What do you think?
Rate this book
Bounders #4
The Heroes Return
Jasper and Mira must escape the rift and deliver the Youli’s message to Earth Force before it’s too late in this action-packed fourth novel in what Shannon Messenger calls the “richly detailed, highly imaginative” Bounders series!
After escaping the Youli’s attack on Alkalinia, Jasper and Mira find themselves trapped with the lost aeronauts in the rift, a rip in space where time moves differently. For every minute they spend in the rift, they are losing days back home.
Just when Jasper fears they’ll be stuck in limbo forever, the most unlikely ally shows the Youli.
The Youli promise to rescue everyone in the rift, but their help comes at a price. First, Jasper must tell Earth Force that the Youli want peace. And second, Mira can’t return with Jasper. She has to leave with the Youli.
Back home, almost a year has passed. The Youli war is public, Bounders are in space full-time, and Jasper’s pod is divided. Cole and Lucy have been promoted. Marco and Addy are missing.
Jasper delivers the Youli’s message, but the admiral isn’t interested in peace talks. Instead, she sends Jasper and the aeronauts on a publicity tour of Earth to build support for the war. At first, Jasper revels in the spotlight. But it soon becomes clear that if Jasper doesn’t convince Earth Force to stop fighting—and soon—there won’t be an Earth left to fight for, and he may never see Mira again.
After escaping the Youli’s attack on Alkalinia, Jasper and Mira find themselves trapped with the lost aeronauts in the rift, a rip in space where time moves differently. For every minute they spend in the rift, they are losing days back home.
Just when Jasper fears they’ll be stuck in limbo forever, the most unlikely ally shows the Youli.
The Youli promise to rescue everyone in the rift, but their help comes at a price. First, Jasper must tell Earth Force that the Youli want peace. And second, Mira can’t return with Jasper. She has to leave with the Youli.
Back home, almost a year has passed. The Youli war is public, Bounders are in space full-time, and Jasper’s pod is divided. Cole and Lucy have been promoted. Marco and Addy are missing.
Jasper delivers the Youli’s message, but the admiral isn’t interested in peace talks. Instead, she sends Jasper and the aeronauts on a publicity tour of Earth to build support for the war. At first, Jasper revels in the spotlight. But it soon becomes clear that if Jasper doesn’t convince Earth Force to stop fighting—and soon—there won’t be an Earth left to fight for, and he may never see Mira again.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published December 11, 2018
6 people are currently reading
130 people want to read
About the author
Monica Tesler
5 books85 followersMonica Tesler lives south of Boston with her family. She can often be found hiking or biking with her boys, writing on the commuter boat, or trying to catch a quiet moment for meditation. She is the author of the BOUNDERS series, a middle grade science fiction adventure series from Simon & Schuster/Aladdin.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 3, 2025
Book 4 and the most frustrating one. Way too much in the Earth Force propaganda and not enough actual plot. Roll on book 5.
October 29, 2019
Hands down one of my favorite series.
July 10, 2019
I love this series! All I have to say is there better be a book 5!! Must read in order. Highly recommended for grades 4 & up.
December 25, 2021
Of all the books in this series, this one I least enjoyed. I'm a former newspaper & broadcast journalist, and the entire time I was reading and thinking, why aren't the characters able to spot propaganda? Or reference Earth history, specifically WWII, when propaganda was used by both sides for these exact same purposes? Why are none of the characters, other than the main characters, Jasper and his sister Addy, particularly critical of the "news" they're receiving from Earth Force? But I realize that may just be me, and others may enjoy the story.
The book centers on Jasper's return from the Rift in time with the original heroes who vanished in the Youli attack on Bounder Base 51 so many years ago. Mira stays with the Youli and doesn't return with him. There's a lot of angst on Jasper's part over Mira's failure to return with him that I felt most 14-year-olds would figure out long before Jasper did, but that just speaks to my overall frustration with the storyline in general.
For the adult Base 51 heroes, it's been two weeks. For Earth, they've been gone 15 years. Jasper's been gone a few hours after the battle on Alkalinia, but on Earth, it's a year. They all return home to a vastly changed Earth Force led by a single admiral (one of the heroes' former girlfriends) who has doubled-down on her intentions (like a toddler throwing a tantrum) to get what she wants -- revenge on the Youli -- even though her boyfriend just popped back into existence, completely unharmed. Rescued by the Youli, I might add.
The Base 51 heroes pose a particularly prickly problem for Earth Force's propaganda team, which now includes Lucy as the "Face of Earth Force!" In pink, stilettos and tons of makeup. Ugh. I much prefered her fighting as a Bounder. Specifically, their return does not fit Earth Force's "narrative" of a savage Youli foe that needs to be attacked, at any cost to Earth. Or Earth Force's goal of preventing us from joining an Intragalactic Council that will restrict how we exploit and force into near-slavery alien races on other worlds. Prime example: the Tunnelers on Gulaga, who're now mining the occludium needed to fuel the ships needed to bound and attack the Youli.
So Earth Force puts them all on a Hero Homecoming tour, which I found reminiscent of Katniss' tour of Panem after she won. Down to the makeup team for Jasper.
Jasper makes friends, who he can't trust, in the broadcast biz who're really working for the Resistance and his sister, Addy and her boyfriend and Jasper's former pod mate, Marco. Jasper ends up escaping from the tour in a box with Regis, of all people, and one of the adult Base 51 heroes, on a secret trip to Gulaga, again, to meet with Waters and the Tunnelers and figure out what the admiral is planning.
But Jasper rightfully doesn't trust his former pod leader, Waters, either. The plan is to blow the top off of Earth Force's narrative by broadcasting their own Resistance truths.
I won't ruin it for you. Read it for yourself and see how it ends. There are some eerie parallels to the political discourse of the past few years, and I may just be fatigued from all that. But I really wanted more in-space alien sci-fi space opera, not Earth political intrigue. All of which the next book delightfully delivered. ;-)
Looking for more book suggestions for your 7th/8th grade classroom and students?
Visit my blog for more great middle grade book recommendations, free teaching materials and fiction writing tips: https://amb.mystrikingly.com/
The book centers on Jasper's return from the Rift in time with the original heroes who vanished in the Youli attack on Bounder Base 51 so many years ago. Mira stays with the Youli and doesn't return with him. There's a lot of angst on Jasper's part over Mira's failure to return with him that I felt most 14-year-olds would figure out long before Jasper did, but that just speaks to my overall frustration with the storyline in general.
For the adult Base 51 heroes, it's been two weeks. For Earth, they've been gone 15 years. Jasper's been gone a few hours after the battle on Alkalinia, but on Earth, it's a year. They all return home to a vastly changed Earth Force led by a single admiral (one of the heroes' former girlfriends) who has doubled-down on her intentions (like a toddler throwing a tantrum) to get what she wants -- revenge on the Youli -- even though her boyfriend just popped back into existence, completely unharmed. Rescued by the Youli, I might add.
The Base 51 heroes pose a particularly prickly problem for Earth Force's propaganda team, which now includes Lucy as the "Face of Earth Force!" In pink, stilettos and tons of makeup. Ugh. I much prefered her fighting as a Bounder. Specifically, their return does not fit Earth Force's "narrative" of a savage Youli foe that needs to be attacked, at any cost to Earth. Or Earth Force's goal of preventing us from joining an Intragalactic Council that will restrict how we exploit and force into near-slavery alien races on other worlds. Prime example: the Tunnelers on Gulaga, who're now mining the occludium needed to fuel the ships needed to bound and attack the Youli.
So Earth Force puts them all on a Hero Homecoming tour, which I found reminiscent of Katniss' tour of Panem after she won. Down to the makeup team for Jasper.
Jasper makes friends, who he can't trust, in the broadcast biz who're really working for the Resistance and his sister, Addy and her boyfriend and Jasper's former pod mate, Marco. Jasper ends up escaping from the tour in a box with Regis, of all people, and one of the adult Base 51 heroes, on a secret trip to Gulaga, again, to meet with Waters and the Tunnelers and figure out what the admiral is planning.
But Jasper rightfully doesn't trust his former pod leader, Waters, either. The plan is to blow the top off of Earth Force's narrative by broadcasting their own Resistance truths.
I won't ruin it for you. Read it for yourself and see how it ends. There are some eerie parallels to the political discourse of the past few years, and I may just be fatigued from all that. But I really wanted more in-space alien sci-fi space opera, not Earth political intrigue. All of which the next book delightfully delivered. ;-)
Looking for more book suggestions for your 7th/8th grade classroom and students?
Visit my blog for more great middle grade book recommendations, free teaching materials and fiction writing tips: https://amb.mystrikingly.com/
November 14, 2019
Book three of this series left me hanging so hard. I couldn't wait to get my hands on the 4th books. I had to know what would happened to Jasper and the rest of the bounders! This book did not disappointment me. It did feel a little slow through the middle - it felt like nothing much was happening but as Jasper starting questioning things instead of going with what everyone else said, things started to happen again.
And of course, this one left on a huge cliffhanger as well. I know how to wait forever for the 5th one!
And of course, this one left on a huge cliffhanger as well. I know how to wait forever for the 5th one!
June 8, 2020
An AMAZING book.
February 5, 2021
Confusing, annoying, and slow at some parts.
June 9, 2020
WOW WOW WOW
This one was SO good. I loved Jasper’s growth, as always, the world-building was awesome, and THAT ENDING.
As much as I enjoyed this one, though, I don’t think it was necessarily as good as the other three. Although, that’s probably because Mira was nonexistent in this other than about two chapters (but in the chapters she WAS in, her and Jasper had an adorable dynamic as always as that scene at very end proved), Cole and Lucy annoyed me in this one, and Marco didn’t show up until about halfway through the book.
That being said, I still loved it.
Now, I’m very excited for December when the final book in the series releases.
This one was SO good. I loved Jasper’s growth, as always, the world-building was awesome, and THAT ENDING.
As much as I enjoyed this one, though, I don’t think it was necessarily as good as the other three. Although, that’s probably because Mira was nonexistent in this other than about two chapters (but in the chapters she WAS in, her and Jasper had an adorable dynamic as always as that scene at very end proved), Cole and Lucy annoyed me in this one, and Marco didn’t show up until about halfway through the book.
That being said, I still loved it.
Now, I’m very excited for December when the final book in the series releases.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews