
A young man, sixteen year-old Michael Morgan was born on the space station, orbiting earth, and had spent his entire life, to that point on the station - he had never been to Earth.
Michael's parents were both long gone when he was a baby. His mother had been killed in a re-entry accident and his father, distraught at the loss of his wife, had effectively abandoned young Michael on the Space Station. Michael had literally become a ward of the Government and as such had become a glorified experiment to the doctors and scientist at NASA.
Perhaps because Michael had never known anything different, he was relatively indifferent about his structured, managed and ordered life aboard the space station. All that was about to change, though, with a chance email from a young Welsh boy and the opportunity for Michael to visit earth for the first time.
In Exchange won't set the world on fire with intellectual debate, but it is a fun adventure, that is very age-appropriate and I have no doubt it would be enjoyed by anyone who has ever dreamed of soaring above the earth at thousands of miles per hour.
Some of the best interactions in the story come between Michael and his new friend from Earth Peter Davies. I enjoyed their comparisons of their different lives and how, despite their differences, they would discover much they had in common. I'm not sure that Y/A novels actually need a moral, but if there was one in this book, it would be that the grass in not always greener on the other side of the fence.
This was an easy to read, well-written and enjoyable. For a first novel, which I think it probably is, Caddy did an excellent job. One can tell from the title that he has other adventures in mind for young Michael Morgan and I am sure they will be just as enjoyable.
An excellent start Mr Caddy and I'm more than happy to award four well-earned stars to In Exchange.
You can grab this book here at Amazon if you wish to check it out: http://amzn.to/1TH5t7D