What Came from the Stars

August 6, 2012
In his new novel, Schmidt (Okay for Now) shifts from historical fiction into out-and-out fantasy. Sixth-grader Tommy Pepper lives in Plymouth, Mass., where his mother’s recent death has shell-shocked his small family. Meanwhile, in a far-off galaxy, an epic battle between good and evil has reached its apex. To save the most important aspect of his culture, Young Waeglim forges the “last of the Art of the Valorim” into a chain and hurls it into space, where it streaks past comets and stars before landing in Tommy’s lunchbox. He puts it around his neck, and special powers ensue. Tommy’s chapters are vintage Schmidt, with improbably named characters, authentic (and funny) classroom dynamics, and his familiar stylistic tics of referring to characters by both first and last names and frequently repeating key phrases. The alternate story is written in a heroic but dense prose style that verges on parody (“And on the eighth day, between the rising of Hnaef and the rising of Hengest, the Lord Mondus forged an arm ring from the orluo of Yolim and Taeglim...”). The strands come together in a rousing battle scene, but it may take a determined reader to get to it. Ages 10–14.

In a desperate attempt to save their culture, the alien Valorim people send a neck chain containing all their beauty into the cosmos, where it lands in the lunchbox of Tommy Pepper. Graham Winton deftly differentiates between the alternating chapters of Tommy and the Valorim. When Tommy wears the necklace, the Valorim culture slowly merges with his own. Graham Winton's narration of Tommy's casual acceptance of this new knowledge and his utter astonishment that no one understands him are spot-on. But, despite Winton's admirable efforts with the Valorim chapters, the stilted text as well as the many made-up words and alien names leaves the listener guessing at meanings. All is revealed in an epilogue and glossary, but that's too lates when listening to an audiobook. M.F.T. (c) AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine