Author: A.N. Willis
Genre: Science Fiction, Young Adult
Published on: September 29, 2015 by Alloy Entertainment
Time is running out for Stel Alaster. The Corridor, the only portal
between First and Second Earth, is failing and the barriers between all
twelve worlds are thinning. Using her unique ability to travel through
the multiverse, Stel sets out to save the Corridor . . . and ends up
discovering a mysterious new world.
In the sequel to The Corridor, will the thirteenth world hold the key to the Corridor’s secrets? Or will the portal implode and take every last universe down with it?
In the sequel to The Corridor, will the thirteenth world hold the key to the Corridor’s secrets? Or will the portal implode and take every last universe down with it?
After the last book ended in such a cliffhanger, I eagerly got a copy of The Thirteenth World. The protagonist is Estele “Stel” Alaster, an eighteen-year-old girl who can travel between parallel realities. Stel’s home, First Earth, hosts an inter-dimensional portal called the Corridor. It connects to Second Earth, a world that was ravaged when the Corridor opened. Dr. Samantha Tabor, Chair of the Corridor Facility on First Earth, has been after Stel since learning about her power. She thinks that Stel can fix the increasingly unstable Corridor. It threatens to unleash a new Pulse that could be worse than the one that hit Second Earth.
A stunning betrayal landed Stel in Dr. Tabor’s clutches. The former is now being held in the Facility. Dr. Tabor has been questioning Stel for weeks, and has gone as far as torturing her. Fortunately, an ally within the Facility helps Stel out. This person is Justin, Stel’s older brother. He is a recent deserter from the Corridor Guard. Justin is a very upstanding, by-the-book kind of person. That doesn’t keep him from protecting his loved ones, though. Together, Justin and Stel flee throughout the multiverse to join back up with their friends. The Corridor established that there are twelve Earths linked together somehow. Stel sent her group to one of them, Libra Earth, before Dr. Tabor captured her.
A stunning betrayal landed Stel in Dr. Tabor’s clutches. The former is now being held in the Facility. Dr. Tabor has been questioning Stel for weeks, and has gone as far as torturing her. Fortunately, an ally within the Facility helps Stel out. This person is Justin, Stel’s older brother. He is a recent deserter from the Corridor Guard. Justin is a very upstanding, by-the-book kind of person. That doesn’t keep him from protecting his loved ones, though. Together, Justin and Stel flee throughout the multiverse to join back up with their friends. The Corridor established that there are twelve Earths linked together somehow. Stel sent her group to one of them, Libra Earth, before Dr. Tabor captured her.
Libra Earth is one of this duology’s key settings. That world’s version of Stel’s father, Dr. Stephen Alaster, helped build a scientific observatory. It compiled a map of the twelve Earths in the multiverse, and keeps track of them. The scientists there decided to name the Earths after the Zodiac signs. Some readers found it confusing that several Earths get multiple names (Stel names Virgo Earth “the Barrens” because there are no people there). This didn’t throw me off, though. It would have been too much if characters from another world happened to have even more names for the different Earths. Anyway, Stel ran into a family on Libra whose matriarch is a high-ranking scientist at the Alaster Observatory. She and her family have been friendly and helpful from the start. Even when they learned Stel is from another world, they didn’t turn on her or treat her any differently.
There is a small romance subplot in The Thirteenth World. It started in the previous book, when Stel first got to Libra Earth. Flinn is the first person from his family she met. He is the most outgoing and accepting of them. It appeared Stel and Flinn were going to be paired together, but that wasn’t to be. Instead, Stel fell for Flinn’s brother Cohl. He was a brooding, closed-off kind of guy. Stel eventually got to know Cohl, and what made him how he is. They ended up falling in love. Fortunately, this didn’t create any hard feelings between Stel and Flinn. That would have been distracting. Stel already has enough to deal with.
With the help of her friends, Stel travels the multiverse to find out more about the Corridor. She wants to know if she can fix it. The portal is getting increasingly unstable every day. When Stel meets up with a key figure from a new Earth, what she learns is more surprising than expected. And further studies at the Observatory reveal more is at stake than just First Earth. Stel also finds out about what seems to be the motivation behind the Corridor’s creation. When the real truth was revealed, I half saw it coming. It deals with a character who hadn’t appeared before. In the end, The Thirteenth World was a riveting novel. I strongly recommend it to science fiction fans, especially those who enjoy the multiverse subgenre.
There is a small romance subplot in The Thirteenth World. It started in the previous book, when Stel first got to Libra Earth. Flinn is the first person from his family she met. He is the most outgoing and accepting of them. It appeared Stel and Flinn were going to be paired together, but that wasn’t to be. Instead, Stel fell for Flinn’s brother Cohl. He was a brooding, closed-off kind of guy. Stel eventually got to know Cohl, and what made him how he is. They ended up falling in love. Fortunately, this didn’t create any hard feelings between Stel and Flinn. That would have been distracting. Stel already has enough to deal with.
With the help of her friends, Stel travels the multiverse to find out more about the Corridor. She wants to know if she can fix it. The portal is getting increasingly unstable every day. When Stel meets up with a key figure from a new Earth, what she learns is more surprising than expected. And further studies at the Observatory reveal more is at stake than just First Earth. Stel also finds out about what seems to be the motivation behind the Corridor’s creation. When the real truth was revealed, I half saw it coming. It deals with a character who hadn’t appeared before. In the end, The Thirteenth World was a riveting novel. I strongly recommend it to science fiction fans, especially those who enjoy the multiverse subgenre.
My rating: ★★★★
4 stars - Definitely enjoyed it!
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