SOJALS rating:

Unrated (0/5)

I first read this on the 2nd July 2002.

Well, I made an honest mistake: the spine of the book clearly stated "Fantasy" rather than SF, and I should have read more carefully the back cover blurb which included "combines the sophisticated concepts of physics with high fantasy in a marvelous way".

The phrase marvellous way is a give-away and on reading the novel, it's clearly for a teenage, possibly but not exclusively female, market.

It started off rather well. The bright and sensitive Kate, bored with school and lonely, spends time with her grandfather Dr Miles Prancer. Dr Prancer is something of a scientific genius in search of the secret of stars and faster-than-light travel. Together they embark on an amazing adventure to another star-system to meet aliens and to save the world. So far so good, if you're an SF-loving teenager.

But then the intelligent dragonflies, Morpheus and Orpheus, appear and you just know what a fundamental mistake you've made, and you really should simply put the book away, tucked at the back of the bookcase or in some large chest, to be forgotten until such time in the distant future when you're stuck for a bed-time story for your eleven-year-old daughter, at which time, of course, you won't remember where you stashed the darn book.