Stevie‘s review of Tin Star by Cecil Castellucci
Young Adult Science Fiction published by Roaring Brook Press 25 Feb 14

Back in the day, I was a massive fan of the TV series Babylon 5, and this book has a very similar feel to it. Set far enough in the future that humanity is well aware of alien races and other inhabited planets, yet for the most part wants to keep itself to itself, Tin Star is the story of a human girl forced to grow up amongst aliens and far from Earth. Not only that, she’s pretty much down and out and homeless, living off her wits and on what she can find to trade with those around her. This is a story of friendship, loss, and the desire for revenge set against the backdrop of a universe that’s changing rapidly and probably not for the better.

Right from the start, Tula Bane finds herself in trouble. Having left Earth with her family as part of a group of colonists led by the charismatic Brother Blue, she ends up running errands on a space station when their ship is forced to make an unscheduled stop. Brother Blue encourages his followers to be isolationist and to refuse the nanites that will enable them to communicate more easily with other species and breathe the air on the station without the need for oxygen masks. Tula has a knack for languages and so acts as translator for the colonists, until the day they are due to set off again, when she notices that something’s not right about Brother Blue’s preparations. When challenged, he attacks her and leaves her for dead.

Tula is rescued by Heckleck, an alien living on the fringes of society, and he gives her the nanites she needs to survive, before teaching her how to live in his world. Tula makes friends with a variety of individuals of different species and carves out a place for herself in parts of the station that go unnoticed by those higher up in society. However, she knows her family wasn’t so lucky, and when she finds out that Brother Blue, alone out of those she’d travelled with, is still alive, she vows to get her revenge.

Meanwhile, big political changes are taking place beyond the station: back on Earth as well as in the wider universe. Tula tries to take advantage of the upheavals to reach Brother Blue, but is thwarted repeatedly. The three humans who turn up in the middle of her struggles may be able to help her, or may be working for her enemies. Nothing is quite what it seems at first, and allegiances change rapidly.

I like this book a lot, and am prepared to forgive it for ending on a partial cliffhanger, so long as we get a sequel sometime soon. I could have done with a little more description of the aliens, although what we got does at least emphasise their differences from Tula and the other humans. The author is new to me, but I shall have to investigate her other works now.

Grade: B

Summary:

On their way to start a new life, Tula and her family travel on the Prairie Rose, a colony ship headed to a planet in the outer reaches of the galaxy. All is going well until the ship makes a stop at a remote space station, the Yertina Feray, and the colonist’s leader, Brother Blue, beats Tula within an inch of her life. An alien, Heckleck, saves her and teaches her the ways of life on the space station.

When three humans crash land onto the station, Tula’s desire for escape becomes irresistible, and her desire for companionship becomes unavoidable. But just as Tula begins to concoct a plan to get off the space station and kill Brother Blue, everything goes awry, and suddenly romance is the farthest thing from her mind.

Read an excerpt.