Other editions of book Epitaph Road

Kellen Dent feels all alone. In 2097, he has good reasons. Five billion of them. Five billion fathers, grandfathers, brothers, sons, grandsons, uncles, nephews, cousins, lovers, friends. Still remembered in thoughts and prayers and dreams and epitaphs, but reduced to fading shadows now. Vapors. Specters. Might-have-beens.Thirty years earlier, a widespread and hyper-deadly virus caused the near-extinction of the world’s male population. Now women rule everywhere, and poverty, hunger, crime, and war are for the most part dim memories, or the stuff of cautionary lessons in history books.But with a fractured family history, an absent father, and tight restrictions on males’ behavior, fourteen-year-old Kellen feels as if he has little anchoring him to his past, few role models for his present, and no say in his future. The fact that girls find him fascinating tells him something about the demographics of this altered society, but nothing about himself. Two new housemates—girls—seem to care about him as a person, but he has scarce time to enjoy their friendship before alarming revelations interrupt his day-to-day existence.When rumors of a fresh outbreak of the virus reach Kellen, and he learns the recurrence is predicted to hit the outcast community where his father lives, he knows that he must warn him of the danger no matter what the consequences. But during his desperate race into the back country to find his dad, Kellen uncovers a dark secret, a frightening plot. If successfully carried out, the scheme would forever alter his life, and the future of the world. What can he do to stop it?

Kellen Dent feels all alone. In 2097, he has good reasons. Five billion of them. Five billion fathers, grandfathers, brothers, sons, grandsons, uncles, nephews, cousins, lovers, friends. Still remembered in thoughts and prayers and dreams and epitaphs, but reduced to fading shadows now. Vapors. Specters. Might-have-beens. Thirty years earlier, a widespread and hyper-deadly virus caused the near-extinction of the world’s male population. Now women rule everywhere, and poverty, hunger, crime, and war are for the most part dim memories, or the stuff of cautionary lessons in history books. But with a fractured family history, an absent father, and tight restrictions on males’ behavior, fourteen-year-old Kellen feels as if he has little anchoring him to his past, few role models for his present, and no say in his future. The fact that girls find him fascinating tells him something about the demographics of this altered society, but nothing about himself. Two new housemates—girls—seem to care about him as a person, but he has scarce time to enjoy their friendship before alarming revelations interrupt his day-to-day existence. When rumors of a fresh outbreak of the virus reach Kellen, and he learns the recurrence is predicted to hit the outcast community where his father lives, he knows that he must warn him of the danger no matter what the consequences. But during his desperate race into the back country to find his dad, Kellen uncovers a dark secret, a frightening plot. If successfully carried out, the scheme would forever alter his life, and the future of the world. What can he do to stop it?

2097 is a transformed world. Thirty years earlier, a mysterious plague wiped out 97 percent of the male population, devastating every world system from governments to sports teams, and causing both universal and unimaginable grief. In the face of such massive despair, women were forced to take over control of the planet--and in doing so they eliminated all of Earth's most pressing issues. Poverty, crime, warfare, hunger . . . all gone. But there's a price to pay for this new "utopia," which fourteen-year-old Kellen is all too familiar with. Every day, he deals with life as part of a tiny minority that is purposefully kept subservient and small in numbers. His career choices and relationship options are severely limited and controlled. He also lives under the threat of scattered recurrences of the plague, which seem to pop up wherever small pockets of men begin to regroup and grow in numbers. And then one day, his mother's boss, an iconic political figure, shows up at his home. Kellen overhears something he shouldn't--another outbreak seems to be headed for Afterlight, the rural community where his father and a small group of men live separately from the female-dominated society. Along with a few other suspicious events, like the mysterious disappearances of Kellen's progressive teacher and his Aunt Paige, Kellen is starting to wonder whether the plague recurrences are even accidental. No matter what the truth is, Kellen cares only about one thing--he has to save his father.

2097 is a transformed world. Thirty years earlier, a mysterious plague wiped out 97 percent of the male population, devastating every world system from governments to sports teams, and causing both universal and unimaginable grief. In the face of such massive despair, women were forced to take over control of the planet--and in doing so they eliminated all of Earth's most pressing issues. Poverty, crime, warfare, hunger . . . all gone.But there's a price to pay for this new "utopia," which fourteen-year-old Kellen is all too familiar with. Every day, he deals with life as part of a tiny minority that is purposefully kept subservient and small in numbers. His career choices and relationship options are severely limited and controlled. He also lives under the threat of scattered recurrences of the plague, which seem to pop up wherever small pockets of men begin to regroup and grow in numbers.And then one day, his mother's boss, an iconic political figure, shows up at his home. Kellen overhears something he shouldn't--another outbreak seems to be headed for Afterlight, the rural community where his father and a small group of men live separately from the female-dominated society. Along with a few other suspicious events, like the mysterious disappearances of Kellen's progressive teacher and his Aunt Paige, Kellen is starting to wonder whether the plague recurrences are even accidental. No matter what the truth is, Kellen cares only about one thing--he has to save his father.

Kellen Dent feels all alone. In 2097, he has good reasons. Five billion of them. Five billion fathers, grandfathers, brothers, sons, grandsons, uncles, nephews, cousins, lovers, friends. Still remembered in thoughts and prayers and dreams and epitaphs, but reduced to fading shadows now. Vapors. Specters. Might-have-beens. Thirty years earlier, a widespread and hyper-deadly virus caused the near-extinction of the world’s male population. Now women rule everywhere, and poverty, hunger, crime, and war are for the most part dim memories, or the stuff of cautionary lessons in history books. But with a fractured family history, an absent father, and tight restrictions on males’ behavior, fourteen-year-old Kellen feels as if he has little anchoring him to his past, few role models for his present, and no say in his future. The fact that girls find him fascinating tells him something about the demographics of this altered society, but nothing about himself. Two new housemates—girls—seem to care about him as a person, but he has scarce time to enjoy their friendship before alarming revelations interrupt his day-to-day existence. When rumors of a fresh outbreak of the virus reach Kellen, and he learns the recurrence is predicted to hit the outcast community where his father lives, he knows that he must warn him of the danger no matter what the consequences. But during his desperate race into the back country to find his dad, Kellen uncovers a dark secret, a frightening plot. If successfully carried out, the scheme would forever alter his life, and the future of the world. What can he do to stop it?