Alternate chapters in this novel tell the stories of a group of teenagers with extraordinary charisma who use it to get what teenagers all over the world want: their own way. The second set of chapters tell the story of a popular science journalist trying to survive in an increasingly dystopian England. He has heard rumors about the teenagers and is trying to track them down.

The best thing about this book were the dystopian aspects. Written in 1988, there are news headlines that could have been written yesterday. In fact, at one point in reading the book, I found myself looking in the New York Times for a follow-up to one of the news stories which I finally remembered had been in the book.

However the story itself isn't all that interesting. I didn't like the teenagers. The journalist and his friends were somewhat more interesting, but they don't do a whole lot. There is a mystery about how the children got their powers and what they're going to do with them, which kept me reading. Still I didn't find the end satisfying and I'm not likely to read it again. ( )