Speculative Fiction Junkie

David Whitley

Some of the best speculative fiction being published today is to be found in the young adult section of the book store. D.M. Cornish's Foundling (review here) and Lamplighter (review here), for example, will almost certainly be on Speculative Fiction Junkie's Top 5 Reads of 2009 list. Reading books meant for younger readers with adult eyes is, however, a bit of a gamble, as in my opinion such books tend to fall into two categories: truly great books that can be enjoyed by readers of almost any age and everything else. While David Whitley's debut novel, The Midnight Charter, has several things going for it, I ultimately found that it fit into the "everything else" category.

The Midnight Charter takes place in Agora, a city in which everything is bought and sold: goods, children, ideas, emotions (these are literally extracted from people, bottled, and sold), time, everything. There is no such thing as charity or selfless acts. When people don't have anything with which to barter, or have squandered what possessions they once had, they become "debtors" or "damaged goods," unworthy of any support, as Agoran society has no concept of supporting the poor and destitute since they cannot provide anything in return.

Into this world arrive two orphans who approach this central characteristic of their society in two drastically different ways: one learns to take advantage of it and prospers accordingly, even while making himself vulnerable to the possibility that his fortunes could change at any time as market forces fluctuate or competitors make Machiavellian advances; the other attempts to change Agoran society by introducing charity into it, at substantial personal risk to herself and those close to her.

While Mr. Whitley is a good writer and the setting of Agora is a promising one, The Midnight Charter suffers from one major problem that severely limited its appeal for me: the entirety of the book's point seems to be conveyed by merely describing the city of Agora, leaving little urgency to guide the plot and in fact leaving hardly any reason for their to be a plot at all. The plot, such as it is, betrays this fact, and is at best mildly interesting and often times seems forced.

Mr. Whitley's debut novel is probably a great read for the younger audiences at whom it is directed, and I'll be interested to see what his future works are like, but, for me at least, The Midnight Charter does not belong in that upper echelon of young adult works that can be widely enjoyed by older readers.

Rating: 6/10

The True First

The Midnight Charter was originally published in London by Puffin on August 6, 2009. It will be published in the United States on September 1 by Roaring Brook Press.

[This review was not based on a review copy]