Hatching the Phoenix Egg (Mare Tranquillitatis, #2)

by Joel Horn

[chymerra]

This book starts off right after the launching of the Tranquility and Ken narrowly avoiding being arrested by the FBI. He goes off into orbit around earth and the moon and starts his journey to Jupiter.

While he is on his way to Jupiter, his friends are left behind to pick up the pieces. Akira breaks the news to Carol and to Mary that he will not be coming back and that he was the boy who Dawn was looking for. The FBI investigates them and finds nothing but does take all of Ken’s rockets that were at the clubhouse. Which was no big deal because they didn’t get anything important.

I found Ken’s travel to Jupiter fascinating and very intriguing. Definitely made me wonder when we’ll finally send manned expeditions to Jupiter and its moons. I also thought that him choosing a school to share his journey with was fantastic.

The comet, Ken wanting to save the world from it and how people reacted are totally what I would think people today would act if something like that ever happened. The riots, the food shortages…everything was written how I expected people to act in an apocalyptic situation.

I did find Ken a bit self-absorbed in this book. But, he was dealing with his own issues and dealing with facing his own death. So I can totally understand why he acted that way.

The end of the book was great. So many things were wrapped up and so many storylines, carried over from the first book, were resolved in a satisfactory way. I am wondering if there will be a 3rd book. Just from the way this one ended, I can see a 3rd one being written.

I will warn everyone….this is not a YA book. The first one, yes….100%. This one, not so much. It is so much darker than the first one. I will also mention that I didn’t get the title until the end of the book. You want to know what I am talking about? Simple….read the book.

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**