Ultraball #1: Lunar Blitz by Jeff Chen

My name is Strike, and I'm the quarterback for the Taiko Miners, runner-up for the Ultraball Championship the past three years. The pressure to win this year is suffocating, since the survival of 3,000 colonists is riding on it. A Dark Sider named Boom showed up out of nowhere, and she's the new rocketback 1 our team needs. Little is known about Dark Siders, and most people see them as traitors. I'm not sure about Boom myself, since she gets very defensive when I ask anything about her past. I don't even know her real name! Add that to the rumors that one of my teammates is being paid to stab me in the back, and my suspicions always focus on her. But what if it's someone else? I trust 

I'm not sure why, but I was determined to finish this book in one day. I like sports so Ultraball pulled me in, but the non-sports problems really held my interest. Nothing extraordinary, but it grabbed me for some reason. It was the story of little guys (the Miner colony) versus domination by the largest, richest colony. Its governor would do anything to win and get richer, including the bribery of Strike's best friend in last year's championship game. He has plans for the Miner colony this year that will doom all of its citizens. The story is broken up into different Ultraball games leading to the championship. The rules are similar to football, but the suits and field make the game very different. There are only five Ultraball suits per team, so you can't play if it doesn't fit. The mystery of which Miner might be taking a bribe takes up much of the plot, and the reveal during the climax is a surprise. Actually, the identity isn't totally out of the blue, but the reason for accepting the money is creative. Who knew losing could be winning? Ultraball will appeal to sports lovers, but everything else makes the book more interesting. I'm not sure where the sequel will go, since Spike has a hard time fitting into the Ultraball suit. The book will surely deal with battling injustice, so I recommend you give the series a shot.