We Do Not Welcome Our Ten-Year-Old Overlord

Nix, Garth. We Do Not Welcome Our Ten-Year-Old Overlord
October 15, 2024 by Scholastic Press 

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

It's 1975 in Canberra, Australia, and Kim Basalt is living on an experimental farm with his sister and hippy parents who refuse to get a color television set. His best friend is Bennie, and both of them are twelve. They also both have ten-year-old sisters, Indigofera and Eileithyia, who bonded over their unual names. Kim is the dungeon master for the local Dungeons and Dragons games, and loves the Lord of the Rings books, and Bennie has been able to buy the supplies necessary to get them started. When the four are out one night, they find a glowing globe in the lake, and when they try to take it out of the water, it tries to take over Kim's mind. He manages to push it away, but it invades Eila's thoughts. She says it's fine; the spirit calls itself Aster, and wants good for the people of Earth. When Kim threatens to tell their parents, Eila points out that there is no plausible story he can construct for what has happened. It's a little alarming when he catches Eila sneaking out and standing on a hill of fire ants because Aster wants to study them, especially when they are dead the next day, but Kim also has things to do like read LeGuin's The Wizard of Earthsea and run errands for his mother up to Mrs. Benison's house. Their neighbor is 96 years old, has a daughter who is a police officer and lives in an old house that the neighbors would like to see torn down. Kim and Bennie are unable to get the globe away from Eila, and are even more concerned when Aster studies an injured kangaroo to find out how it's body works, and reduces it to a boneless mass of fur, and also when Aster accidentally kills two pet guinea pigs. Its influence is so strong over Eila, however, that she has it cure Mrs. Benison of her aches and pains, and convinces her parents to buy a television set. When it becomes clear that Aster is actually mounting an alien invasion, Eila finally sees the error of her ways and works with Kim and his friends to thwart this, helping them remotely through Kim's connection with the globe. They must get Aster out into the sunlight, but must first go on a harrowing journey. I won't spoil the twist at the end, or the explanation of who Aster is, but the title gives you a little bit of a clue. 

Strengths: While this is a science fiction fantasy tale at its core, there is also a good bit of Nix's personal past in the historical fiction nature of the book, and is dedicated to his younger brother Jonathan, who passed away. The geek references are strong; not only is there D&D and Tolkien, but also Dr. Who, and Geryhawk, although (oddly) not Monty Python. The foreword says this is set in an alternate Australia, but I couldn't quite tell what made it different. I liked the relationship between all of the children, and the fact that Eila is represented as knowing Latin, Greek, French, German, Italian, and Spanish! Australians have been very good about honoring the contributions of Indigenous peoples, and Nix not only mentions this at the beginning of the book, but I believe that the Benison's might be Indigenous. This was a quirky fantasy that the blurbs say will appeal to fans of Stranger Things. (Which I should probably watch.)
Weaknesses: The cover and title of this aren't great, and might cause my students to leave this on the shelves. Twenty years ago, this would have been an automatic purchase, but I don't have Nix fans or avid fantasy readers the way I used to. 
What I really think: This is more along the lines of Nix's middle grade The Keys to the Kingdom series or Troubletwisters than Sabriel and his young adult fantasies. I can see this being a good choice for readers who enjoyed Greenland's Scouts or Sedita's Pathfinders series.