With past actions coming back to haunt her, old friendships falling apart and new, confusing ones coming together, Hero has to find answers because, this time, the world really is going to change. It all wouldn't be so bad, except Hero has secrets to keep too-the kind that may just be unforgivable-and the Librarian once again needs her help to save the world, whether she wants to or not. Life would be perfect except her best friend is keeping secrets, Fink-her six hundred kilogram, genetically engineered companion-is constantly angry, and there's something wrong with Hero's brain. Hero has just about everything she wants: independence, friendship and a shot at her fondest dream-to explore the surface of the alien planet she calls home. Now the world doesn't need her, which is just how she likes it.

Hero Regan is a telepath, the first in a new subspecies of human engineered to save the world, but that was before she blew up a chunk of Cumulus City. Here, along with making unexpected friends, Hero discovers she is an unwitting part of a master plan set into motion by the first colonists, a plan she must either help or foil if she's ever to attain the freedom she craves.Hero Regan is a telepath, the first in a new subspecies of human engineered to save the world, but with past actions coming back to haunt her, old friendships falling apart and new, confusing ones coming together, Hero has to find answers because, this time, the world really is going to change. Their chance comes when Hero is allowed to attend school in Cumulus City. They share lives, thoughts, triple-chocolate marshmallow ice-cream, and the burning desire for freedom. Surrounded by butlers, bodyguards, and tutors, insulated from the outside world, her only solace is Fink, a 600-kilogram, genetically engineered ruc-pard. She hears voices, voices in her head that other people can't. Hero Regan is special, and not in a way she likes. Instead they took to the skies, turning their colony ships into cities that floated above the spore's reach. Genetic engineering, blending DNA from Earth and Jørn species, saved their crops and livestock, but for humans there was no cure.

The culprit, a native spore, carried on every wind to every corner of the globe. Arriving in five great colony ships, they quickly settled the surface only to discover, after a few short years, that the planet was killing them.

Centuries ago, humans colonised Jørn, a lonely planet on the far side of the galaxy.

Riven by Belinda Crawford