Equilon
Book not yet available in English
Summary:
Jenna has done it: she has cracked the score for the “One Billion” and is one of the privileged few who can go to New Valley. This is where EQUILON was developed, the algorithm that is supposed to make the planet, ravaged by poverty and climate change, habitable again. When rebels disrupt an event, Jenna gets her first glimpse of the dark side of this glamorous world. Dorian from Old LA is fed up, because his survival depends on the “One Billion” score – and it drops with every evaluation. Then he meets little Maggie, whose mother is dying and entrusts him not only with Maggie’s fate, but also with something far more valuable: the key to the “One Billion.”
Edited by: ALEKI - Arbeitsstelle für Kinder- und Jugendmedienforschung
Comment:
Equilon is an exciting but also rather disturbing near-future fiction. It addresses the limits of scientific belief and technocracy, and problematises speciesism. The climate dystopia is convincing thanks to its adept world-building and characterisation.