Home > Categories > Books > Sci-Fi > ROiVAN review
Book One of the A'nzarian Chronicle
Her instructions were clear: travel to human space. Once in human space, stay there. Do not return. Speak only your name. Do not take the Test. Protect your mind. Do not speak of your world, your life or your species until you meet someone who tells you first.
Qirl had said that she must stay no more than fifteen days on any ship. If she stayed longer she would be caught. But the crew know Roivan is aboard, and she has nowhere else to go.
Rovian is the winner of the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best New Talent 2004 in Science Fiction.
Product reviews...
I have always been a fan of 'the alien underdog' stories, especially when assisted by 'helpful humans' against 'the bad aliens' - yeah, I know it sounds corny, but these are often the best stories for kids because it teaches them to empathise with other people regardless of how they differ from us.
This story IS a kids book, let's get that clear up front. The story is written in a 'loose' fashion which doesn't bog the reader down with super-science, but does use advanced science to explain faster-that-light travel etc. An ingenious twist was to use an energy-based lifeform as a catalyst, instead of some hyper-advanced warp drive machine. It added some really interesting plot elements.
Overall, despite the story being a little too light on the Sci in Sci-Fi for my tastes, I really enjoyed it. I would be really interested to see where the plot goes from here, as this could easily have been a stand-alone story. The lack of cliff-hanger ending left me with a sense of 'all loose ends tied up' but the story did lend itself to continuation. We shall just have to see.
Random listing from 'Books'...
Young magicians can hone their card trick craft with this amply illustrated handbook, part of the Magic Handbook series.
Concise instructions and close-up illustrations dictate how to execute all 13 ruses, which are ordered from easiest to most difficult. Throughout, readers can learn skills like "stacking the deck" and "card peeking."
Information about Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin, "the father of modern magic," as well as popular magicians like Criss Angel and David Copperfield, should motivate the serious magician-in-training.
All trademarks, images and copyrights on this site are owned by their respective companies.
KIWIreviews is an independent entity, part of the Knock Out News Group. This is a free public forum presenting user opinions on selected products, and as such the views expressed do not necessarily reflect the opinion of kiwireviews.nz and are protected under New Zealand law by the "Honest Opinion" clause of the Defamation Act of 1992. KIWIreviews accepts no liability for statements made on this site, on the premise that they have been submitted as the true and honest opinions of the individual posters. In most cases, prices and dates stated are approximate and should be considered as only guidelines.
"Why do we press harder on a remote control when we know the batteries are flat?"
unattributed