Journey Between Worlds, by Sylvia Louise Engdahl, is a science fiction book for young adults. It’s a coming of age story, a romance, but more than that it is a book that really gets you thinking about space travel and colonization.

From a review by Marianne Dyson on the National Space Society website:

Space enthusiasts will find all their arguments for settling space and colonizing Mars articulated in the pages of this book. Yet no technical knowledge or expertise is required to appreciate the straightforward and realistic story of a young woman reconsidering the options for her future.

I really enjoy Sylvia Engdahl’s science fiction novels. Her ideas about the future are insightful and thought-provoking, and the stories she tells are equally well thought-out and written. Last year, I read her wonderful award-winning book, Enchantress From the Stars. So this year, for Carl V’s Sci Fi Experience, I decided to read another one of her books, and I was not disappointed. I appreciated her sensitive and honest descriptions of a young woman growing up, and this story really makes you believe that the colonization of Mars is just around the corner.