“ABC YA Sci-Fi Mysteries”…
From my own experience as a reader, I generally consider sci-fi tales as a young person’s sport, although that doesn’t stop a lot of people young-at-heart from being great fans of the genre. Some of those dedicated readers are purists too—people who avoid boy magicians and cute robots and androids from those slick fantasy tales and even the inheritors of all those Buck Rogers-style space operas—so the sci has to be in the sci-fi to keep them happy. But youth is always present if only in the sense that youthful imagination based on solid scientific extrapolation is required to totally appreciate it.
As a consequence, it’s no surprise that tweens or young adults are often main characters, as they are in A. B. Carolan’s sci-fi mysteries for young adults (and adults who are young-at-heart). The first three are set in the sci-fi universe found on my extended “future history” timeline and feature three young women who can serve as heroes for both male and female young adults.
The Secret Lab and The Secret of the Urns might remind readers of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mysteries, but their principal characters are very much young ladies of our far future. Shashibala Garcia is the leader of the nerd herd (loosely modeled after my own in high school—I wrote the first edition, A. B. reedited and republished it) on a futuristic version of the International Space Station (more a depot for solar-system commerce), although Mr. Paws, a mutant cat who can help young people with advanced math like calculus, becomes her partner in sleuthing.
Asako Kobayashi, the daughter of two Human scientists, part of a group studying some strange ETs native to a satellite of a Jupiter-like planet, forces Humans there to face their bigotry and prejudices. One of the ETs plays Dr. Watson to her Sherlock Holmes/Indiana Jones-like character.
Della Dos Toros has the most interesting role in those first three ABC mysteries, though. A, B, has gone where author hasn’t very often. There’s a lot of ESP in Mind Games (explained mainly in the same way FTL travel is explained in the “Chaos Chronicles”) that I only touched upon in Sing a Zamba Galactica and Come Dance a Cumbia…with Stars in Your Hand! (both novels found in the “Chaos Chronicles Trilogy Collection,” a three-novel ebook bundle), but not in Rogue Planet, which could be considered a prequel to Mind Games. But the latter novel is as much a celebration of ESP storytelling as The Time Traveler’s Guide through the Multiverse is of time travel (these novels both use the multiverse concept). Combining a great principal character with a exciting and suspenseful plot (at least that was A. B.’s intention!) should have made Mind Games into a sci-fi classic. (That it didn’t must have some deep significance that’s a mystery in itself!)
I won’t dwell on Origins, A. B. Carolan’s fourth YA sci-fi mystery. It’s supposed to be part of a trilogy describing an entirely new sci-fi universe. The concept is an interesting one: The real prehistorical Denisovans are a recently discovered offshoot of the Human family tree like the Hobbits, Cro-Magnons, and Neanderthals, so the storyline provides a theory about their origins on Earth, and future novels (to make a trilogy) will supposedly be filled with the intrigue and suspense as competing factions vie for power in an ancient galactic empire. If his cameo in Intolerance is any indication, A. B. is having problems writing the next two novels. I suppose that might be because the first novel is quite self-contained. (You can tell him using my contact page to get on with it!)
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Mind Games. Humans in the future want to give androids ESP powers. What could go wrong? Set in the same sci-fi universe as Steve Moore’s “Chaos Chronicles Trilogy,” Rogue Planet, and Dr. Carlos Stories, this sci-fi mystery for young adults written by A. B. Carolan features a principal character and plot filled with action, intrigue, and suspense that is sure to please every young adult and adult who is young-at-heart. It’s an ideal book for those book reports tweens and young adults have to write as well. Give your tween and teen the gift of exciting reading! Or enjoy a mind-bending (literally!) tale yourself!
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
