THE DESTINY OF LINUS HOPPE

Bondoux offers a spare and engaging tale about three teenagers on the verge of their destinies in a future dystopia. Linus is only three months away from being tested by the Great Processor. The test’s details are unknown (adults have mysteriously forgotten), but the result is crucial because it will determine which Realm Linus will live in for the rest of his life. Realm One is the Protected Zone—suburban, clean and safe, with upscale and interesting jobs. Zone Two has shabby apartment buildings and industrial jobs in a fetid underground. Zone Three is shudderingly unknown. Linus meets Yosh online, and despite their lives in different zones, they become friends. With Linus’s hacker friend Chem, they hatch a plan to scramble their test results and choose their own destinies, an unheard-of idea. Can they change anything? Who is friend or foe? Bondoux provides quick action and a well-sketched environment, with only the occasional explanation seeming arbitrary. Not fleshed out, but elegant and enjoyable. (Science fiction. 10-12)