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Star Binder (SF) - Robert Appleton ****

This is what I'd call a good old fashioned science fiction book - and it's none the worse for it. Star Binder follows a long tradition in what used to be called juvenile SF and now young adult books, which have teenage protagonists but that are enjoyably readable by adults - a tradition that ranges from James Blish's 1962 A Life for the Stars to Brandon Sanderson's modern Skyward series. These in themselves fit into a wider grouping of books where youngsters succeed where adults can't - think of anything from Harry Potter to the Famous Five.

The main character, Jim Trillion, is a thirteen-year-old, fending mostly for himself with his friend Sergei on a rough and ready colonised Mars. As a result of a brave action, his is recruited into a secret training programme that feels militaristic, but at the same time clearly isn't. So far, so average - and if this were all there was, with a few good action scenes, I'd feel it was a bit meh. But what Robert Appleton does very cleverly is to bring in a couple mysteries where we don't initially understand what is happening - these really pull the reader in, and are handled very well.

Jim and Sergei's initial adventures kept me reading, but when things get mysterious, the narrative moves up several notches, taking us away from the confines of Mars to find we're dealing with something far bigger in scope. I was also really pleased that this doesn't appear to be part of a huge series - at the moment few other than luminaries such as Adam Roberts seem capable of writing standalone science fiction (or fantasy) novels - they all have to be part of an immense plan for future books. Admittedly, the world building here allows for things to go a lot further, but this book works entirely as a standalone.

I have seen a one star Amazon review by someone who thinks this is cultural Marxism (whatever that is) - this entirely misses the point. Jim's friend Sergei has Belarussian roots (just as Jim has British roots) - and Sergei does go on about the 'Soviet way' - but the underlying ethos of the book seems to be about going beyond the ties that bind. Admittedly the way the teenagers in the training establishment are allowed to form factions that are not prevented from attacking each other seems a highly ineffective way to train people (even if it's not much different to the approach of some old public schools), but I wouldn't say there was much Marxism going on here.

It's not perfect. The final mysterious situation is so complex that it's quite hard to get your head around - and Appleton resorts to a bit of 'get out of jail free' plotting. Even so, there's some genuinely interesting and original thinking here, which is why I think it fits so well in a timeline stretching forward from Blish's equally intriguing ideas.

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Review by Brian Clegg - See all of Brian's online articles or subscribe to a weekly digest for free here
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