When we first met Ellie Quin she was a head-strong nineteen year old on Harper’s Reach, a world nearing the completion of its terraforming cycle. Ellie was tired of working on her father’s farm and she had big plans of making it off-world. Her first step to a brave new life was to find her way to the domed city of New Haven, a sparkling place where all of her dreams would come true. The only problem with Ellie’s dream?

Reality.

It takes money to make it in a big city and big cities attract more than just starry-eyed dreamers hoping to make it big. With the help of her new-found friend, Jez, she plots and schemes to defy the odds and come out on top. Unknown to Ellie she will need to conquer more than just the harsh economic realities of a growing metropolis, she will also need to dodge a ruthless killer sent by the Administration, the organization that governs humanity’s populated worlds. For Ellie is more than just a young woman with a dream, she is a young woman with a destiny…a destiny to bring it all crumbling down.

The second chapter in Alex Scarrow’s Ellie Quin series picks up right where The Legend of Ellie Quin left off, with a now twenty-year-old Ellie learning to navigate the crazy, technologically imaginative city of New Haven as she discovers who she is and what she can do when put to the ultimate test: life.

Ellie Quin is a delightful young lady and spending time with her is a heck of a lot of fun.

My rating: 8/10 stars

I read and reviewed The Legend of Ellie Quin for SF Signal in mid-January of this year and described it as delivering “a sense-of-wonder exploration of the future reminiscent of Heinlein’s juvenile novels coupled with the accessibility of contemporary storytelling techniques.  It reveals an imaginative future in which humanity thrives in a sprawling universe seen through the eyes of a down-to-earth, likeable character”. It is worth taking a moment to skim that review as I go into a more non-spoiler description of the world Scarrow has built for this series.

The World According to Ellie Quin continues the tale in much the same manner as the first.  The majority of the story is told through the eyes of Ellie, with a few scenes told from the perspective of characters Ellie is interacting with as well as the occasional glimpse into the actions of the frightening man tasked with tracking Ellie down…and eliminating her.

Alex Scarrow ups the ante on the bad-guy here, revealing a few details about his character that are delivered with a matter-of-factness that makes him a chilling adversary.  Jez is the slightly older, more worldly-wise guardian angel who takes Ellie under her wing to teach her the ways of survival.  Though Ellie sees Jez as everything she is not: beautiful, smart, confident, Alex Scarrow gives Jez added dimension by not allowing her to fit so tightly in a proscribed “type”.  Ellie continues to battle the naivete born from living a quiet and largely sheltered life, but the world has a way of making reality hit home and much of the authenticity of Scarrow’s character portrayals comes from the scenes where hopes and dreams crash head-on with reality.  What pleases me most is that Alex Scarrow does this while crafting a story that can be enjoyed by both teens and adults.

The Ellie Quin series is interesting because Scarrow employs a Wikipedia-inspired plot device where chapters are sometimes prefaced with snippets of entries and accompanying user comments from OMNIPEDIA.  These entries, far into the future and well past Ellie Quin’s death, reveal aspects of the story that haven’t happened in Ellie’s timeline, giving the reader insight to events of which Ellie is unaware.  Conventional wisdom would say that knowing the outcome of certain story elements would ruin the tension but instead the OMNIDPEDIA entries serve as a source of humor and speculation and also create feelings of anticipation and anxiety.  This allows the “present” of the story to focus more on character building and less on a need for constant action.

I will warn you, both of these books act more as episodes in what will be the fuller story of Ellie Quin’s life and her ultimate fate.  As such each book hits a climax and then promises a continuance in the next story.  Currently there is a third book available for purchase, Ellie Quin: Beneath the Neon Sky, and Alex Scarrow’s website indicates that books 4-6 may possible come out in one bundle.  If you are familiar with reading Hugh Howey’s Wool series, for example, you will understand how the whole of these make up one larger work.  Each of these three volumes is roughly 240 pages and can be purchased on Amazon as ebooks for $1.99 apiece and also as paperbacks for just a touch more.

Ellie Quin is a likeable protagonist and Scarrow’s version of the future is solidly imaginative with accessible world-building coupled with occasional wacky elements (like soda pop that rapidly changes flavor in your mouth as you drink it) which are woven nicely into the overall narrative.

Ellie Quin is on the adventure of a lifetime.  You should really consider joining her.  But remember:

It’s one big crazy universe out there.  Travel light.