Thunder by Bonnie S. Calhoun

I really enjoyed this dystopian young adult novel.

The setting is 150 years in the future. There has been a great disaster including a huge tsunami that destroyed much of the east coast of America. Much of the landscape of the novel contains the rusted ruins of a great city.

Selah is our heroin. She is about to turn eighteen and is on the shore one day when she sees one of the small boats that come from afar lands. The people that emerge are called Landers and there is a high bounty on their heads. When Landers emerge from the broken boats they are somewhat dazed and can be easily captured. Selah, wanting to prove to her brothers that she can hunt too, captures the man. She touches him and that changes her life forever.

This novel has a little bit of everything in the future. There is a huge underground city where people live and work free from the once deadly elements in the air. Also in the mountain are scientists using the Landers for experiments, paying a good price for live ones. The poor people on the coast use wagons while the people of the mountain have futuristic flying machines. The Lander Selah rescued has special powers, such as in healing minor wounds and mentally connecting with others of his kind.

I found Selah to be an interesting character. She is portrayed as not liked by her family except her mother. As the plot progresses, we find out why her father and one brother have hatred for her. She is a teen heroin who feels she needs to prove herself to her family and the world.

There is no overt Christianity in this novel, but this is just the first in a series. There is reference to the Presence and I hope that becomes clearer in the next novel.

While the main character is female, I think teen guys would like the book too. There's lots of fighting and action to keep them entertained. There are some gory parts too, so this book might not be appropriate for very young teens. At the end, we know there is going to be much more to the story. The adventure is just beginning.

I thoroughly enjoyed Calhoun's writing style. I breezed through the novel quickly and am looking forward to Lightning.

You can read the first chapter here.

You can also download a free prequel, Tremors, from Amazon.

There is also a short sequel to this novel, or prequel to Lightning, that is a free download, called Aftershock.

My rating: 4/5 stars.

Bonnie S. Calhoun is Director of the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance and is owner/publisher of Christian Fiction Online Magazine, now in its seventh year. She is the author of two previous novels and is a web specialist. She and her husband live on 15 acres with a pond. You can find out more at http://bonniescalhoun.com/.

Revell, 427 pages.