• Age: 10 to 14
• Grade: 9

Bartholomew hasn’t had a lot of life experience. As a novice monk aboard the spaceship monastery Prominence, he spends his days in worship and creating exquisite sun-fired pottery. These trips to the sun are the only life Bart has known. Then, while training to be a pilot with Gary, the ship’s hard-drinking captain, Bart hears tales of life beyond the bulkheads.

Life is quiet until, one fateful trip, Bart is plunged into more trouble than he’s ever known. Two rescued castaways turn out to be interstellar thieves. A cleaning of the ship’s bilge leads to a shocking encounter with a giant eel. And then, disaster: when the Prominence reaches the closest point in its orbit around the sun, the engines fail.

With only hours before the ship incinerates, Gary devises a plan, but it will save just a few of the ship’s 70 occupants. As temperatures and emotions soar, Bart heads into space, risking everything to save them all.

MONKS IN SPACE is filled with zero-gravity action, memorable characters and mounting anxiety as the end of hope draws near. Readers will thrill to this electrifying adventure.

David Jones is a full-time freelance writer with a degree in zoology. He has written widely on natural history themes and has published one previous book for young readers. He lives in Vancouver, B.C.

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• Short-listed, Book of the Year Award nomination, CLA

“Teens will enjoy this humorous, well-written futuristic tale with a twist.”

School Library Journal, 02/09

Monks in Space

Bart is a 14-year-old boy and a novice among the monks aboard the space ship Prominence. This ship is an abbey, and, except for the interior zero gravity rooms, resembles a medieval abbey in every way.

The tale is told within the main character’s head – and this is fitting, being that he is training to be a monk who should adore silence. This particular sect worships the sun, or Sol as they refer to him, as they orbit on the precipice of their god. Bart is a bumbling teen who mistrusts two strangers that the Prominence rescues, but it’s his teenage ways that wind up saving the day when danger erupts. First, the strangers turn out to be thieves. Secondly and more seriously, the ship’s engines fail and they begin to drift into the fatal loving rays of their god.

This is a tale that recognizes that some teens enjoy spending time with a complex character. It’s slow in pace but interesting in detail. This is especially so in Bart’s constant inner monologue of how his personal desires are in direct conflict with the monk’s edicts. Because Monks in Space is adventure foremost, and rebellious ideology second, this book would make great classroom discussion on current politics and how they may interfere with our own personal beliefs.

Monks in Space

Life is quiet on the spaceship monastery until Bart is plunged into more trouble than he’s ever known: the engines fail when the spaceship reaches the closest point in its orbit around the sun. Can Bart save the ship’s 70 occupants in time?