“I dream of Noise,” says our young narrator. But that should be impossible. The Noise was “cured” years ago, though some would argue “cure” is entirely the wrong word for the cost it extracted. But our narrator isn’t the only one hearing it in his sleep; so are all of his friends and maybe every young person on New World.

Something is coming. From an inconceivable interstellar distance away, something is coming that is about to commit an unspeakable crime. Who can stop them? What chance does our...