Who'd ever think to reboot Moby Dick as a YA novel? Todd Strasser, that's who. And while he was at it, he threw in a bit of Billy Budd, Typee, A Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex, and a little bit of Sinbad the Sailor. And probably a few other things I missed or have forgotten.The Earth is dying under a shroud of dust and darkness brought about by years of ecological disasters. Food is something called Natrient, a food product produced from the beasts of Cretacea. It's not a good life, and even at that it won't be lasting much longer. Earth is doomed.
Ishmael a sprightly lad of 17 is offered a chance to go to Cretacea, where he hopes to earn enough to get his parents off Earth and give them a new start. On Cretacea he sees blue skies and plants and water for the first time. That's the good part. The bad part is that he's on a nuclear-powered ship named the Pequod, captained by a man named Ahab, who's determined to get the great white Terrafin that took his leg when he was captain of the Essex.
There's adventure aplenty along the way, what with pirates, storms, a hostile crew, lots of strange beasts on land and sea, an island culture that's not supposed to be there, mysterious shipmates, and more. It's no Moby Dick, but it's a lot of fun. I'll not give away the ending, but I will say that it's not entirely Melvillian.
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