There's just enough science to make it feel like it could actually happen, yet isn't afraid to run away with its fanciful imaginings-not unlike old-school incarnations of Mars in Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles and, well, John Carter of Mars. Holy cow, this is a good book! The world-building of both the Martian colony and Nadin's world, Iamos, is nothing short of spectacular. Surrounded by strange circumstances that feel like sci-fi even to him, he soon finds himself running-right into Nadin. Isaak's search for answers puts him on the government's radar and makes him the target of a mysterious stalker.

But when he stumbles upon a strange rock formation at the site of a geological dig-one that seems to hint at ancient human life on Mars-everything changes. Gifted in linguistics, he just wants to get through his senior year and accept his inevitable future as a translator for Tierra Nueva's vastly diverse population. Tierra Nueva, the Mars colony he lives in, was originally settled by low-income immigrants from Earth after corporations outsourced their operations there in an effort to stop polluting Earth's atmosphere.

Isaak Contreras' family came from Earth as part of late 21st-century colonization effort, but he's a native-born Martian.

Which is why she's so shocked when a strange boy turns up outside with no life support and no identity.Ĭut to how this boy got there. With the air now toxic, her people are forced to live inside domed cities and must wear protective gear if they venture beyond the domes' protections. Lyssa Chiavari's vividly imagined YA sci-fi novel, FOURTH WORLD, opens on Nadin, a teen whose dying planet's days are numbered.

Fourth world lyssa chiavari