Juno of Taris faces more dangers in the second in the award-winning science fiction / fantasy young adult novel series.
Juno and the Taris inhabitants must leave their dying island. The young people look forward to a wider life Outside, but Outside too has its problems. It is two-year-old Hera, with her uncanny ability to foresee events, who saves the Taris people from the injury and death prepared for them by an underground group of protestors.
The people of Taris, though, have no choice but to try to live in this seemingly hostile place. The young people are entranced despite the hate campaign against them: there are the fashions, the technologies and best of all for Juno, the freedom from extreme control. Only days after the group arrives, a pandemic hits the country - this has drastic consequences for Juno and her people. Once the pandemic is over, life settles down and the question now for Juno is to find her way among the choices open to her, some of which cause her parents to fear she is abandoning the values they hold so dear.
Juno was relieved to put Taris behind her. But Taris doesn't give up its hold so easily - she is shocked to find the island held more secrets than any of them knew. She wants to bury her head, ignore what she's discovered and forge ahead to find her own place in this new world. She falls for Ivan, a young man who seems to understand her, but love is a fey thing. What will become of her?
Winner of the Young Adult Fiction Award in the 2011 NZ Post Children's Book Awards and of the 2011 LIANZA Young Adult Fiction Medal, the stunning sequel to Juno of Taris (shortlisted for the 2009 NZ Post Children's Book Awards) features a ground breaking new cross-media technique - at the end of each chapter readers are referred to an online blog featuring additional conversations/commentary by the characters in the novel.
Awards
Winner of the Young Adult Fiction Award in the 2011 NZ Post Children's Book Awards
Winner of the 2011 LIANZA Young Adult Fiction Medal
Named one of NZ Listener’s 50 Best Children’s Books of 2010
Behind The Book…
Again, I had no intention of writing sequels to Juno of Taris but there ended up being three books in this series too. The idea for Juno of Taris came from being in New York about a month after September 11. Ground zero was still smoking. People were still leaving flowers at fire stations where crew had died when the twin towers fell. In a way, the city felt to me as if it was in a lockdown situation where it was focussing its energies on trying to recover. I started to think about what it would be like to be in a place entirely cut off from the outside world, somewhere you couldn’t move away from and where there was no input that could get in from the outside world – no messages, no goods, no news. I finished the book. What next? And after a bit of nagging from a few people, I rather grudgingly had a go at a sequel, but much to my surprise it was fun to write once I got into it. I finished Fierce September then wanted to find out more about what happened so I wrote a third book: Heart of Danger. But I discovered there was a bit more to find out so I wrote Nash’s Story. It’s short – more a novella than a novel and it’s only available on the web here.
- Fleur Beale
Reviews for Fierce September
The writing is tight; the characterisation credible, and the narrative exciting
- The Otago Times
I waited a long time for this sequel to Juno of Taris to come out and I wasn’t disappointed. This book cleverly sets up a third book, at least I hope it does, as there are some unanswered questions at the end of this novel. Cleverly written in short chapters by one of New Zealand’s best writers of children and Young Adult literature. At the end of each chapter is a blogspot by which readers can access and discuss what has happened. Just to give you ideas Fleur Beale writes several lines of gossip that haven’t come out in the narrative, for the reader to contemplate. As with the first book this is also narrated by Juno. Get in and read it.
- Bob Docherty, Bob’s Books Blog
The story is in the tradition of the Famous Five and I found it very enjoyable. A different taste and flavour to adult fiction and more restful to read.
- Thomas Devine, GoodReads
The cross-media technique of combining online blogs with traditional text…brings the book vividly into our world
- Magpies
Teachers Notes
Download the PDF with the Teachers Notes for Fierce September here.