The Comet's Curse- a Galahad Book by Dom Testa

When the Earth is afflicted with a fatal lung disease in the wake of the passing of a comet named after Bhaktul, the man who first sighted it, the people and scientists have great hopes to cure the disease. But when all their efforts fail, they cannot fail to notice that young people, those under 18, are curiously immune.

With that realization comes an idea on how to survive this curse. Pick out 251 exceptional young people and send them off across the universe on a ten year mission to colonize a new planet free of disease. But even as Dr. Zimmer, the lead scientist in charge of the project, oversees the selection of the candidates and the building of the spaceship that might be the only chance of saving humanity, opposition is rising from the people who think that all this cost and effort should go into the saving of anyone.

And the kids who get picked for the project have their own problems, as many of them must watch their families dying. Do they stick to their guns and go on with the mission, or do they choose to opt out and stay with their dying families? At least one chooses to stay behind, and most of the kids chosen are between 15 and 17 so that there is no chance of someone with the Bhaktul virus getting on the ship to infect others.

But even as the ship leaves on its voyage, there are signs that someone extra has snuck onto the ship, even though that should have been impossible. As the kids on board, under the leadership of the President of the Ruling Council, Triana Martell, struggle to find where the stowaway might be hiding, he or she is leaving them messages, promising that they are on a ship of death, and that they all will die.

None of the kids knows anything about fighting, so they can't physically overpower the intruder and throw him or her out. But when the intruder offers to meet Triana in a one on one meeting in the Storage Section, will she put the safety of the others over her own and go to the meeting? Or will she have the others track down and deal with the intruder? And if the intruder is, as they seem, insane, what can a bunch of teenagers do to get out of this situation?

This book is the first in a series called "The Galahad", which happens to be the name of the ship they are travelling in. I give all props to the writer, because Dom Testa can do all sorts of locked spaceship mysteries and various science fiction plots and so on on the ship as they travel to the end of the mission and the planet they are heading for- and then once they are on the planet, innumerable plots can be set there as well. But some of the lacks in this novel jumped out at me.

Okay, number one- these kids are teenagers. You remember that time of your life, when the hormones were flowing and attractions springing up left, right and center? Yeah, well not a single mention was made about prophyllaxis for the crew. Not a one. I mean yeah, these kids are smart and driven teenagers, but did the scientists really expect the kids to hold it in that long? The ship can *only* support the crew it started with. No more. So you know that situation is just completely made of fail.

Second, not a single one of these kids knows martial arts or how to fight. Not even the kids from China. Yet, the scientists are racking their brains to figure out how to keep these kids in shape and make them exercise. Scientists from all over the world, mind you. Now, admittedly it's a plot point in this book that no one on the ship knows how to fight or defend themselves, but come on! The kids are never going to need to fight to defend themselves when they get to this new planet? Nobody ever thought about this? Ever?! That's just made of fail right there. Martial arts teaches discipline, how to fight and defend oneself, and that's just the beginning of what it does.

I came to the conclusion that the scientists behind this mission sound monumentally stupid and I found myself wishing, more and more, for the Marion Zimmer Bradley book "Survey Ship", which had a somewhat similar story (young adults on a space ship- albeit 3 boys and 3 girls) and managed to make a much better story out of the whole thing. These aren't the only things wrong with the story- entertainment being another problem since the only two choices seem to be soccer and hoverboarding. No music, no computer games, no nothing else is mentioned. And I can imagine with only two entertainment-type pursuits, that in not even 10 years time they are going to pall for everyone.

The kind of short-sightedness that passed for future planning just made me feel like my intelligence was being insulted by this book, and I grew very annoyed with it very quickly. Not only did the book insult my intelligence, but I don't plan on picking up or even reading the future volumes unless I am very desperate for reading material. And I dearly hope that Mr. Testa reads this review and fixes what's wrong in future volumes. Right now, I wouldn't spit on this book to put it out if it was on fire.