Theo Waitley would appear to be an average fourteen year old girl. She is a bit awkward, she bristles at the strictures of some societal rules, and when her mother decides to leave the comforts of the home of her onagrata, Theo’s Father, to better pursue her career of scholarship in the city, Theo’s anger at the upheaval of her routine is just barely contained…just.
Pretty normal, really.
The trouble is that Theo Waitley lives on the planet Delgado, a “Safe World”. Rules and expectations are clearly laid out to provide the maximum opportunity for citizens and visitors to lead safe, productive lives. Theo Waitley’s adolescent behavior and well-documented clumsiness put her on a path that could mark her a danger to society.
When Kamele Waitley, Theo’s mother, seizes the opportunity for an off-world visit to examine some original source documentation, a reluctant Theo Waitley finds herself leaving behind even more of her familiar routine. This unexpected and unwelcome change may be just what Theo needs to avoid Delgado’s solution to her unsafe behavior as she approaches the date of her transition to adulthood.
That is, if she survives the trip.
Fledgling, the twelfth novel of the Liaden Universe, may sound like a typical coming-of-age, young adult science fiction novel. The beauty of it is that while it has some of the hallmarks that make reading young adult fiction pleasurable, this multi-viewpoint novel is a sophisticated and intricately plotted science fiction story for adults that just so happens to hold an appeal for teen readers as well.
Fans of character-driven science fiction, of layered young adult fiction, and those who have been exposed to Robert A. Heinlein’s interesting young protagonists in The Menace From Earth and Podkayne of Mars or rule-driven societies like those in the movies Gattaca or Equilibrium are sure to find something of interest here. But while your reading may remind you of those stories and others, Fledgling remains its own singular pleasure. It is a novel that will stir your passions and you will find yourself engaged in a full range of emotions as you learn about the characters and the society in which they live.
I cannot recommend it highly enough.
