My good friend Subversive Reader wrote a post yesterday about being a Speculative Fiction fan, and in doing so she jolted me into the realization that I had left a very important book off my list of Top Ten SFF books: Robin Klein's Halfway Across the Galaxy and Turn Left. I quite possibly read that one before I'd even read Beatie Bow, and certainly before the gut-punch of Galaxarena and A Cage of Butterflies.
<-- This is the real cover of HAtGaTL. It would not convince any current teenager to read it, but most of the modern covers... wouldn't convince me to read it, and that's the important thing, right?
I've just gone and looked on my shelves and although I have two other Robin Klein books there (other favourites, non SFF), I don't have Halfway! I am shocked! There was also a sequel, which I'm not sure was released until the TV series was made (which I never watched, so it didn't really exist). I didn't like the sequel as much, although I can't imagine that I would ever have thrown it - let alone Halfway out.
I probably first read this book when I was younger than X - she was never really "Charlotte" to me. And now I badly want to re-read it, and will have to see if it's either on a shelf or in a box at my parents' house.
Speaking of re-reads: I've (just) decided to do one new read and one re-read of Australian YA Spec Fic this month, and I'd love for you to join me.
My new read is going to be The Disappearance of Ember Crow, second in Ambelin Kwaymullina's awesome Tribe trilogy. If you haven't read the first, The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf, you really must! Because it's amazing. (I don't yet know whether you need to have read it before Ember in order to make sense.
My re-read is going to be Galaxarena, by Gillian Rubenstein. It's currently $5 on Kindle, so you can all join in, even if you're living on the other side of the world. I'm really hoping it lives up to my memories of it. If it doesn't I'll be devastated - but I will also have killed a bogeyman in the process.
This is probably my favourite Robin Klein book and I still have my original copy :-)
ReplyDeleteI think "People Might Hear You" is mine, but Halfway is right up there, which is why I can't imagine that I would have gotten rid of my copy.
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