Steelstriker

by Marie Lu

Overview

Praise for the instant New York Times bestseller SKYHUNTER
“Riveting.” –POPSUGAR
“Action-packed.” –BuzzFeed
“Fresh.” –Los Angeles Times
“Exhilarating…a rollercoaster of a reading experience.” –The Nerd Daily

Explosive action and swoon-worthy suspense collide in Steelstriker, the riveting conclusion to Marie Lu’s instant New York Times bestseller Skyhunter.

The world’s last free nation has fallen. And behind enemy lines, Talin stands alone.

With her friends scattered by combat and her mother held captive, Talin has no choice but to submit to the Federation’s experiments and become their most deadly war machine—a Skyhunter.

But Red hasn’t given up on Talin. Though the link between them is weak, it could be enough. To find their way back to each other. To reunite the Strikers. To fight back against the Federation, against all odds, against all hope.

Because the battle has only just begun.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250221728
Publisher:	Roaring Brook Press
Publication date:	09/28/2021
Series:	Skyhunter Duology , #2
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	21,910
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.60(d)
Lexile:	830L (what's this?)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Marie Lu is the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of the Legend series, the Young Elites trilogy, the Warcross series, Batman: Nightwalker, and The Kingdom of Back. She graduated from the University of Southern California and jumped into the video game industry, where she worked as an artist. Now a full-time writer, she spends her spare hours reading, drawing, and playing games. She lives in Los Angeles with her illustrator/author husband, Primo Gallanosa, and their son.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Steelstriker:
Instant New York Times Bestseller!

"An exciting, layered, action-filled tale with a cast of sympathetic characters." - Kirkus Reviews

"A brutal but satisfying conclusion to a strong dystopian ­duology." - School Library Journal

Praise for Skyhunter:
A New York Times and Publishers Weekly bestseller

"Cinematically imagined... An exciting, layered, action-filled tale." - Kirkus Reviews

"Paradoxes abound and readers will glory in them all." - Booklist

"Suspense and high-action fights make this plot-driven story both fast-paced and brutal." - School Library Journal

"Lu (The Kingdom of Back and Legend) creates a devastating, war-torn world, built upon the wreckage of a technologically advanced society. Readers will eagerly await a follow-up to this engrossing dystopian novel, which searingly interrogates traumas of war, immigration, and imperialism." - Publishers Weekly

"Lu ably balances lightning-fast action and stirring battles with romance, weaving in enough bits of cultural history to give the story some grounding... This hearty but small group of Talin, Red, and a few more allies face formidable odds in the next outing, and readers will likely eagerly await news on how they fare." - The Bulletin for the Center of Children's Books (BCCB)

"The high-stakes action (including graceful, deadly combat) more than once has readers fearing for the characters’ lives...In addition, Lu brings in themes of disability and prejudice to this science fiction tale with many of the markers of traditional fantasy." - The Horn Book

From the Publisher

10/01/2021

Gr 9 Up—Six months after the fall of Mara, the Karensa Federation works mercilessly to absorb the formerly free nation into its sprawling empire. Mara's artifacts are carted to Federation museums and sculpture gardens, their heritage erased. Prisoners await execution or transformation into Ghosts—the hideous monsters the Federation uses against its enemies and subjects. Talin, hostage to the Premier, watches helplessly. Once an elite Striker, Talin tried to stop the Federation's invasion but she and her friends were too late. Now she stands at the Premier's side as a Skyhunter—a human turned war machine with lethal strength and steel wings. Red escaped the Federation once, but now, his wings damaged, the first Skyhunter knows he will need more than rage and regret to help his new friends. Chapters alternate between Talin and Red's first-person narrations as they try to find their way back to each other and continue fighting the Federation. Seeds of rebellion and resistance spark action in this story which expands on the sophisticated and nuanced worldbuilding from the first installment. Questions of who is fit to run a nation and how power is bestowed add further depth to the book's political landscape. As the Premier tries to harness (presumably nuclear) technology from the Early Ones, it becomes clear that sometimes mistakes are doomed to repeat. Lu once again delves into the brutality of war and invasion as Talin, whose vocal chords were damaged in the invasion of her birthplace, and Red, who was recruited by the Federation as a child soldier, reflect on what brought them to this point. VERDICT A brutal but satisfying conclusion to a strong dystopian duology.—Emma Carbone, Brooklyn P.L.

School Library Journal

2021-09-01
A group of young rebels struggle against tyrannical forces in this sequel to Skyhunter (2020).

Resuming the tale shortly after the fall of Mara, the last nation that had been holding out against the murderous Karensa Federation, the story is vividly told in the first person alternating between Talin’s and Red’s perspectives. Talin, who uses sign language to communicate, has now been forced by the deeply evil Premier Constantine, as Red was, to become a Skyhunter, with huge metal wings grafted onto her body, steel armor implanted under her skin, and her emotions accessible to him. Constantine uses the threat of ending her mother’s life—he holds her captive—to control Talin, thus ending her ability to work with her friends against Karensa. The menacing Constantine is an effective villain whom readers will rail against as Talin and Red slowly discover the complicated web of burgeoning resistance and betrayal that exists in the bleak new world they inhabit. Detailed sabotage plots, action-laden fights, and even some romance are interspersed, but Talin’s psychologically taut internal battle against Constantine’s suffocating control is front and center throughout. The novel wraps up with a satisfying conclusion. The first novel noted characters’ differing skin tones; there are several secondary characters who are queer.

A slow-burning, introspective end to an emotionally powerful duology. (map) (Fantasy. 13-18)

Kirkus Reviews