Bright’s Light
By Susan Juby
Popular YA author Susan Juby takes us into a dangerously YA future with her first SF novel, Bright’s Light. Looking more than a little like a revamped version of Logan’s Run, civilization has contracted into a mall-like pleasure dome dubbed “the Store” whose youthful population (people are afraid of turning twenty!) is stratified into a rigid caste system. Our heroes are a pair of none-too-bright good time girls — Bright and Fon — who help feed the hyperconsumerist ethos by working in the club district as fully accessorized “party favours.” All this will change, however, when enlightenment arrives via a visitor from an alternate human future looking to make a little rapture happen on his own.
The book hits its young adult audience perfectly, not only with the usual messages about the dangers of conformity and the need to be yourself, but also with its exuberant play of double entendres and adult innuendo. The result is a glittery confection that is hard to resist.
Alex on SF 