Goners - RU1:2
(Goners series, Book 1)
Jamie Simons and E.W. Scollon
Avon Camelot
Fiction, YA Sci-Fi
**
DESCRIPTION: The planetoid Roma is the site of the most prestigious school in the Planetary Union: the Diplomatic Universal Headquarters. Here, the best and brightest train to be interplanetary diplomats from an early age. Four DUH students stumble upon a secret hidden in the caverns that riddle the planetoid, a secret which the PU has taken great pains to cover up. Long ago, a team of diplomats, carefully transformed to blend in with the locals, was sent to Earth, scattered throughout time and civilization, in an attempt to teach humans how to coexist peacefully. Something went terribly wrong, and they were stranded. Rather than admit that they made an error, the High Council eliminated all records of the so-called "Goners," relegating Earth to a footnote in the kids' Dead and Dying Planets 101 class. One of the chief scientists from the project didn't give up that easily, and, with the four alien kids, is determined to set things right.
REVIEW: It's books like this that make me appreciate Applegate, Coville and the rest all the more. The big gimmick, I guess, is all the little word-gags, which the authors seem to think are so clever. DUH and PU I already introduced to you (here I'll pause while you once more laugh uproariously,) but there's also characters like Arms Akimbo, a four-armed girl from the planet Armagettem, the boy Rubidoux from the planet Douxwhop, and computer accessories like the Think-U-Bators and the WAT-man (please, try to contain your mirth!) Those are just the ones that spring to mind, and at least one of the writers is convinced that they're the height of humor. If you actually did find those examples humorous, then I suggest you try reading an entire book where you are expected to laugh whenever they're mentioned. Trust me, it gets old fast, and I didn't even crack a smile the first time they appeared. I suppose there's an age group and mindset that just loves this sort of brainless excuse of a story, and for them this book would be just fine. Looking past that, it's obvious that neither writer put an ounce of thought into creating any of their races, planets or names. I guess they figured if they threw in enough ridiculous words and references to tentacles, antennae, and slime, nobody would notice. Wrong! Books like this come across as condescending to their target audience, and anyone else who wanders into the line of fire.
You might also enjoy:
The Animorphs series (K. A. Applegate, YA Fiction - A doomed alien gives human children animal-morphing abilities to fight an invasion)
The Remnants series (K. A. Applegate, YA Fiction - After a meteor destroys Earth, a handful of survivors aboard a retrofitted shuttle find themselves in a bizarre world)
Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow (Orson Scott Card, YA? Fiction - Child prodigies are trained for the interstellar wars of the future)
The Tripods: When the Tripods Came (John Christopher, YA Fiction - An English boy witnesses an alien invasion)
Space Station ICE-3 (Bruce Coville, YA Fiction - A boy on an orbital space station uncovers a mystery)
Bruce Coville's Strange Worlds (Bruce Coville, editor, YA Fiction - An anthology of sci-fi tales)
Found (Margaret Peterson Haddix, YA Fiction - An adopted boy discovers a government conspiracy and altered realities surrounding his obscure origins)
Serpent of Time (Eugene Woodbury, YA Fiction - In feudal Japan, a fugitive princess's fate is bound to a dragon who transcends the bounds of time)
The Dragonback Adventures (Timothy Zahn, YA Fiction - A fugitive boy thief in the future reluctantly teams up with an honorable dragonlike alien)
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