Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Space drama keeps finding 10-year-old Leo even though all he feels able to do is grieve.At first, Leo was excited when aliens called Aykari landed on Earth in 2044. It was all fun and games and faster-than-light travel until more aliens, called the Djarik, attacked, killing Leos mother. The Aykari recruited his astrophysicist father to live on a research vessel with Leo and his older brother, Gareth. Well-paced flashbacks fill in these blanks of Leos past while, in the present, he and Gareth live through another Djarik assault. The lizardlike Djarik take Leos father prisoner and strip the ship, leaving it vulnerable to passing pirates. Pirates, though, have fuel and communications, so Gareth tricks Leo into stowing away alone with some who show up so that he can get help. Terrified, asthmatic Leo grabs for his inhaler, and before long hes meeting new aliens, humans, and robots; getting shot at; and finding out that maybe his father didnt know absolutely everything about the universe. Plentiful references to pop-culture touchstones like Ziggy Stardust and Pokmon give this space opera a lived-in feel. Leos narration aches with pathos but also provides moments of humor and finally ends on a cliffhanger. The alien main character simultaneously resembles humans and is radically nonhuman in ways that are emotionally satisfying. Most of the human cast defaults to White; two characters are coded Black and Japanese, respectively.A heartfelt adventure. (Science fiction. 8-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Space drama keeps finding 10-year-old Leo even though all he feels able to do is grieve. At first, Leo was excited when aliens called Aykari landed on Earth in 2044. It was all fun and games and faster-than-light travel until more aliens, called the Djarik, attacked, killing Leo’s mother. The Aykari recruited his astrophysicist father to live on a research vessel with Leo and his older brother, Gareth. Well-paced flashbacks fill in these blanks of Leo’s past while, in the present, he and Gareth live through another Djarik assault. The lizardlike Djarik take Leo’s father prisoner and strip the ship, leaving it vulnerable to passing pirates. Pirates, though, have fuel and communications, so Gareth tricks Leo into stowing away alone with some who show up so that he can get help. Terrified, asthmatic Leo grabs for his inhaler, and before long he’s meeting new aliens, humans, and robots; getting shot at; and finding out that maybe his father didn’t know absolutely everything about the universe. Plentiful references to pop-culture touchstones like Ziggy Stardust and Pokémon give this space opera a lived-in feel. Leo’s narration aches with pathos but also provides moments of humor and finally ends on a cliffhanger. The alien main character simultaneously resembles humans and is radically nonhuman in ways that are emotionally satisfying. Most of the human cast defaults to White; two characters are coded Black and Japanese, respectively. A heartfelt adventure. (Science fiction. 8-12) Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Horn Book
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

In this sci-fi series opener, shortly after humans discover the substance ventasium on Earth, the extraterrestrial Aykari arrive, offering friendship and technology in exchange for the element that powers their faster-than-light-speed ships. Soon after that, unfortunately, the aliens' foes, the Djarik, bomb every major city on Earth, rousing humans to resist, and cementing the Earth-Aykari military alliance. Thirteen-year-old Leo Fender and his remaining family are passengers on the spaceship Beagle when a Djarik attack disables the ship and the aliens abduct Leo's astrophysicist dad. With their communications system down, the ship's crew and passengers are sitting ducks for the pirates that show up to scavenge the vessel; in a desperate bid for survival, Leo's older brother stows him away on the pirate ship. Set largely in space, the story is suffused with nostalgia for Earth's natural beauty (a beauty severely compromised by the environmentally costly Aykari ventasium mining), and this longing sets up an effective reveal at the climax -- a 180-degree plot twist that would have caught readers flatfooted if not for the skillful way Anderson manages expectations building to that moment. One final fillip sets up an even more wrenchng conflict, leaving readers eager for a sequel. (c) Copyright 2023. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.