Journey Between Worlds

Sylvia Louise Engdahl
G. P. Putnam’s Sons (2006)
ISBN 0399245324
Reviewed by Kim Peterson for Reader Views (4/06)

Melinda plans to marry Ross after graduation and someday live at Maple Beach in the house she will inherit from Gran. She fosters no aspirations to pioneer new places like her ancestor Melinda who traveled across the plains to Western Oregon in a covered wagon. She plans to teach and live a quiet life. But her father’s graduation gift threatens to change her world—literally. He offers her a ticket to accompany him on a year-long business trip to the colonies on Mars.

Wanting to reconnect with her father and responding impulsively to her fiancé’s negative reaction, Melinda boards the Susan Constant and journeys to Mars. She compares everything about the trip and her time on the planet to Earth. She misses the abundant water, the fresh air, the rhythm of the ocean and “normal” gravity. If it weren’t for Alex Preston, a second-generation Martian colonist, she might not have learned many of the positives that life on Mars offered or the thoughtfulness of genuine love.

Engdahl’s science fiction romance targets young adult readers well. Melinda tells her story in first person with believability and the indecisiveness and emotion that naturally accompany major life decisions when the ramifications will last forever. The journey between worlds literally spans between Earth and Mars, but it also shows her journey into adulthood as well as the shift in her thinking about what she wants from life.

I enjoyed my return visit into the world of Engdahl’s books. She updated this volume to reflect what we now know about Mars, and to reflect our shift in thinking about women. However, the book seems to me as fresh as it did when I read it as a child. The pace moves a bit slower than today’ s readers might expect, but the story line remains solid and the themes still feel relevant today. What a thrill to see Engdahl’s books back in print!

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