What if only your very worst enemy could help you save the world?

Fireseed One, a YA thriller, is set in a near-future earth with soaring heat, toxic waters, tricked-out amphibious vehicles, ice-themed dance clubs and fish that grow up on vines. Eighteen year-old Varik Teitur, inherits a vast sea farm after the mysterious drowning of his marine biologist father. When Marisa Baron, a beautiful and shrewd terrorist, who knows way too much about Varik's father's work, tries to steal seed disks from the world's food bank, Varik is forced to put his dreams of becoming a doctor on hold and venture with her, into a hot zone teeming with treacherous nomads and a Fireseed cult who worships his dead father, in order to search for a magical hybrid plant that may not even exist. Illustrated by the author. Fans of Under the Never Sky and Feed will likely enjoy this tale, as well as those readers who like a dash of romance with their page-turners. ( )

Fireseed One is a captivating thriller set in a futuristic, toxic world teetering on chaos and crisis. Danger, loss, love, and redemption all tie together with rich characters to make for one imaginative blast.

Varik, a young man struggling to manage his family’s farm alone after his father’s death, finds himself thrust into a deadly mission to save the world’s future food source. It gets worse for him. He must do it with his father’s arch enemy’s daughter, Marisa, who wants to save the world’s food now – not later. Sworn enemies caught together in a quest to save the world, they must trust each other against instinct.

Stine creates a believable place full of dark wonder where one crop item is utilized to feed, clothe, and shelter the world. Now its extinction looms – and the only way to save the world is to find the one miracle plant Varik’s father engineered, Fireseed One. It’s been created to breed with other plants and miraculously grows in the deadly Hotzone. And Varik and Marisa must find it in the face of great odds.

Stine beautifully draws Varik and Marisa together as they learn to trust to survive. We suffer with them through a terrifying world where the land is an uninhabitable hot zone and the seas are poisonous sludge. A place that seems oh-so real. Once you put the book down it haunts you. You wonder if it could happen in your lifetime.

And as Varik begins to doubt his father, the secrets pile up and he questions what is truth and what is fiction. Did he ever really know his father? In this lies the seed that transforms Varik from child to man. We feel his pain, through Stine’s aching prose. And we want to follow his journey.

In a fiery, dying world Varik and Marisa come together in love and Stine’s lyrical language shines through. Can Varik and Marisa complete their mission in their darkest hour and if so, can they survive the journey back? No spoilers here but you will be in a race to find out.

In Fireseed One, Stine takes us on a painful but heartfelt coming of age story of two people discovering that sometimes your enemy can be your greatest friend, and all is not as it seems. Stine has created compelling, complex characters in Varik and Marisa.

Stine has created a world as deep and layered as our own, where its own language flows into the story seamlessly. She gives us a beautiful, bittersweet story of survival and love, where two young adults come to terms with who their parents are and who they are. And they face it with the grace of an adult not the petulance of a child anymore. This unique, refreshing story reveals pioneers in a new age, willing to risk the unknown and death for a better life. They are the pioneers of a new frontier. And you want them to survive and succeed at all odds.
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Fireseed One took me into a futuristic realm where the world is divided into three parts; The Land Dominion, Ocean Dominion and the Hotzone. In this world, humans who live in the Hotzone was scorched to death, no ordinary plant can survive the intense heat of the sun and the only source of food came from the sea-farms in the Ocean Dominion.

Varik, inherited the biggest sea-farms in Ocean Dominion when his famous marine biologist father died and because of this inheritance that he met Marissa, a ZWC terrorist who tried to robbed his vault full of sea disks. Marissa knew something Varik didn't know. It's about a pet project of Varik's dad that he abandoned after the tragic incident which caused the death of Varik's mother.This plant is called Fireseed and it can survive without water and can crossbreed to other plants to create a super plant that can withstand anything.

Varik didn't believe it at first but when a mysterious calamity threatened to destroy the only food source in the world, Varik have no choice but to go on a quest to find the Fireseed.

I have a mixed emotions in the characters of this book. Varik was likable. He was responsible, sensitive, smart and courageous but I didn't feel a strong connection to his character. On the other hand, I feel the opposite with Marissa. There is an instant connection between us that I can't explain. She's a bit naive, rebellious and impulsive but she's not just that. She's also strong-willed and independent which are the qualities I liked about heroines.

The world Catherine Stine created was believable, I feel like I time-travelled into 2089. It's fascinating and haunting, both as the same time. The ideas from this book is so out of this world, my geeky side was amazed. I would love to see cross-breeds between plants and fish and a suit that can adapt to its environment like a chameleon.

Overall, it was a great read. Fireseed One will take you to a thrilling, action-filled adventure that you will never forget. ( )