Growing up as a teenager isn’t easy. Growing up knowing you have been adopted, but not knowing your true parents is also not easy. But growing up being the only one of your species might even be harder. Should we take a look at Jag?
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Jag is the only human in a world full of Rixxonians. Just imagine Avatar, but paint the blue guys green and give them a third leg joint between knee and ankle – there it is. But these guys come in two shades of green – because one half lives on the sunny side of the planet, the other half lives on the dark side. It seems that planet rotates around its own axis in sync with its solar rotation, so there is no day and night cycle, just a regular eclipse. Rush eclipse is never explained, but maybe it’s a fast orbiting moon. But that’s beside the question.
The question is: what is Jag doing here, two and a half million light years away from Earth? He, of course, knows nothing about his inheritance, only that he’s vastly different from all around him. Which isn’t all that bad, because there aren’t many people around him, mostly his brother (in law, so to speak). They’re living a quite solitudely life, as most other people they know are dead, because of the civil war between the light and the dark side.
Okay, it’s not all that bad, I confess, it’s even worse. And a great starting point for an adventure that is partly road trip, but also partly coming of age. Because some people with strange technology appear on this planet, and Rixxonians on both sided start to die. Jag and his really small group of friends try to figure out what’s going on.
To define strange technology: That avatar reference was really on par, it kind of matches the technological advancement of the Rixxonians. We’re talking knifes and crossbows here, so someone with a hand grenade is clearly dangerous. (Okay, screw that, everyone wielding a hand grenade is a danger upon himself and others, regardless of your technological progress.)
And suddenly, both tribes must unite against a common enemy that threatens both of their worlds, for the dwarves have dug too deep. Eh, the dark Rixxonians, not the dwarves, silly me. But that’s neither here nor there, because it really is just an opening scene before the REAL road trip begins.
Where Jag goes, he doesn’t need streets for a road trip, because in the grand scheme of the universe and space travels, there already is an abundance of road between planets – it’s that black empty space. But I’m afraid it’s more a lack of resting places with good coffee that’s keeping ME from going on a space trip. Well, that and my udder lack of a spaceship. But at least I’ve got coffee at home. The good one.
Ah, I might have strayed a little from the path here. That’s okay, though, because this story also seems to stray a little. Let’s just say that it pretty soon starts to develop into a totally different directions than the start would have you imagine. The scope of ongoing events soon becomes intergalactical.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Arthur C. Clarke
It was Arthur C. Clarke who stated in one of his three famous axioms that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. If you take a moment to think this through, you might arrive at the same conclusion that I did – I think that statement is true. Just imagine some Renaissance guy time traveling to today and being confronted with a smart TV. Renaissance guy would probably think it’s a magic mirror showing images of a land far away.
Which is a point of critique, actually. Because at the same time the inhabitants of this universe use eye drops that instantly enter your brain to implant some kind of babel fish, they also seem to be pretty backward in other points. Let’s just say I had some mixed feelings about how the different technology levels clashed with each other.
Let’s talk about writing style. While the story has all the hallmarks of epic sci-fi space opera, the writing is what sets it off from other examples of the genre. Because most usually, space opera is a pretty adult thing. There’s gory and violence, or adultery, or a mix of both. And drama, of course – can’t have opera without drama.
The basic ingredients are all there, but the overall tone is way lighter. The characters are cheerful (sometimes up to a point that I wanted to shake them to realize how dramatic life altering current events are), the drama is taken down a few notches, and the language style complements it really well: This is YA space opera. I think it would work really well with an audience of 13+. (Just keep that in mind if you’re an adult – you will enjoy the story, but you have to get used to that tone for younger audiences.) Of course, no adultery here; that won’t happen.
So, all in all, interesting YA space opera, and with an epilogue that promises a lot more things to come. I recommend it for younger audiences, or maybe even for people new to science fiction – might make an interesting start into the genre, as well!
Crossing the Pond Reviews 