Other series include the Dystopian Arc One sequence – Devil on My Back ( 1984) and The Dream Catcher ( 1986), set in the Near Future, where ark-like domed Keeps 'protect' their Culturally Engineered inhabitants from the oil-depleted world outside and the Sandwriter books, Sandwriter ( 1985) and The Promise ( 1989), set in a Planetary Romance world. It is only when human settlers arrive that she discovers that she has been bio-engineered into a kind of reptile for survival purposes, and must from this point adjust to her job as warden and to her solitude. The protagonist of the sequence, a deeply isolated orphan teenager, is initially alone on the planet Isis except for a guardian Robot. The emptiness of mere survival – it is an irony likely to evoke an acute response from young readers – is very much sharpened in the Isis sequence, for which Hughes remains best known: The Keeper of the Isis Light ( 1980), The Guardian of Isis ( 1981) and The Isis Pedlar ( 1982). Her first sf novels, the Conshelf Ten sequence comprising Crisis on Conshelf Ten ( 1975) and its sequel, Earthdark ( 1977), utilize an Under-the-Sea and a Lunar (see Moon) setting to explore in a humane fashion the crises of adolescents in venues that, typically of her work in general, encompassingly keep them alive, but complicated by Politics, both the Moon colony and Conshelf Ten beneath the ocean on Earth are attempting to gain autonomy. (1925-2003) UK-born author, from 1952 in Canada, where she won several awards in recognition of her Young Adult works, including the Canada Council Children's Literature Prize in 19.

Devil on My Back by Monica Hughes