Kim's sister Eila finds a strange globe in the lake. It looks a little like a basketball but it also has terrifying powers. Eila is a smart girl but she is only ten years old. She names the globe Aster and becomes quite possessive and secretive about her new 'friend'. Early on in the story as readers we realise Aster is 'using' Eila but young Eila thinks she is helping Aster learn about life on earth. Kim finds a dead kangaroo - well he finds the empty skin. Yes that is creepy. Then the pet guinea pigs of the two girls are found dead.
Madir worries her parents are always fighting, always busy and give their children no time. Then very strangely their behaviour changes. Equally Kim and Eila live in a home where the children are expected to assist their scientist parents with chores in the greenhouses. The family have no radio or television. The children are not allowed to read fiction books but Kim has smuggled a copy of A Wizard of Earthsea into his wardrobe. Returning home one day, not long after Aster arrives, Kim is totally shocked when he discovers there is a television in their house. The Basalt family also like to assist their neighbour. Mrs Benison is elderly and unwell but then she seems to miraculously recover and even gain energy and vitality.
Surely there is something sinister and dangerous about Aster. What is this thing they found in the lake? Kim enlists the help of his three friends. Their plan is to throw Aster back into water but then Eila realises things are spinning out of control. The only way to destroy Aster she tells the group is to hold her in direct sunlight. The race to do this make the scenes in the final five chapters of this reading journey, worthwhile.
The setting for this book is Canberra and the year is 1975. None of that really matters and readers who are unfamiliar with Canberra won't make this connection. Kim and Bennie and their two friends also like to play Dungeons and Dragons. Garth Nix explains this is a game he played too, as an older teenager. I know nothing about this game but if readers are familiar with the way it is played that might add to the story enjoyment. Garth Nix also explains, in the acknowledgements section at the back of the book, that he and his friends did find a strange object in the shallow water on the edge of the lake - but it turned out to be a head shaped rock covered in flowing weeds. This image of this and his curiosity about this object lingered with him and now years later we have this book.
The names in this book are very inventive but I also found them a little distracting - Chimera “Kim” Basalt and Benjamina “Bennie” Chance are twelve-year-old best friends and they play, as I said, Dungeons and Dragons with two other friends every week. Kim of course has to keep this a secret from his parents. Their sisters are Eileithyia “Eila” Indigofera Basalt and Madir Sofitela Chance. Kim and Eila live on an alternate farm. Mum and Dad have given themselves new names. Mum is Marie Basalt named after Marie Curie and Dad is Darwin Basalt named after Charles Darwin.
I did rush my reading of this book because it was due back at the library. The scene on pages 228-229 needs careful attention because this is where everything is 'sort of' explained. I read the last few chapters on a train and found I totally forgot where I was - that's always a terrific thing that happens when you enjoy a book.
When I read about the strange cloud that hovers over the city it reminded me of this Science Fiction book from many years ago:
Last night We do not Welcome our Ten-Year-Old Overlord was announced as a 2025 CBCA Younger Readers Notable.
Here are some reviews of We do not Welcome our Ten-Year-Old Overlord:
An entertainingly offbeat science-fiction romp. Kirkus
If you are unfamiliar with The Watertower try to find it -this is one of the best picture books you will ever read to a group of children in a school library aged 10+ and it would be a good companion read:
Bookseller blurb: All Kim wants to do is play Dungeons & Dragons with his friends and ride his bike around the local lake. But he has always lived in the shadow of his younger sister. Eila is a prodigy, and everyone talks about how smart she is, though in Kim's eyes, she has no common sense. So when Eila finds an enigmatic, otherworldly globe which gives her astonishing powers, Kim not only has to save his sister from herself, he might also have to save the world from his sister!
The title of this book intrigued me. Oddly after reading this book I wondered if the title might make more sense (to me at least) if it was called We do not welcome the Ten-Year-Old Overlord. Anyway, putting that tiny thought aside it was interesting to read a new Science Fiction book. There do not seem to have been quite so many books in this genre published for ages 10+ here in Australia in recent years - at least I couldn't think of any.
It seems important to define Science Fiction at this point. Here are a few quotes:
- Science fiction, popularly shortened as sci-fi, is a genre of fiction that creatively depicts real or imaginary science and technology as part of its plot, setting, or theme.
- The word science refers to the fact that the story in some way involves science or technology that—no matter how advanced—is depicted as being based on real scientific principles, as opposed to involving magic or the supernatural.
- Regardless of the specific technologies or scientific advances being depicted, sci-fi often speculates about their effects on or consequences for the reality of the world being described. In other words, sci-fi stories often ponder how science and technology can go wrong for individual people or society (often as a metaphor for how they can go or have gone wrong in our own reality).
Back in 2021 I talked about Science Fiction and shared some examples of children's books because this genre linked perfectly with the CBCA Book Week Slogan that year - Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds.
Decades ago, I did read a few books by Garth Nix - well before I started this blog - such as The Keys to the Kingdom. The set in my former library did had a different set of covers. Lord Sunday was nominated for Carnegie Medal in Literature. Mister Monday was a CBCA 2004 Older Readers Honour title. Garth Nix has over 200 titles listed in GoodReads.
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