Warning: this review contains major spoilers!
I was handed this book, just like The Apple Tart of Hope, by the Guardian Children's Books team to review. I took a pathetically long amount of time to read the book, and now, finally having read the book, I think I have a well-sounded opinion on this book to provide an okay review of it.
Lucky is a human and he is with his mother in one part of space. A Spacewall divides the humans and the Axxa as the two are in a state of war. Lucky's mother realises this and decides it's time to leave, getting killed by the Shadow Guards in the process (spoilers, sorry!). Lucky is picked up by a team of Startalkers on a quest to find his father.
I'll start with the negatives. Firstly, I don't think there was an actual structure to this story. It seemed a bit all over the place to me. The plot was a bit cliché and it would have been otherwise really good, yet it was let down by the fact SF Said couldn't work out which bit should come next.
My other negative is that of the cover. Granted, it's not something SF Said can really change, but publishers, if you're reading, please don't make your book look like a book that should be an Alice in Wonderland rewrite, please make your cover look more astronomical.
Positives? I have a few. My first comment goes to Dave McKean. The illustrations in this book are something you don't find in every book, and they are flawless. They illustrate not the plot but the book itself perfectly, and that's amazing. I'd read any other book you illustrate just for that reason. Thank you for that.
Second, SF Said, this one's for you. The stark contrast been astronomy and astrology is something that's bought a tear to many a scientist's eye for a while now, and yet in Phoenix, it all seems so seamlessly fit together. You may think I'm being ridiculous, but you mention all the different names for the stars and how they are part of humanity and everything astrology covers, but then in the next breath you say they morph into black holes. That was almost as flawless as the illustrations.
And to both SF Said and readers of this book, I say this: The book carries a message that I think you should take note of, and it's this: However normal you think you are, scrap it. Because, like this book, you are certainly a lot more than just normal. Thank you SF Said for writing this.
• Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop.
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