The Burn Zone

The future of humanity looks bleak in Decker%E2%80%99s debut novel, in which a population stretching toward 15 billion has strained the Earth%E2%80%99s resources to the max. In the city of Hangfei, 20-year-old Sam is foster-mother to a child of an alien race called the Haan. When a group of soldiers brutally take her adoptive father from their shared apartments, Sam sets out on a mission to rescue him. Her subsequent adventure is frenetic, and stretches credulity; she%E2%80%99s tiny and malnourished, with no investigative training or combat skills, yet she takes on the combined might of a military force and a powerful alien. The resulting action is stuttering and out of sync. In a confusing and frantic scramble to the end, all is revealed in a twist that feels too much like an attempt at cleverness or a setup for a sequel. (Feb.)