And All the Stars Shall Fall. (The Last Wild Boy, Book 2). Hugh MacDonald. Charlottetown, PE: Acorn Press, 2017. 230 pp., trade pbk. & HTML, $12.95 (pbk.). ISBN 978-1-927502-97-6 (pbk.). ISBN 978-1-927502-98-3 (HTML). Grades 7-12 / Ages 12-17. Review by Ronald Hore. **½ /4

excerpt:

The general alarm shattered Alice's dream and brought her suddenly upright in her bed. The dream had been pleasant, about an upcoming birthday party. In her dream she would be twelve years old in a few months. She remembered that the party had been fun and she was wearing a brand new dress. It was blue to match her pretty eyes—like her mother's, only lighter.

She sat there in her bed, her dream shattered, feeling stunned and frightened, wearing a frilled, ivory cotton nightdress, and rubbing her sleepy blue eyes. Her long blond hair, though tousled and in disarray, made a halo around her lovely, almost twenty eight year old face. Sometimes she wished she were still twelve, like her daughter, Tish. Life had been so much simpler back then.

Blanchefleur, Alice's mother, stood in the doorway of her daughter's bedroom, her tired, round face ashen in the sudden electric brightness. It was obvious to the daughter that her mother, the mayor, had taken no trouble to fix her full head of blond hair or to apply makeup. Her usually attractive face looked drawn and angry.

And All the Stars Shall Fall, the sequel to The Last Wild Boy, continues the tale of a dystopian tale of a world in which steps have been taken to make up for the past mistakes of men. Civilization has been feminized, and males are becoming obsolete. The characters from The Last Wild Boy, often former enemies, are thrown together when the feminized city of Aahimsa and its industrial factory, the Manuhome, are subjected to a surprise attack by the World Federation of Feminized Cities.

      The story in And All the Stars Shall Fall sends the mayor of Aahimsa, Blanchfleur, with her daughter and granddaughter, fleeing the massive destruction through a series of hidden tunnels. They are joined by Doctor Ueland who ran Manuhomme, and Adam, the last wild boy from the previous book. They escape the tunnels after a series of adventures and meet up with Adam's adoptive parents who are living in the wild. The little group flees east into the wilderness in search of safety. They are pursued by armed drones and tracked by satellites that are hunting down and killing survivors.

      After a series of adventures, including attacks by a robotic army, the group reaches a safe haven and set about trying to stop the destruction. They plan to defeat the World Federation while not repeating the mistakes of the past. The tale is told from several points of view as the characters try to come to grips with their feelings about each other. Although there are deaths in this story, the depictions are not graphic. There is action and adventure, along with some thoughtful commentary, as the characters struggle with their differences, and all is reasonably resolved by the end of And All the Stars Shall Fall.

Recommended.

Ronald Hore, involved with writers' groups for several years, dabbles in writing fantasy in Winnipeg, MB.

To comment on this title or this review, contact cm@umanitoba.ca.

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