September 29, 2026 by Andrews McMeel Publishing
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Marty is a middle school student who is struggling just to keep up. He is constantly accidentally destroying someting (his phone, his hand held video game), forgetting his homework, and generally goofing up. He's often grounded, which means he can't hang out with friends Alex and Mia and get caught up on their favorite show, Galaxy Atlas. When his mother asks him to take a package to elderly neighbor, Mr. Albert, he manages to carefully put the package on a table... but backs up, runs into a bookshelf, and dislodges an object. When he picks it up, he gets a shock. He's not surprised when Mr. Albert phones his mother, but he isn't in trouble... yet. He thinks that he will have to work for his neighbor to pay off the damage, but gets a surprise instead. Mr. Albert is an alien... from space! He's a xenoanthropologist who has spent the last ten years studying Earth people in order to protect them from the Vaxst Empire, that has had its eye on the planet. A Vaxst scout has found Mr. Albert, and broken his imager. This looks like a cane, but allows Mr. Albert to be seen in a human form. When he appears in his quasi-insect state, the police are called, and the FBI starts investigating. Miz and Slate come to Marty's town and start asking questions. Marty glosses over the truth and lets his mother (who speaks a lot of Spanish to Marty at home) think that Mr. Albert is being chased by immigration officials. Marty wants to help Mr. Albert, and brings in Alex and Mia, since he is more confident in their abilities to figure things out than his own. Marty wasn't supposed to have the Star League learning system installed in his brain, but that's exactly what happened when he touched the object in Mr. Albert's apartment, and the system avatar, Expy, helps him with all manner of things. Will this help be enough when the Vaxst start hunting down Mr. Albert? Book two should provide more answers!
Strengths: There hasn't been much in the way of science fiction lately; the Dystopian novel boom fueled by The Hunger Games (2008), The Maze Runner (2009), and Divergent (2011) rather cut down on fun, action packed sci fi. This was a great alien invasion story, but I enjoyed the fact that there were both the evil aliens and Mr. Albert, who was trying to save the planet. Bonus points for Marty getting imbued with alien technology that helps him fix his broken video game! Marty and his friends get to have some adventures around home, have agency to help save their neighbor, and Marty gets to travel in an alien space shuttle. The graphic novels that are science fiction often have a wacky feel to them ( Brooks' Sanity and Tallulah, Graley's Glitch), so I appreciated how earnest Marty was in trying to help Mr. Albert. There's plenty of science on the pages, and a lot of positive personal growth as Marty learns to concentrate and not mess things up. I'll purchase a prebound copy for my library and am looking forward to book 2.
Weaknesses: It would have been nice to have more background information on Mr. Albert and his planet, but maybe that will be covered in the sequel.
What I really think: Hand this to students who enjoy a good space alien book like Schaefer's A Long Way From Home, Brooks' Nothing Interesting Ever Happens to Ethan Fairmont, Oppel's Bloom trilogy, or Miller's Margot and Mateo Save the World.
What I really think: Hand this to students who enjoy a good space alien book like Schaefer's A Long Way From Home, Brooks' Nothing Interesting Ever Happens to Ethan Fairmont, Oppel's Bloom trilogy, or Miller's Margot and Mateo Save the World.
No comments:
Post a Comment