Marooned

The Communion Wars #1

by P.J. Druce

High above the streets, the skyscrapers in the cities of the American Union exude wealth, luxury, and for the privileged few, immortality. Those with the means to take Communion are immune to the diseases and risks that ravage those who live outside the city walls. While life is a struggle for the less affluent, their existence is subsidized by the rich. Food and medicine are cheap, transportation is free–and for those with needed skills–indentured servitude to the wealthy or to the government can buy your own expanded longevity. They are two different worlds, and those above and those below share little in common except for one A love for the Professional Seeder matches, where immortal combatants fight until only one is left standing. With two weeks left before her sixteenth birthday, Punk Jordan lives out the last days of her mortal existence by competing in underground Seeder matches where only the best martial artists excel and the rules stop the moment the match begins. The daughter of William Jordan, founder of the company that makes the Communion drug, Punk’s elevation to immortality is guaranteed and a life of fame and wealth on the professional circuit awaits. But when those closest to her–including her own mentally ill mother–turn out to be part of a heretical anti-government movement, her comfortable life is shattered. To protect those she loves the most, Punk flees the only home she’s ever known and is forced to make choices that weigh family against compassion, privilege against promises and love against immortality itself.

338 pages, Paperback

First published July 17, 2011

About the author

P.J. Druce is a writer of Young Adult fiction who lives somewhere between the rain-drenched land of the gooey duck and the rarified air of a place where people once ate each other during a particularly bad winter. P.J. attended college at one point, but after experiencing a childhood trauma involving the word, "Lecture," skipped too many classes in order to read books that weren't sold in the college bookstore because the stories were too exciting.


Disclaimer: P.J. does not recommend skipping college, but does recommend any book that gets your heart pumping, even if your friends make fun of you for it.

Reviews

[Phiona R · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book, Marooned: The Communion Wars! It's about a 15 year old girl named Punk Jordan, and she's not to happy where she's at, her mom has a major emotional problem, and in her case, cutting herself is a feel good party, her father on the other hand, has no time for her at all, and he's to busy running his city. Punk is going to take communion and live for ever, but when she finds out that her so called father, isn't her real father at all, she then has the temptation to bring him down! Note to readers: Marooned: The Communion Wars, is a young adult book.

[Wendy S. Delmater · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marooned, by Joseph Paul Haines writing as P.J. Druce, is a tightly-plotted dystopian future science fiction fantasy about a girl who fights . . . oh wait, you’re thinking The Hunger Games, right? Not quite. Alyssa Jordan, a.k.a. “Punk” is a vicious cage-match sort of street fighter. She is also the daughter of wealthy, ultra-high-status parents who are immortal. You can become immortal in Marooned‘s world if you have enough money. Punk has those sort of abysmal parents many rich youngsters have. There’s her self-absorbed mom and it’s refreshing in a sad way that the cutter is the mother, not teen for a change (plus there is actually an excellent reason she cuts herself, believe it or not). And then there’s her dad: a charming Machiavellian and controlling bastard. Her rebellion is to fight in these public matches, right up until her 16th birthday – the last moment she can still become immortal by taking the nano-cocktail called “communion”.

When Punk’s near-relations and friends are outed as part of an anti-government conspiracy, she drops out of sight and spends the last two weeks of her mortality trying to right some rather cosmic wrongs. If she cannot take “communion” and be Elevated she will be Marooned, unable to live forever. But with the shocking revelations that have been turning her world upside down, would she even want to ingest the nanomachines and be a part of a world that is no longer what she thought it was?

This is an edge-of-your-seat thriller. Don’t start the book as bedtime reading, as you’ll be up until you finish it. There are more books in this world coming. Can’t wait.

RECOMMENDED

[Taina · Rating 4 out of 5]

​I read this book a while back, so my recollection isn't as great as it could be. (That is my disclaimer.)

​This book reminded me of the Hunger Games a little bit. They both have these strong female leads who do things that they thought themselves incapable of doing for the ones they love.

​Punk Jordan is basically a good person who has the means to do for others and enjoys doing so. At least that's what she tells herself. So what if helping others less fortunate than herself upsets her father? That's just an added bonus. When a very important person comes to dinner, Punk's mother loses it at the dinner table and Punk stands up for her. Which means she embarrasses her father in front of important company.

​That night, her fighting instructor tells her she needs to run and meet up some dodgy people, because only they can get her mother out of the mess she's in. So ensues a chase and a battle of wills that has her distrusting everyone and everything she knows.

​Punk is a good character, but not one that I can really relate to. I think her path to self discovery would have been more believable if she hadn't always rebelled against her father. If she had been obedient and trusting of the people around her in the first place, the disillusion would have been more heartbreaking and a much better read, to be honest. Suffering all those betrayals would have had an extra "oomph" for me if I could have believed she had truly thought her world was perfect before she was forced to leave home. As it stands, the situations she found herself in felt self-made.

Also, the love triangle is just unbelievable. I understand she is a teenager, but we are led to believe that she understands way more about her world than the average 16-year-old in her position. So why then is she falling for a guy who held her at gunpoint after 24 hours? That was just so implausible it made me feel awkward reading those passages. I could understand her finding him appealing and thinking he would make a great friend/ally. But feeling more for him than that? There's no way. Not for me anyway.

I received this book as a Goodreads First Read.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once I got about 20 pages in I couldn't put this book down. its fast paced with a great story, I couldn't get enough of Punk or her friends. I can't wait for the second book to come out. My copy had the first chapter of the next book and from what I read I think it will be just as addictive.

I finally convinced my husband to read this book and he also really enjoyed it, and looks forward to the next book. There are so few books that we both enjoy so it is always good to find one that we can talk about together.

[Patti Larsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED this book--from the concept to the characters... fantastic, faced paced and action packed. I can't wait for the sequel!