So many sentence fragments. Dilutes the power of the storytelling. Gets annoying after a while. Seriously when the central character calls attention to this particular trait right in the first paragraph, it is a little difficult to ignore. And a lot of things are supposed to happen to Jack Danielson if this book is first in a trilogy, so it is a bad sign if sentence structure is the first thing he chooses to talk about. Rather he might want to address the fact that the people he thought were his parents are not-and that they are dead now, their lives sacrificed to save his life-and how he went from being a typical libidinous teenager to last hope for a long line of planetary caregivers. These things probably should take priority over defending use of sentence fragments. Jack has to race to find out the answers of who he is, with training by the sultry Eco and psychic shaggy dog Gisco, in a convoluted plot that jumps from SF thriller to deep-sea adventure, but never does the book actually reach out and grip its reader. Jack is on the run, and he must battle a nefarious cousin and track down a mysterious orb weapon called Firestorm, but it is difficult to actually care. Those with nothing better to do might finish this book, but chances are slim that they are going to eagerly anticipate the next two.-Matthew Weaver.

This gripping first novel in the Caretaker Trilogy introduces high school senior Jack Danielson: "You want pace? I'll give you pace. You want weird? Stick around, my friend." Klass (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Dark Angel), through his hyperintelligent, otherworldly narrator, delivers both. A star running back on the football team, Jack barely has time to savor a victory before his father whisks him away, warning him that everything the teen believes is a lie. Jack's high profile on the evening sportscast has brought him to the attention of sinister forces. His father, who calls Jack "our beacon of hope," sends off his son in a flurry of laser blasts and mysterious warnings, to a boat to cross the Hudson. In New York City, a beautiful girl (really a shapeshifting wolf) captures him, calling him "the Prince himself" and asking him where to find "Firestorm." Gisco, a telekinetic dog, ends up Jack's only friend on his sudden, surreal journey. A visionary from the far future has sent Jack back in time to stem the tides brought by global warming, but trailing him is the Dark Army, which thrives in the deteriorated Earth of the future. Klass's fragmented first-person narrative both suggests Jack's extraordinarily quick thinking and also keeps the pace going at lightning speed. The plot bears a strong similarity to the Terminator films, but its muscular tone and drip-by-drip reveal of secrets make it a total thrill ride, and one with a profound message. Ages 10-up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Sept.) Agent: Aaron M. Priest Literary Agency.

Jack's parents have taught him to blend in, and he resents it. He knows he can be a star ich he becomes when he shatters his school's rushing record and appears on the news. Then his parents tell him they aren't really his parents, and Jack suddenly finds himself catapulted from being on top of the world to running for his life and being the only one equipped to avert ecological disaster. In the first volume in this eco-fantasy series, Klass avoids preaching while still conveying how easily ignorance can cause environmental atrocities; a scene in which Jack helps trawl for orange roughy is downright chilling. The nonstop run of fragmentary sentences is effective in action scenes; it's distracting everywhere else, however, so it's fortunate that the book is packed with high-intensity thrills. Style matters aside, Klass' protagonist comes off as a regular guy, right down to his awkward sexual impulses, and Jack's surprising fate will leave readers waiting eagerly for the second installment in the Caretaker Trilogy.

Gr 8 Up-Klass enters exciting and provocative new territory with this sci-fi thriller. Seventeen-year-old Jack Danielson's life has always been normal-except that his parents have encouraged him to blend in and not try too hard. But then he learns that he is different, that he has special powers and abilities, and that he is from the future and has been sent back to save the planet. Strangers kill his adoptive parents and come after him, and the teen's only hope to survive is to trust in Gisco, a huge dog who speaks to him telepathically, and Eko, a ninja babe whose loyalties are ambiguous. The writing is fluid and graceful in places. The sobering events and tone are leavened with engaging humor, and the characters are multidimensional. The relentless pace, coupled with issues of ecology, time travel, self-identity, and sexual awakening, makes for a thrilling and memorable read. The cliff-hanger ending will make readers hope that Klass's work on book two of the trilogy is well under way.-Melissa Moore, Union University Library, Jackson, TN Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

After her family relocates to Hinckley, Minnesota, Maggie wants to escape the dusty nineteenth-century railroad town. When the hot weather produces a massive firestorm, Maggie gets her wish but eventually learns that Hinckley has become her home. Though the firestorm of 1894 is historically interesting and re-created in detail here, Schultz spends too many chapters describing it and not enough time exploring Maggie's inner struggle.