A Coming of Age
Timothy Zahn
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars
3.75
· 8 ratings · 286 pages · Published: 26 Mar 1984
Ultimately, a relieved populace discovered that the powers died with the onset of puberty. Since then the adolescent population has been rigidly controlled.
But the balance of power is now being tipped dangerously, by three people whose actions threaten to topple Tigris into chaos once again.
Matthew Jarvis, a noted medical researcher, is conducting secret experiments which could make it possible for kids to retain teekay beyond puberty—and perhaps through adulthood;
In the Tesselate Mountains the Prophet Omega, a.k.a. Yerik Martel, a fagin child stealer, directs a gang of adolescents in a nefarious scheme for power and money;
Lisa Duncan, a lone pre-teen, is learning how to read, in violation of strict codes against pre-teen literacy.
Separately, none of these developments is earth-shaking. Together, they pose a potent threat to Tigrin society…and to the lives of all those involved in this tangled web of intrigue. Only Stanford Tirrell, Detective First, and his Righthand, Tonio, stand between Tigris and the complete disintegration of their society into violence and mass destruction.