3 out of 4 stars
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Vagrant is an exciting and a suspenseful science fiction and young adult fiction novel, written by Janet Post and Gabe Thompson.
Logan Hall is among the Vagrants, an entire population of people living in the old subway tunnels, subterranean caverns, and sewers, beneath the mega city of New Washington. He, just like every other Vagrant, has no microchip implant. A microchip is implanted in the hip of every citizen who lives topside, where people are fed with genetically altered food. Sopore, an addictive substance is genetically bred into corn. It is a sedative that allows the Company to control everybody.
The Vagrants know about the drug. They grow their own food and are, therefore, free of the Company’s control. Consequently, the Company hunts down all the Vagrants to send them to work in the mines of newly-discovered planets. Logan’s father is among those who were captured and sent off to Gliese 667, leaving Logan among the other Vagrants.
In one of Logan’s missions aboveground, he meets Shayna Nagata, a beautiful, sweet, and kind candy striper who is allergic to corn, and is, therefore, not addicted to Sopore. Shayna helps Logan to escape from the authorities. Unfortunately, Logan’s friend Raj is captured.
Logan vows to save Raj or die trying.
Told in the third-person perspective, this is a fast-paced and suspenseful book with twenty-eight chapters. It emphasizes negative and positive human traits including avarice and tenacity. The authors successfully depict the Company as an extremely rapacious institution. It controls the citizens to do its bidding, such as shipping them off to other planets to work at the mines, for diamonds and other gemstones. Similarly, they portray the Vagrants as a group of people, who steadfastly hold on to their freedom. The book presents the strength of the human spirit, the ability to cope with the most horrific form of existence, and the seemingly irrational sense of optimism, that keeps a person hoping, when there seems to be nothing else to hope for.
This is an interesting book and an easy read. The settings, both below and above the ground, are vividly described, and the dialogues are fitting for both the younger and the older characters. The plot is quite unpredictable, and there are plenty of surprises within the entire book. The main characters are well-developed and easily relatable. Shayna is a tough girl who knows what she wants, and is willing to do what is necessary. Logan is the ultimate hero. He is kind, brave, and is willing to die for what he believes is right.
While the most important part of the book is, naturally, Logan’s rescue mission, what I like most is the seemingly underrated reference to the minor characters, who actually play major roles in the story.
I enjoyed this book a lot. However, there seems to be insufficient backstories on Doctor Bob, Professor Goswami, and Eddie. Moreover, there are several noticeable errors within the entire book (like Declan instead of Deklan and Breath shallowly instead of Breathe shallowly).
I, therefore, rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. It is exciting and suspenseful. I recommend it to fans of science fiction novels.
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Vagrant
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