A Piper at the Gates (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781764088312)

Seven starships bear Earth's survivors towards their only hope, a distant planet called Uroun. Life in The Fleet is hard, especially for the children, who may not leave their family cabins until they graduate. Until then, the cadets must spend almost all of their waking hours in The Gravity Shower. Through that virtual reality interface they attend School, where their teachers drill them with astrophysics and history. In their spare time, they play in the Sandbox, where they fight for rank in combat games, or preen and parade their avatars on the social-network boulevard.

Jack Voyager One wants nothing to do with the online world. He lives for his collection of vinyl records, to sing with these echoes of Earth's great musicians, and imagines playing the song that waits in his heart, if only he could hear it.

Lucy Gemini wants to break free of her family cabin and the tyranny of her military mother. She knows that her father is keeping a terrible secret about The Fleet. She is willing to sacrifice everything to join him in the real world and learn the truth.

On the first day of their sixteenth year, strange events begin happening aboard Jack and Lucy's ship, The Hamelin.

A mysterious Piper plays an enchanting melody that haunts through both the online world and the real. It summons Jack and Lucy beyond their prison cells, to discover what lies hidden in the vast of night, and who they might become, if they get there.

The first book in The Children of Hamelin trilogy, A Piper at the Gates is a thrilling coming-of-age adventure, a captivating vision of desperate lives enduring impossible odds, and a musical journey through the stars. It's a story for anyone who believes in their heart, or wants to, that love and music have the power to change us...

...and maybe even save the human race.