Atherton: The House of Power

The House of Power is the first book of the Atherton series, written by Patrick Carman. The story focuses on Edgar, a boy who loves climbing. The story is set on a floating island known as Atherton. It is divided into 3 levels, which are the flatlands, tabletop, and the highlands. The story focuses on Edgar, an orphan who lives in the Grove. The grove is one of 3 villages that live on tabletop. The citizens are considered peasants, and harvest food. The grove is supervised by Mr. Ratikan, a cross, irritable person. He oversees the collection of of figs. The people of tabletop trade some of the food they harvest to the highlands, where the nobles live, in exchange for water.

There are 3 villages on Tabletop: the village of rabbits and the village of sheep, which raise their respective animals, and the grove, which collects figs.

Edgar loves to climb, despite it being strictly illegal. However, Edgar has a dull memory of his father, who told him that there was a secret that Edgar had to find, high up in the cliffs between Tabletop and the Highlands. After a long, hard climb, Edgar finds a book: the secret his father was telling him about. Since no one in Tabletop can read, he secretly climbs up to the Highlands to try and find someone who can help him decipher the words. There, he meets Samuel, who says that his father fell down to Tabletop long ago. However, Edgar has never heard of anyone falling down, which suggests that Samuel's father could be hidden somewhere, possibly still alive. The two team up. Later, Edgar tries climbing down to the flatlands. However, on the way down he loses his grip and falls While falling, he desperately leaps to the side and manages to slow himself down, losing his pinky in the process. When he wakes up, he is surrounded by ravenous creatures called Cleaners, and cannot fend them off. However, he is saved by Dr. Kincaid and Vincent, who still remember their past lives from before Atherton. They teach him how to hunt and kill Cleaners, and take care of him.

At the end of the book, Edgar finds his way back to where the Flatlands border Tabletop only to discover that Tabletop has sunk all the way down and is now level with the Flatlands, giving free access to the cleaners. Furthermore, the Highlands are sinking.

The second book is Atherton: The Rivers of Fire.

The third book is Atherton: The Dark Planet.