The daring game of intergalactic chase that thrilled a generation of science fiction readers in Interstellar Pig has started again, and round two is deadly! This sequel to William Sleator's sly masterpiece takes readers on another hunt for the sinister Piggy, this time in the far reaches of space.
Poor Barney has a boring after-school job, earning money to repay his parents after their beach house is destroyed in a battle with aliens. Of course, they don't believe that aliens did the damage. No one, in fact, realizes that sixteen-year-old Barney saved the world by outsmarting the visitors at their violent game, Interstellar Pig. No one but the aliens, and for them the game is far from over. Barney is about to be drawn into the contest again, becoming the unwilling partner of a chatty intestinal parasite; the potential snack of giant, man-eating crabs; and the competitor of a stinger-happy seven-foot wasp woman. Life just got a lot more interesting.
This sequel to a book that Kirkus Reviews called "a freewheeling science fiction nightmare comedy" takes readers on another vivid, vilely funny journey into the mind of YA science fiction's master.
Gr 8 Up-Deliciously creepy and suspenseful, this sequel to Interstellar Pig (Puffin, 1995) will thrill science-fiction fans. In the first book, Barney joined neighbors in an oddly absorbing board game, only to find that it was real, that the other players were aliens, and that the fate of Earth lay in the balance. This book, set the next summer, finds the 16-year-old still playing Interstellar Pig with his friends Katie and Matt, but just as a simple board game. Or so he thinks, until Julian, a mysterious new player, turns out to be a disgusting, parasitic alien who kidnaps him and whisks him off to the planet J'koot. Matt, actually a nasty wasplike alien, grabs Katie and follows them. Once they arrive on the planet, the two teens are snatched by intelligent crablike creatures that imprison them in luxurious rooms and serve them heaping plates of delicious food. With dawning horror, the two humans realize they're being fattened up for the slaughter. Complicating matters is the manipulative parasite lodged in Barney's brain. The middle section, in which an imprisoned Barney begins to lose hope, does drag at times, but the teens' hazardous escape attempt injects renewed energy into the plot. Most readers will enjoy the high gross-out factor, especially the descriptions of Julian's home in the intestine of a large reptile and a scene in which Barney and Katie witness two other teens about to be roasted alive. Fans of the first book may enjoy this title more than newcomers will, but it can stand alone. This is a sometimes dark, sometimes silly, always entertaining read with a few twisty surprises thrown in at the end.-Miranda Doyle, San Francisco Public Library Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
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