggers, who are trying to overthrow Infinicorp. Accompanied by a mongoose, Marilyn, with whom he can communicate because of a chip in her brain, Eli embarks on a dangerous quest that takes him from the inner sanctum of Infinicorp to the Outside to a reeducation center. He finds out the truth, and it doesn't look good. There have been a lot of coverups and brain washing, and the environmental issues are more dire than anyone is letting on. This one is sure to have a sequel.

Strengths: I liked Eli, and Marilyn was both sweet and interesting. The environmental issues are well presented and seem realistic, which makes the book all the scarier. The corporate culture and mind control is somewhat reminiscent of Brave New World, but I liked how video games controlled people instead of drugs.

Weaknesses: The plot could have been tightened up just a little. Like many longer books, this dragged slightly in the middle for me, but not tremendously so.