ISBN 0 330 31696 6
This is quite a short book, about an hours read. Again this book is set in the future, and it has a male teenage protagonist, although he has a female sidekick that is more than a match for him. Jan steals his father’s specially designed space rocket in order to reach the planet Verdia. He has to outrun the authorities, as Verdia is forbidden to all, and is nicknamed “the Killer Planet” as no one has made it off there alive. All technology fails on the planet, which has strange magnetic properties.
However, Jan is determined to reach the planet as his older brother was part of an expedition there, and all of those expeditionaries have been declared dead. Jan does not want to believe that his brother is dead, and neither does his father, who has specifically designed the space rocket for Verdia, to compensate for the magnetic anomalies. Petra, best friend of Jan decides that he will not succeed without her, and manages to get on the rocket with him.
They reach the planet, only to find out that they are the planet’s next intended victims. Using all their wits, strength and luck, they explore the planet, narrowly missing death several times, until they find the centre of the disturbance in the electrical field. An evil alien causes this disturbance, along with the death and destruction of the expeditionary force, and Jan and Petra have to thwart him to survive.
This is an old-fashioned adventure story, just set in the future with a space rocket and an evil alien. The story is fast paced, and there is plenty of interaction between characters to keep things lively. This helps to keep children interested in the story. Children tend to like the good verses evil, and the kids triumph over all type stories, and two teenage friends being “trapped by the malign forces of a monstrous alien” qualifies this novel as one of those stories. There is plenty of imagination, and detailed descriptions that bring the setting to life;
“Nothing could have prepared them for the actuality of the Verdian jungle. Trees, vines, giant flowers, thorny shrubs, mosses and waist-high grasses fought for every inch of space. So virulent was their growth that in some places the movement was discernable – the tendrils of climbing plants could be seen blindly probing for their grip on trees; carnivorous flowers closed with audible snaps as they engulfed their prey”.
Language is also used creatively in generating atmosphere, and clearly defining the mood of the story. Emotive language is placed within the description, and the effect is very clever indeed. In just a short few lines, the mood of the chapter is set, and readers are in no doubt as to the character of the mysterious alien;
“Several hundred meters away was a squat, windowless black tower – the stronghold of the inhuman fiend which had descended on Verdia centuries earlier. The force of evil and of hatred emanating from it was almost tangible, a silent assault on the mind which made all who encountered it want to cower away”.
I am a huge fan of the way Shaw writes. There are no waffly bits, no story lulls, and nothing is there just for the sake of a plot inconvenience. There are no spare parts in this story. Every line is carefully thought out, and the characters well rounded. There is plenty of dialogue between characters, and the show me don’t tell me adage has been well and truly applied here. I would love to read more stories from this author.
What I have learned;
- How to use emotive language in description to create vivid images
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