Content levels
Trigger warnings
Positive tags
Protagonist archetypes
Tropes
Synopsis
Beneath the glare of three purple suns, three travelers—an old Mexican woman, an automated jeep, and a brontosaurus—have trudged across a desert for hundreds of years. They do not know if the desert has an end, and if it does, what they might find there. Sometimes they come across perfectly-preserved cities, but without a single inhabitant, and never a drop of rain. Worse still, they have no memory of their lives before the desert. Only at night, in dreams, do they recall fragments of their past identities. But night also brings the madness of the sandstorms, which jolt them out of one body and into another in a game of metaphysical musical chairs. In their disorientation and dysfunction, they have killed each other dozens of times, but they cannot die. Where are they? How can they escape?
Tags
Is The Troika appropriate for my child?
Suitable for most readers 16 and up.
A surreal, philosophical SF novel featuring repeated deaths (characters cannot permanently die), body-swapping during sandstorms, and existential themes. Violence is present but not graphic; the disorienting, dream-like narrative and mature themes suit older teens and adults.
What to know going in
This book has moderate violence, no sexual content, and mild language. Content notes include death, amnesia, and violence (see the full list above).
Who'll love this
Teens interested in weird, mind-bending sci-fi will be intrigued by the mystery of three mismatched travelers trapped in an endless desert with no memory of who they were.