With its colonies scattered and humankind confronting extinction, the remnants of humanity hope to find a new home on the planet Pandora, a near match to Earth, but for Chena and Teal Trust their move becomes a nightmare when their mother is murdered and they must battle the ruthless scientific bureaucracy that killed her and that wants their own genetic material. 20,000 first printing. Humanity has spread among the stars, colonizing new worlds. Now the species is in danger of extinction from the interrelated disasters of virulent new diseases and collapsing ecosystems. Of all the colony worlds, only Pandora is unaffected, and the Pandorans are fanatically determined to preserve both their health and the pristine ecosystem, which they keep off-limits even to themselves. But the colonies have vowed to destroy Pandora if its biogenetics experts don't find a cure for the "diversity crisis." The Pandorans struggle without hope until they discover something in the Trust family genes that might save the devastated colonies. And two innocent girls, Chena and Teal Trust, find themselves fugitives in the narrow, closed settlements of Pandora, pursued by desperate scientists and criminals who will do anything, even commit murder, to gain control of the girls' genes. In addition to Kingdom of Cages , Sarah Zettel is the author of Reclamation , which tied for winner of the 1997 Locus Award for Best First Novel and was a Philip K. Dick Award finalist in 1996; Fool's War , a New York Times Notable Book of 1997; Playing God ; and The Quiet Invasion . --Cynthia Ward As environmental deterioration and incurable pandemics sweep the colonized worlds, the Colonial Shipping Authority seeks aid from the isolated and apparently untouched planet of Pandora, resorting to threats of contamination to force assistance from a world unwilling to risk itself for the greater good. As relations between the Authority and the planet worsen, the fate of humanity hinges on two young women, whose genes hold the key to savingor destroyingthe human race. Zettel (Reclamation; Fool's War) crafts a taut, action-filled coming-of-age tale. Recommended for both adult and YA sf collections. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. Plagues are decimating the Earth-colonized worlds known as the Called. Only Pandora thrives, thanks to immigration restriction and its cities' interaction with nature, practices enforced by the implanted mechanical consciences all Pandorans possess. Selected individuals from an industrial space station are allowed on the planet but, lacking consciences, have none of the rights and comforts of regular colonists and serve as subjects of genetics experiments. Then representatives of the desperate other planets threaten to overrun Pandora unless its genetic wizards come up with cures for them. A potential biological fix is formulated, and Pandora's leaders search for someone with the right gene map to carry it. Recent immigrant Helice Trust is discovered and pressured into becoming the host mother, which costs her her life. Helice leaves her two daughters to pursue wildly different paths, which for each girl leads to the heart of the ethical conflict that swirls around Helice's murder and the child of her womb. Zettel realizes that conflict as well as she paints the personalities driving it to a startling conclusion. Roberta Johnson Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Sarah Zettel has written numerous science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories. She lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.