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A review by tashrow
Starglass by Phoebe North
5.0
Terra lives with her abusive, drunken father aboard the Asherah, a spaceship the size of a city. Hers is the generation that will finally arrive at their destination planet after traveling for over 500 years in space. Terra’s mother died of cancer, a disease completely unknown on the ship before her death, leaving Terra with her absent older brother and cruel father. Terra is now 16 and assigned to a job, botanist, though she had wanted to be an artisan because she loves to draw. Her father doesn’t approve of her art and Terra does not enjoy her dull work as a botanist. Soon Terra is being courted by her father’s apprentice and is drawn into a mutinous scheme to change the hierarchy aboard the ship. Her work as a botanist is also getting more interesting. What more could a girl want than romance and a good job? Terra definitely wants more, she wants answers.
Out of a standard spaceship story foundation, North has crafted something very special. This small city-sized spaceship is filled with secrets, ones that spell freedom but also ones that can kill. Yet the story is less about the endless travel and the claustrophobia of a closed society and much more about one young woman, her choices and the way in which an individual can impact the community around them. It is a story of opportunities both good and bad, choices that are impossible to make, and a responsibility beyond oneself.
North has woven Jewish traditions into the story and carefully changed them as if the passage of time had both torn at them but also strengthened parts of them. The community on the ship is cohesive but deeply fractured. It is this society that makes the book very compelling. It is also Terra herself too, a young woman deeply grieving the loss of her mother and seemingly without any choices in life. Yet she finds strength to fight back, to choose and to love on her own terms.
Startling, beautiful and richly written, get this one into the hands of science fiction readers. Appropriate for ages 15-17.
Out of a standard spaceship story foundation, North has crafted something very special. This small city-sized spaceship is filled with secrets, ones that spell freedom but also ones that can kill. Yet the story is less about the endless travel and the claustrophobia of a closed society and much more about one young woman, her choices and the way in which an individual can impact the community around them. It is a story of opportunities both good and bad, choices that are impossible to make, and a responsibility beyond oneself.
North has woven Jewish traditions into the story and carefully changed them as if the passage of time had both torn at them but also strengthened parts of them. The community on the ship is cohesive but deeply fractured. It is this society that makes the book very compelling. It is also Terra herself too, a young woman deeply grieving the loss of her mother and seemingly without any choices in life. Yet she finds strength to fight back, to choose and to love on her own terms.
Startling, beautiful and richly written, get this one into the hands of science fiction readers. Appropriate for ages 15-17.