Stray: Touchstone Part 1
Touchstone, no. 1
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4.4 • 142 Ratings
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Publisher Description
On her last day of high school, Cassandra Devlin walked out of exams and into a forest. Surrounded by the wrong sort of trees, and animals never featured in any nature documentary, Cass is only sure of one thing: alone, she will be lucky to survive.
The sprawl of abandoned blockish buildings Cass discovers offers her only more puzzles. Where are the people? What is the intoxicating mist which drifts off the buildings in the moonlight? And why does she feel like she's being watched?
Increasingly unnerved, Cass is overjoyed at the arrival of the formidable Setari. Whisked to a world as technologically advanced as the first was primitive, where nanotech computers are grown inside people's skulls, and few have any interest in venturing outside the enormous whitestone cities, Cass finds herself processed as a 'stray', a refugee displaced by the gates torn between worlds. Struggling with an unfamiliar language and culture, she must adapt to virtual classrooms, friends who can teleport, and the ingrained attitude that strays are backward and slow.
Can Cass ever find her way home? And after the people of her new world discover her unexpected value, will they be willing to let her leave?
Customer Reviews
Great read!
This book is enthralling.
Admittedly it has a very weird format, but this format is perfect for keeping track of how much time has passed between two events. I highly recommend this book. It's very easy to get sucked into the mind set of the main character, and that's what makes it great.
Impressive!
"Young adult" protagonist often means an overload of angst plus unrealistic romance elements. Cassandra is, however, an intelligent and fully-realized human being, and self-aware enough to be able to mock the "crush" she develops on another character. Interesting settings and developments, along with her realistic struggles in adapting to a culture change make this well worth the read.
Stray
I really enjoyed this book. The explanations of culture and descriptions of new spaces and beings was understandable and enlightening. I loved her way of speaking in the new language. It reminded me of my struggles with tenses and syntax.
I am buying part two right now.