The Lord of Opium

NANCY FARMER is the author of nine novels, including The Ear, the Eye and the Arm and A Girl Named Disaster, each a Newbery Honor Book, and The House of the Scorpion, winner of the National Book Award, as well as being a Newbery Honor Book and a Michael L. Printz Honor Book. For somewhat younger readers, she has written a trilogy inspired by Norse mythology: The Sea of Trolls, The Land of the Silver Apples, and The Islands of the Blessed.

Nancy Farmer lives with her husband in the small town of Portal, Arizona, which is one of the settings for The Lord of Opium. Visit her online at nancyfarmerwebsite.com.

A RICHARD JACKSON BOOK

Atheneum Books for Young Readers

SIMON & SCHUSTER | NEW YORK

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ALSO BY NANCY FARMER

The House of the Scorpion

The Sea of Trolls

The Land of Silver Apples

The Islands of the Blessed

A Girl Named Disaster

The Warm Place

The Ear, the Eye and the Arm

Do You Know Me

ATHENEUM BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS

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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2013 by Nancy Farmer

Maps on pp. xiv–xv and p. xvi by Rick Britton

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

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Book design by Mike Rosamilia

Jacket design by Russell Gordon

Jacket photo-illustration by Steve Gardner

The text for this book is set in Bembo Std.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Farmer, Nancy, 1941–

The lord of Opium / Nancy Farmer. — 1st ed.

p. cm.

“A Richard Jackson Book.”

Sequel to: House of the scorpion.

Summary: In 2137, fourteen-year-old Matt is stunned to learn that, as the clone of El Patrón, he is expected to take over as leader of the corrupt drug empire of Opium, where there is also a hidden cure for the ecological devastation faced by the rest of the world.

ISBN 978-1-4424-8254-8 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-4424-8256-2 (eBook)

[1. Cloning—Fiction. 2. Drug traffic—Fiction. 3. Environmental degradation—Fiction. 4. Science fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.F23814Lor 2013

[Fic]—dc23   2012030418