Welltower: First Run

Book excerpt: Kaehl is 15 years old. He lives with his family in the middle of a massive, run-down residential tower. His father is abusive and his mother loving but weak. He loves his sister with all his heart but she is terribly handicapped. There are gangs in the halls. He has been cut off from most of his friends and fears for his life. He is starving. He is afraid. He wants out. His moment comes and he breaks free, running blindly until, stumbling and starving, he is taken in by a gang. Now he roams the halls with those he used to fear, forced to seek respect in a winner-take-all world. After a desperate battle he returns to his family only to find that things have gone terribly, terribly wrong. Now he stumbles through the halls again, this time to save his dying sister. Innocent and confused, victimized at every turn, he refuses to let go of hope and devotion as he battles poverty, disease, and the power-hungry elite in the heights and depths of the looking-glass world called Welltower. Aimed at the young adult science fiction market, First Run is the initial offering in the Welltower series.