The Good for Nothings

by Danielle Banas

Overview

Whip-smart and utterly charming, Danielle Banas's irreverent YA sci-fi adventure The Good for Nothings is perfect for fans of Guardians of the Galaxy, The Lunar Chronicles, and Firefly.

Cora Saros is just trying her best to join the family business of theft and intergalactic smuggling. Unfortunately, she's a total disaster.

After landing herself in prison following an attempted heist gone very wrong, she strikes a bargain with the prison warden: He'll expunge her record if she brings back a long-lost treasure rumored to grant immortality.

Cora is skeptical, but with no other way out of prison (and back in her family's good graces), she has no choice but to assemble a crew from her collection of misfit cellmates—a disgraced warrior from an alien planet; a cocky pirate who claims to have the largest ship in the galaxy; and a glitch-prone robot with a penchant for baking—and take off after the fabled prize.

But the ragtag group soon discovers that not only is the too-good-to-be-true treasure very real, but they're also not the only crew on the hunt for it. And it's definitely a prize worth killing for.

Praise for The Good for Nothings:

"A fun, galaxy-spanning treasure hunt with plenty of action and heart." —Publishers Weekly

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250311252
Publisher:	Feiwel & Friends
Publication date:	08/04/2020
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	13 - 18 Years

About the Author

Danielle Banas is the author of The Supervillain and Me and The Good for Nothings. She earned a degree in communication from Robert Morris University, where she spent slightly too much time daydreaming about new characters instead of paying attention in class. When she isn't writing, Danielle can be found loudly singing show tunes, spouting off Disney World trivia, and snuggling with her puppy. She lives in her hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Follow Danielle on Twitter and Instagram.

Editorial Reviews

06/22/2020

In an attempt to win approval from her mother, the hard-to-please leader of an interstellar crime family, and to make enough money to upgrade her android best friend Elio’s failing body, Cora Saros attempts a solo job, only to be caught and thrown into a maximum security prison. After an unsuccessful escape attempt with her cellmates—Earthan thief Wren and temperamental reptilian warrior Anders—Cora and her companions make a deal for their freedom with the prison’s warden: retrieve the long-hidden keys needed to unlock an immortality-granting elixir. As the group traverses the galaxies in search of their objective, dangers await at every turn, including hazardous planets, implacable pursuers, and Cora’s own plan to betray her comrades. With this star-hopping romp, Banas (The Supervillain and Me) pits her eclectic band of larceny-minded misfits against a hostile universe, forcing them to come together as a makeshift family. While the chain of events occasionally borders on the implausibly coincidental, the quirky characters, who are fleshed out by attributes such as tough Anders’s constant flight sickness and Elio’s insistence on a favorite food despite his inability to eat, share an endearing earnestness. A fun, galaxy-spanning treasure hunt with plenty of action and heart. Ages 13–up. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for The Good for Nothings:

"Humorous and irreverent ... A healthy mix of sarcastic banter, bathroom humor, light romance, and things that go boom round out the action with a satisfying [...] happy ending. ... A great pick for fans of Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy." —School Library Journal

"With this star-hopping romp, Banas (The Supervillain and Me) pits her eclectic band of larceny-minded misfits against a hostile universe, forcing them to come together as a makeshift family. ... The quirky characters, who are fleshed out by attributes such as tough Anders’s constant flight sickness and Elio’s insistence on a favorite food despite his inability to eat, share an endearing earnestness. A fun, galaxy-spanning treasure hunt with plenty of action and heart." —Publishers Weekly

Praise for The Supervillain and Me:

"Get ready for a wild ride in this zany, high-action thriller about good versus evil in the comic-book-universe city of Morriston. ... Best of all, with a nod to gender equity, Abby does just fine helping to right her world in the climactic final scene, even without superpowers." —Booklist

"Underneath all of the action and intrigue of this adventure lies an interesting premise: living amongst superheroes from the point of view of the ordinary and powerless. Banas adeptly keeps readers guessing about Iron Phantom’s identity and provides plenty of romantic tension, which will satisfy even die-hard fans of the genre." —School Library Journal

"Hilarious ... A zany, action-packed adventure ... Especially appealing is Abby discovering that her capabilities are different but equally as significant as the boys’, with neither spandex nor superpowers necessary." —VOYA

"I can already tell you that Danielle Banas is going to become one of my insta buy authors–her writing style has to be one of my favorite that I’ve read in a while, and I can’t wait to see what she comes out with next." —Vibrant Reads

"Danielle Banas has written a stunning and heart-warming debut about family, first love, and what it really means to be a hero." —Buried in a Bookshelf

From the Publisher

07/31/2020

Gr 7 Up—This humorous and irreverent intergalactic romp begins when 17-year-old Cora Saros, a native of the planet Condor, and her aging android, Elio, seriously botch a heist on the planet Voatis and land in the Ironside maximum security prison on the planet Andilly. After a failed escape attempt, they and their cellmates make a bargain with the corrupt Warden to hunt down keys across the galaxies that will unlock an impossible treasure, one that grants everlasting life. Cora and Elio, along with Anders, a stoic and fierce Andillian, and Wren, a bubbly, dark-skinned, purple-haired Earthan thief, face flesh-eating plants, enemy fire, crash landings, bounty hunters, backstabbing family members, and motion sickness. Cora is a pretty decent computer hacker, but she, like the others, also has secrets and motives of her own for finding the treasure. Will these misfit criminals ultimately choose to trust or double-cross one another? Overall, the plot is fast-paced and clever and will have readers turning pages to find out what happens next. While there are some narrative leaps, the overall story is driven by dynamic, fleshed-out main characters who will have readers rooting for all four of them. A healthy mix of sarcastic banter, bathroom humor, light romance, and things that go boom round out the action with a satisfying, if predictable, happy ending. People from Condor are pointy-eared and light-skinned, and Andillians have red skin. VERDICT A great pick for fans of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Buy this for collections that serve younger teens or where science fiction is popular.—Erica Ruscio, Ventress Memorial Lib., Marshfield, MA

School Library Journal