Character Development: ☆☆
"When a powerful group of aliens threaten Earth, a mysterious species called the Onni offers humanity hope. But there's a catch. Ninety-one children from across the planet must first prove their worth by competing in a series of trials set on a distant planet.For twelve-year-old Kola, who has long dreamed of going into space, it's the chance of a lifetime. But once aboard the Onni mothership, Kola finds himself thrown into a misfit team of Champions. As secrets unravel and tensions rise, Kola and his team must decide who to trust and what it really means to be a Champion. Because in the end, it's not about being the smartest or the strongest. It's about standing together."
I received a copy of this from Netgalley to review, and while I desperately wanted to like it, it got off to a rocky start and didn't improve from there. The story begins with us being told that Kola had previously trained for an astronaut mission, which was then canceled when Earth received communication from an alien race warning of an impending attack. Cool hook, but it was very jarring to get dropped into what felt like the middle of a story. I actually went and double checked if this was a sequel, because it seems so odd to start off with "FYI, this exciting thing happened offscreen. And now, the story begins!"
From there, the writing style is a bit stilted and awkward. Instead of major moments being connected by smaller narrative moments, we fast forward from big moment to big moment, and many of the interactions involved, like Kola's initial meeting with his team, are unnatural and forced. Overall, this reads like an early draft of a great idea, but in my opinion it needs a little more polish and smoothing out before I would recommend it to my students. I truly tried to get into it, but in the end I had to DNF about a third of the way through, and if I can't stick out the beginning to hopefully get to something better, no way are my kids going to have the patience to try.
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