Saturday 5 July 2014

SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW: Terra - Mitch Benn

Release Date: 08/05/14
Publisher:  Gollancz

SYNOPSIS:

No-one trusts humanity. No-one can quite understand why we're intent on destroying the only place we have to live in the Universe. No-one thinks we're worth a second thought. And certainly no-one is about to let us get off Rrth. That would be a complete disaster. But one alien thinks Rrth is worth looking at. Not humanity, obviously, we're appalling, but until we manage to kill every other living thing on the planet there are some truly wonderful places on Rrth and some wonderful creatures living in them. Best take a look while they're still there. But on one trip to Rrth our alien biologist causes a horrendous accident. The occupants of a car travelling down a lonely road spot his ship (the sort of massive lemon-coloured, lemon-shaped starship that really shouldn't be hanging in the sky over a road). Understandably the Bradburys crash (interrupting the latest in a constant procession of bitter rows). And in the wreckage of their car our alien discovers a baby girl. She needs rescuing. From the car. From Rrth. From her humanity. And now 11 years later a girl called Terra is about to go to school for the first time. It's a very alien experience...T ERRA is a charming and hilarious satirical fable. A story about how odd and alien we are. And a story about how human odd aliens are. It tells the story of a girl who grows up in a very different world, who gains a unique perspective on our world and a unique perspective on her new home. A girl who can teach us and them a lot. A girl living in an extraordinary world that is spiralling into a terrible war.


REVIEW:

I know the name of the author but to be honest I’m not that familiar with his humour so to be honest his celeb status really wasn’t anything to me. I read this book knowing nothing of him and to be honest what I read was a book that brought some warm humour, played with the expected Sci-Fi tropes and then wrapped it all up with a fun new look at a strange world through the eyes of the human.

It’s definitely fun, it has something for readers of all ages (young as well as old) and also is something that I found to be warm, engrossing as well as entertaining. All round a book that I was pleased to read and I’ll definitely look forward to other instalments. A great find.

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