The Last Oasis

This debut novel takes place in a world blighted by massive environmental collapse, a world whose people are enslaved by the oppressive Government Store. In this bleak setting, Phoenix and Madonna narrowly escape arrest and exile to Denver or Japan, areas so devastated that they are uninhabitable. Together, the two teenagers make a desperate run for freedom by stowing away on a flotilla of cargo barges which they hope are heading to Idaho, the only place they know of where rain still falls and plants still grow. Along the way, both protagonists must grapple with heartbreaking conflicts between their personal honor and their pressing need to survive. Though readers will easily identify with this complex, fully realized twosome, many of the novel's secondary characters are less capably drawn and come across as somewhat flat. Nevertheless, Pace's harrowing, well-plotted SF yarn moves at breakneck speed. Ages 12-up. (Mar.)