Fair Coin

By E. C. Myers

A teenage boy discovers a coin that can change his life with every flip in this Andre Norton Award–winning sci-fi fantasy for young adult readers.

Sixteen-year-old Ephraim Scott is horrified when he comes home from school and finds his mother unconscious at the kitchen table, clutching a bottle of pills. The reason for her suicide attempt is even more disturbing: She had just identified Ephraim’s body at the morgue that day.

Among his dead double’s belongings, Ephraim finds a strange coin—one that grants wishes when he flips it. With a flick of his thumb, he can turn his alcoholic mother into a model parent or catch the eye of the girl he’s had a crush on since second grade. But the coin doesn’t always change things for the better. And a bad flip can destroy other people’s lives as easily as it improves his own. Now Ephraim must learn to control the power of the coin before his luck runs out.

Winner of the 2012 Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Young Adult Science Fiction/Fantasy Book

Finalist of the 2013 Compton Crook Award and 2013 British Fantasy Award for Best Newcomer (the Sydney J. Bounds Award)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Dec 15, 2016
• ISBN: 9781625672452

E. C. Myers

E.C. Myers was assembled from Korean and German parts in Yonkers, New York, where he was raised jointly by a mother and the public library. He is a graduate of the Clarion West Writers Workshop and a member of the prolific NYC writing group Altered Fluid. In the rare moments when he isn't writing, he blogs about Star Trek at theviewscreen.com, plays video games, watches classic films and television, sleeps as little as possible, and spends too much time on the internet. To find out more about E.C. Myers and his activities, short story publications, and novels, visit ecmyers.net, or find him on Twitter @ecmeyers.

Reviews for Fair Coin

[altheaann · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Taking inspiration from the fairy-tale idea that while wishes may come true, they're bound to always go wrong; Myers creates a riff on the alternate-universes theory aimed at teen boys.

It may be because I'm not a teen boy that this didn't really capture my imagination. I just felt like I've seen parallel universes used to more impressive effect, in both teen and adult fiction. This might remind me most of Diana Wynne Jones' "Tale of Time City," but while that is primarily a quest story, this book deals more with the moral implications and unintended consequences of wishing for things to be different.

I also had an issue with the book: the main character's best friend is a jerk. He's a jerk from the get-go, and he's even worse in all of his 'alternate' versions. There's potential here to talk about how friends aren't always what you expect, or how unpopular kids sometimes end up socializing with people for the wrong reasons - but none of that discussion is in the book.

I also felt like there were some very interesting issues brought up regarding the uniqueness of (or similarities between) the different 'analogs' of the characters from different universes, especially as objects-of-affection, but that discussion didn't happen either.

There's more to the series, so perhaps more depth will come, along with the development of the story.

[foggidawn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ephraim Scott comes home one day to find that his mother has attempted suicide. At the hospital, as she is undergoing treatment, he learns that her suicide may have been because she had just identified his dead body. In the dead boy's effects, Ephraim discovers a mysterious quarter commemorating the state of Puerto Rico -- and he later receives an anonymous note instructing him to flip a coin and make a wish. When he does, he finds that the world alters around him in confusing and often unexpected ways. Ephraim has the power to change his life for the better . . . or does he? Is the coin really granting wishes, or is something else at work here?This book has a great, complex, but still generally fast-moving plot and good world-building. The characters are fairly well-written, and the concept is intriguing, if slightly problematic. I don't want to give too much away, so that's all I'll say about this one.

[loki7_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

16-year-old Ephraim Scott comes home to find his mother unconscious, with an empty pill bottle beside her. The reason for her suicide attempt, she had identified what she thought was Ephraim's body at the hospital earlier that day. In his dead double's effects, he finds a strange coin, which when flipped, seems to grant his wishes. But not every flip ends well and the world alters with each flip of the coin.This is an original concept for the young adult crowd, no vampires, no dystopian futures, with very realistic teen protagonists that sound like teens, not adults in teen bodies. The dialogue is witty and the story is full of twists and turns that really do keep you off guard. What starts as a dark fairy tale reveals its true science fiction heart about midway through. This has been nominated for the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy.This is the Teen Nebula Award. Quite an accomplishment for the author's first book.

[rivkat_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ephraim finds a coin that seems to grant wishes when it’s flipped. But like the monkey’s paw, the wishes seem to come with a price: the world changes in other ways as well, sometimes objectively better and sometimes worse. Ephraim abuses the coin early on to make his crush Jena like him, and finds out that’s not all it’s cracked up to be (no sex ensues); meanwhile his best friend Nathan seems to be becoming more and more violent. As it turns out, the coin doesn’t exactly grant wishes, and it’s not a coin; the sf elements are used in the service of exploring the morality of being able to change the world without others knowing. Decent enough YA, though it didn’t rock my world.

[melanie_mccullough_4 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

If you follow my blog there are two things you should know by now: · I love a story told from a male point of view · I'm hopelessly addicted to all things Sci-Fi / Fantasy Put these two things together in a Young Adult novel and you get Fair Coin, a story about a teenage boy who finds a magic coin capable of granting his every wish. And, come on, who wouldn't want that? When Ephraim makes his first wish—that his mother wasn't in the hospital from her suicide attempt—he gets more than he bargained for, returning home to find his mother not only healthy but darn-near perfect. Like a dream come true. Of course not all his wishes go as expected and as it turns out, they each have unintended consequences. Fair Coin is one of those stories that begs to be read. You think you can stop after a few pages or chapters, but thoughts of it will always be there, tugging at your mind even as you try to sleep. There's a constant air of mystery. I spent a lot of time when I wasn't reading wondering what would happen the next time Ephraim made a wish, where the coin came from, and why it had this inexplicable power to transform his life. I loved Ephraim, Nathan, and their relationship with one another, at least in the beginning. They're geeky, but in an adorable geeky sort of way. And they're hilarious. For me, there's something genuine and honest about a male/male friendship that I always seem to find lacking in a female/female friendship. Teenage girls can be catty, but teenage boys are usually just fun. Jena, Ephraim's long-standing crush, is awesome. She's snarky, responsible, and intelligent. She's not the kind of girl who gets all googly-eyed over a boy and forgets she has a brain. Even Ephraim's mother is a very real and relatable character. And when each of Ephraim's wishes alters their personalities or their circumstances, I still had this sense that they were very much the same people, that they still possessed some ingrained characteristic that the new environment could not change. Fair Coin is a stellar debut. It's witty, adventurous, and thought provoking. It takes the age-old tale of wishes gone wrong and turns it into something new and extraordinary. Bravo to E.C. Myers for not only making complex theories exciting and accessible to a young adult audience, but for refusing to dumb down the science aspect of science fiction. The characters aren't know-it-all brainiacs—they're regular teenagers—but they're intelligent enough to grasp and explain what's going on. And they're funny and interesting enough to keep the reader tearing through the pages. Highly recommended. This one made it straight to my favorites shelf. The sequel, currently entitled Quantum Coin, should be released sometime in 2013.

[annhepburn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

So this was much more interesting than I had initially thought when I started reading it. What at first seems like your standard YA light fantasy about a boy with a magic coin whose wishes come true slowly reveals itself as a light sci-fi story about parallel universes. The stakes were quite life-and-death, with numerous character deaths which, for parallel universe reasons, are both affecting but also non-permanent for our core characters. Also, Nate/Nathan/Nathaniel was fairly odious in most of his analogs, which made me question Ephraim's loyalty to him.

But basically, this is a really smart and interesting and fast-paced book with an all-too-rare these days boy protagonist. I think teens would quite enjoy this one.

[bookswithbite · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book is definitely not what I expected. For me it starting off good then got slow. Though, it kept me intrigued till the end.What I liked most about this book is the great plot line. I really loved the idea of paradoxes in the universe. For me this idea alone and the way it was written out is good. With each new chapter, the reader learns more of the paradox, rules and meets new characters.I really loved the loved interest. Though it's not really pursued in the book due to to other events happening, I like where it is going. I am hoping that in the next book, the reader can see a much more developed love interest.My only gripe about this book is due to the paradox there is constant change. You must be paying very close attention or else you can get lost or confused very quick. There are times where the paradoxes come upon the reader fast. So if you miss something you may need to back track.Overall Fair Coin is great book! It had a loads of adventure and action. Fair Coin is mysterious and compelling.

[jbwlibre · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book really is a YA book, but I enjoyed it anyway. If you like books that deal with magic coins, time travel and quantum mechanics, you will love this book.

[smplexlyree · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ephraim Scott, “Eph” to his friends, is a typical teenage boy living a typical (sadly, it -is- fairly common for children to deal with this situation) life. He isn’t entirely happy, but he does seem to be coping; he has friends, he’s performing at an at least average level in school, and has a job that the reader can assume he appreciates. Truthfully, though, he’s a boy who is hurting and he’s all too eager to step away from his not-so-idyllic life.When he gets the opportunity to do so, he leaps at the chance. It’s through wishes and hopes and chance that Ephraim makes his way through the twists and turns of Mr. Myers fast-paced plot, and it’s really fun to try to figure out just what is going on and why.What is not so typical about the story is the author’s portrayal of the teen mindset. Ephraim is a young man with strong morals and willpower, though these traits only become truly apparent as we get further into the story. There is character growth (though it’s gradual and not entirely deep) with all three of the “main” characters: Ephraim, Nathan, and Jena. Jena is written as a girl with a brain who knows how to use it, Nathan is a many-layered personality, and Ephraim really has to evaluate his life, his choices, his feelings – his entire self. It’s interesting to watch it all unfold. As the book ends, Ephraim comes to the realization that life is what we make of it and that it’s each person’s responsibility to either stay the course or make changes. It’s a really good lesson, albeit a subtle one.I loved that despite having a male author, a male main character, and just an in general kind of “guy” feel to it, the female characters have strong, independent voices. They may be mainly supporting characters, but they are important and they are not pushed into the shadows willy-nilly. There are a few bits of the book that make me scratch my head – portions I feel like were glossed over – such as the emotional reactions, or lack thereof, that two particular characters have to losing a friend. It’s a minor flaw, and not one I think takes anything away from the overall story. Also, I feel like there a few unanswered questions dangling there in the open, just waiting…and I’m hoping the sequel answers them for us.E.C. Myers has written a novel that makes the reader think, which is something that is, sadly, often lacking in the Young Adult genre. He has not over simplified the SciFi aspects of the novel, showing that he has faith in the intelligence and comprehension levels of the young adults reading his novel, which is really rather great of him. Fair Coin is a young adult novel of substance. It is humorous, emotional, and complex in a refreshing way, and I think it’s a book that anyone who enjoys Science Fiction could really love.

[ishanella · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Fair Coin is the kind of book where, when the right type of person reads it they will thoroughly enjoy it and when anyone else reads it their opinion might vary from boring to head scratching. I'm a bit of the latter with a drop of the former.

The thing that was appealing about Fair Coin was the fact that it was genuinely science fiction--a coin that grants wishes with a scientific twist; something that I don't often see in the Young Adult genre--but, that was also its downfall for me.

World building is very difficult with sci-fi novels because the reader has to believe that there is a possibility of reality and it has to be carefully explained to the reader so they would understand. This caused the reading to become a bit tedious. There were times where I felt that the explanations were drawn out and wanted the story to keep moving. I don't know how this could be fixed, but for me, if there was a little less explanation and a little more story I would have enjoyed reading Fair Coin a lot more.

Once the plot started moving, however, the story was intriguing and I started to feel genuine interest in what was going on in the lives of the characters.

Fair Coin is definitely not for everyone, but if you're a fan of sci-fi, I'd suggest giving it a try.

[ladycato · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book came to my attention when it won the Andre Norton Award. I have wanted to read it since then, but with so many other books to read, it kept getting pushed off. Well, I had to kill time in a book store the other day and found this on the shelf. I started reading. I didn't want to stop. I ended up reading 3/4 of it in one day.Fair Coin is intense from page 1 and doesn't let up until the very end. The mystery grows more complicated by the page. Where did Ephraim's double come from? How does the coin work? Why do little things--and big things--change with every flip of the coin? It's dizzying at times, and I'm left wondering how Myers mapped out everything to keep it straight as he wrote. This is the sort of science fiction I love because it's all about the people, not the science. Every character in this feels well-drawn and real, from teenage Ephraim to his crush Jena to his alcoholic mother. I can't say much more without giving away spoilers.I can see why it won the Norton Award. Now I want to read the sequel, too.