A group of teenage criminals on an intergalactic cruise spaceship must compete for a literal ‘get out of jail free card’, the reluctant stars of a reality TV show where nothing and no one is quite what they seem…
Hacker. Thief. Terrorist. Killer.
These are the labels given to loner Desmadeira “Dez” Okora-Andromeda, amiable liar Ishaan Viswanathan, pit fighter Carlito “Cutter” Azevedo, and heiress Lane Holland as they compete on the hit reality show Redemption Ark. Along with twenty-one other teenage criminals, they have just ten days until the starship Redemption Ark arrives at the most secure prison in the galaxy: the Vault. The Vault is the end of the line for most of the contestants, but one of them will win a literal get-out-of-jail-free card if they can prove to viewers that they’ve had the most authentic “redemption arc” of any contestant on the ship.
Winning won’t be easy, though, especially when, like Ishaan, you’re distracted by your hot arsonist roommate; ready to punch anyone who gets in your way, like Cutter; sure the show’s host is up to something nefarious, like Dez; or keeping a secret from the whole galaxy, like Lane. And after the unexpected arrival of new contestant Warrick Vektor, son of a notorious space gangster, it’s increasingly clear that the show isn’t what it appears to be…
Eilis O’Neal wrote her first story when she was three years old (though it was only four sentences long), and her middle name is Arwen, which is what sometimes happens when Tolkien-obsessed parents name children. She is an avid reader, hiker, puzzle-worker, board-gamer, and general geek. Her debut novel, The False Princess, was an American Library Association YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Selection, among other honours, and she also worked at the literary magazine Nimrod International Journal for many years. She lives with her husband and two very silly dogs in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she is always trying to find space for more bookcases in her house.
Extent: 100,000 words
On submission
Primary Agent: Christabel McKinley
Film/ TV agent: DHA (Clare Israel)
Co-agents: Chinese Bardon Chinese Media; Japanese Japan Uni