I'm writing this review as a five-star even though I think the story and writing has some flaws. If it's flawed, why would it deserve 5 stars? Because when E. M. Zolotor is at his best, it's extremely gripping. Ethan can absolutely write a scene. There are a significant number of individual scenes that I re-read in this book, not because they're hard to understand but because he has such an intense and beautiful writing style. I would even drop the book and find my 10 year old and read a scene to here to get her interested in the story.Let's back up for a second and realize that this is a young adult novel that successfully blends a sci-fi, dystopian future with fantasy elements; as the book progresses we're quickly pushed a bit more into the fantasy side. But I'm am judging it from the standard of an adult who grew up reading Tolkien, Robert Jordan, and Terry Goodkind. I'm not giving Mr. Zolotor a pass for writing in the young adult sphere. Let's talk about it:He opens up the first five pages with a beautifully crafted sandstorm scene that simultaneously advances the story forward while also fueling the readers understanding of the two main characters, Eos and his sister Maxima. Both protagonists are strong and interesting. There isn't a token male or female character there to just check a box. As the book progresses and we get a few more characters each character is given purpose and we see our main characters grow, we see how they feel, and we can emphasize with them. The world feels rich, lived in, but I never once felt more lost then the protagonists. Because he's using the remnants of earth as the backdrop of his story is easier for him to punch up what's different and leave the rest of what the would to your imagination. When we learn some things, it's because the main characters are also learning things. Your rarely, but not never, slapped in the face with a 'gotcha.'Most of Ethan's characters feel realistic. I don't know if he wrote a lot of his friends and family into them but they mostly came across as nuanced with a variety of characteristics. Intelligent characters don't suddenly become dumb for plot reasons, and the reverse is also true. But some characters do make outlandish decisions before we meet them and they suddenly act rational.The biggest weaknesses in the book do come to some of the motivations of the "bad guys." Don't get me wrong, some of them seem really perfect but others seem cartoonishly angry/arrogant, with the personality of 'I'm bad for the sake of being bad.' This is quickly mitigated by other aspects of the world building and other bad guys but it does sour some of the story telling.I'll end it with this. I'm a dude in my thirties with a ten year old. I have been trying to find young adult series to read with her that have strong female characters (and this does), a unique story (and this mostly does), with some really strong writing to motivate her to read and write more (and this has it in spades.) E. M. Zolotor's biggest strength is his ability to keep you reading a great scene. He's young and has other young author friends so his weaknesses will surely iron out over time and hopefully his unrivaled ability to make readers picture the scale of a scene can only improve.Picture included because I bought this book at a convention and I wanted Amazon to know I am, in fact, a confirmed buyer.