BREAKING SKY is a YA action novel, (think Top Gun,) written by Cori McCarthy.
The protagonist, Chase Harcourt, is one of three teens physically able to fly an experimental fighter jet to test its effectiveness against an evil empire set on world domination. In this story, the fate of the world as we know it is in the hands of these three teens — two girls and one guy — because their youthful physicality enables them to withstand the intense G-forces required to successfuly out-run an enemy bent on controlling the world with super-fast and super-deadly drones.
Chase Harcourt (aka heroine) has an additional — and notable ability — her need for speed. She craves it… it’s in her blood… the longer she’s on the ground, the more volatile she becomes. She’s also cocky, impulsive, headstrong and used to getting her own way, which makes her a bit of a brat. But she’s our brat and at the moment she’s the best hope we have.
Harcourt is also the daughter of Commander Tourn — a man who needs no introduction and is known for being cold and callous. Their relationship — if you choose to call it that — is complicated. In fact, everything Chase touches becomes complicated sooner or later which is a large part of the fun of this book. The characters — all of them — but especially Chase are nicely delineated. They’re complex without being hard to understand. And the story is a nice, long, action runway — giving the characters lots of room to come together, spat, work it out, get in trouble, and finally, save the day.
When I say Breaking Sky is like Top Gun, it’s really like Top Gun, meaning if you’ve seen that movie there aren’t a lot of surprises, but it doesn’t really matter because Breaking Sky a good book and a great read. It’s perfect escapism.
My only complaint — and it’s not really a complaint but more of a grouse — is that I didn’t know how to pronounce the name of the evil empire. It’s Ri Xiong Di. I’ll admit I made something up in my head that is no doubt completely wrong.
If you read it… come back and discuss the story here.
by Cori McCarthy
Sourcebooks, Inc.
416 pages
