By Kristyna Baczynski (Avery Hill Publishing)
ISBN: 978-1-910395-42-4 (PB/Digital edition)
Great storytelling never goes out of style and the basis of all drama is examination of the human condition (albeit sometimes in extraordinary circumstances). Somehow, that’s even more true when your characters aren’t human at all.
Author and illustrator Kristyna Baczynski hails from the Pennines of Yorkshire, by way of the Carpathians of the Ukraine. That’s not at all germane here but it does sound incredibly romantic; conjuring up all manner of deep-seated preconceptions about windy moors and bleak moody peaks. Preconceptions, aspirations, dreams and that old devil hope are what this book is about…
In a faraway star system, a little girl grows up as a refugee and immigrant. Flint finds it hard to adapt to life on mining colony world Tisa and, even though she has no real memories of the place, feels the call of her homeworld Doma – long-abandoned due to a geological or maybe industrial toxic detonation. No one at school cares or understands and her mother and grandmother never want to talk about it…
Years pass but those feelings of something missing don’t. Days pass, Flint acts out like any teen and then inevitably graduates into a mining job, but the something-missing still plagues her. Moments pass as she collects memoirs and mementoes of her lost world and grows increasingly colder and duller.
… And then a message is received from the supposedly dead, barren planet. Flint now has a purpose and a goal, and nothing will stand in her way…
This lyrical and uplifting yarn offers a beautifully understated and moving glimpse at the power of place in our lives, using science fiction themes and trappings to pick apart the most primitive and fundamental longings to which humans are subject. It also reminds us that there’s always hope…
A glorious celebration of humanity’s constant follies and greatest assets, this tale is certain to be a beloved touchstone for every lover of great stories.
© Kristyna Baczynski 2018. All rights reserved.