The Fellowship for Alien Detection

Book excerpt: From the acclaimed author of Last Day on Mars comes a road trip sci-fi adventure set within the Dark Star universe, about two kids from opposite sides of the country who discover an intergalactic invasion hidden right beneath our feet. Haley and Dodger don’t have much in common. Haley lives in Greenhaven, Connecticut; Dodger lives in Port Salmon, Washington. Haley has a family who loves and supports her; Dodger can’t seem to ever get his dad’s approval. Haley is well-adjusted and passionate; Dodger hears strange voices in his head. On paper, the two could not be further from each other on the middle-school spectrum. But they both want something. Haley’s looking for a new map, a new adventure, her own path. And Dodger, too, is looking for a place where he belongs, the kind of place that he might, for the first time, be able to call “home.” Of course, this was all before they heard about the town of Juliette, Arizona, the missing people, the untraceable radio signals, the unexplained phenomena. Before they both became the first recipients of a summer research grant from a certain mysterious foundation. Before they discovered that their fledgling theories about extraterrestrial life were one hundred percent accurate. Now Haley and Dodger are the only ones who can figure out what is happening in towns across America, who can give voice to the people whispering “alien abduction.” They’re the only ones who might be able to stop what’s happening. And they might just find what they’re searching for—a path away from home or a path toward it, off the edges of their maps. At the very least, they’re both going to have the most eventful summer vacation of anyone they know.