Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Tin Star by Cecil Castellucci

Imagine being abandoned out in space on a foreign space station; you're human, everyone else isn't...

Macmillan Children's Publishing Group and Net Galley allowed me to download and read this ebook for review (thank you).  The book will be published February 25, 2014, so make a note on your TBR list.

Tula was travelling on a colony ship and being groomed by Brother Blue.  She had a bright future ahead of her.  Then she made the mistake of asking why they were unloading all their supplies during this emergency stop.  Brother Blue beats her badly enough, he leaves her for dead.

Security takes her to the medical unit where she is slow to recover; they don't know how to medicate humans.  From there, she meets the head of security who tells her the ship her sister and mother were on blew up in space and all were lost.  She has no where to go and no one to go to.

Like flotsam, she floats to the outer reaches of the station and takes up a spot in an abandoned area where all the the other unwanteds live.

It's almost a bit like Star Trek, the Next Generation.  I enjoyed the descriptions of all the different creatures and how Tula became very good friends with an odd one.  She became a "trader".  It starts with a bit of thieving and then trading up.  She could get what she needed, some food, and save a bit for passage off the space station.

Besides being a story of survival in new world with strange creatures, it's a tale of Tula maturing and doing what she must for survival.  She learns that not all human's can be trusted, that her new friend's would die for her, and that she may be happier where she is than she would be off the station.

I loved this story so much I have already put it on a list to buy.  It was good enough I could read it again and again.  That's partly because it has fantasy creatures.  The other part is that it is written so well.  I'm hoping for a sequel, because I'd like to see Brother Blue go down.  But I can enjoy this book on its own without it.

Get a copy and read it!

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