For some reason, sci-fi seems to be making a grand reappearance in the young-adult genre. Maybe it's an outgrowth of the popularity of dystopian novels, or maybe it's just from the popularity of books like "Across the Universe." 
 But whatever reason isn't important, because "Avalon" is one of the more solid examples of young-adult sci-fi -- just a solid space opera that happens to star a gang of teenage thieves, with some interesting tech, corrupt forces and a mystery at its heart. The last third of the book is where it blossoms, and Mindee Arnett brings together all the subplots into a very intriguing conspiracy. 
 Years ago, Jeth's parents were executed for treason, although he's never been sure why. Now his only goal is to regain his parents' ship from a crimelord named Hammer, who forces Jeth and his teenage gang to steal metadrive ships for him. Once he saves enough money, he and his sister Lizzie will get the Avalon back and leave. 
 They're in the middle of one such mission when an ITA agent approaches them with an odd request: use the Avalon to infiltrate the dangerous Belgrave Sector and find a lost ship, the Donerail. It's even weirder when Hammer makes the same demand, revealing that a mysterious weapon is on board the Donereail -- and under no circumstances is Jeth allowed to board it. 
 But they find the Donerail, there are a few people left alive -- and one of them, a teen ITA agent named Sierra, tells Jeth that she has a secret that could shatter the current power structure of space travel. But when the Avalon is stolen out from under him, Jeth ends up trapped between the ITA and Hammer, and discovers the shocking secrets of his parents' deaths, metaspace travel and a child who isn't quite human... 
 Setting-wise, "Avalon" is a pretty standard space opera -- faster-than-light ships, colony planets, space stations and space gates reminiscent of "Babylon 5's." However, it's also done quite well, without the technical spacey-techy stuff overwhelming the plot and character -- there's some nuts-and-bolts stuff, but the real emphasis is on Jeth and his fiery determination to reclaim the Avalon once and for all. 
 One of the book's strengths is that Arnett doesn't write this as a teen book that happens to be sci-fi, but a sci-fi book that happens to be for teens. Jeth, Celeste and Sierra would all be roughly the same characters if they were a decade or two older -- and she doesn't shy away from the uglier parts of this corrupt future world. Jeth being savagely beaten by Hammer's goons is one of the less horrifying moments -- think brain implants, starvation, and a screaming corpse melded into a ship's bulkhead. 
 She also weaves together a solid web of subplots, all centering around the mysterious Aether Project and whatever Jeth's parents were doing in the Belgrave Sector. While all these subplots don't seem connected at first, they end up all being segments of the whole. And she pulls some truly shocking twist out of the bag in the book's final third, turning some of the typical sci-fi stuff (the metadrives) right on its head. 
 Jeth and Sierra are pretty solid examples of the anti-heroic protagonists -- both of them have done pretty nasty things in pursuit of their goals (mostly stealing spaceships), but they're fundamentally good people. Jeth in particular is a character whose rough life and resentments have left him cynical and determined -- think a teen version of Han Solo, but working directly for Jabba all the time. 
 "Avalon" is a solid start to a new sci-fi series, and Mindee Arnett comes up with some clever twists on the typical sci-fi setting. Here's hoping for more tales of Jeth and Co.