That Fateful Moment of Decision. A ForeWord Magazine article featuring Tarizon:The Liberator along with nine other new young adult novels set for November-December issue.
Better young adult fiction eclipses old-hat conflicts of domestic disobedience and school strife. It forces heroes into agonizing choices, then spins out consequences with a wider range of outcomes than the last generation grew up expecting. One doesn’t have to be eighteen years old to have a lasting impact on others’ lives for good or ill, or to choose a permanent trajectory. That reality may not be fair, but savvy teen readers quickly discard idealistic fantasies....
Protagonist among these books wrestle with exploitation, imprisonment, and abandonment issues we wish teens would never have to face. They must commit to a side during wartime, without an obvious default position, and struggle to embrace their destinies. The teen years are composed of a seemingly endless series of exclusive choices, few of which are adequately addressed by small-minded public service announcements....
Legends Yet Unsettled
William Manchee’s Tarizon: The Liberator (Book One of the Tarizon Trilogy) (Top Publications, 978-1-929976-48-5) follows a civil war between a malevolent totalitarian world government and a fairly benevolent totalitarian world government on a planet with a large minority of Earth émigrés. A Skywalker-ish figure thought to be the long prophesied savior is initially reluctant to take up his role protecting mutants, the gilled Seafolken, and a microscopic species of builders called Nanomites from the Purists’ genocidal plans. Tarizon is a planet nearly wiped out by ecological disaster, aggressively repopulating for survival. That means copulation is encouraged, but committed love isn’t possible—a policy among the Liberator’s allies which he challenges, even while fighting for his life....
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