cover image Terra’s World

Terra’s World

Mitch Benn. Gollancz, $19.95 trade paper (280p) ISBN 978-0-575-13213-9

British musician Benn follows his debut, Terra, with a charming but somewhat goofy story that would suit young kids better than adult readers. Billy Dolphin, a chubby young geek, has been depressed ever since Terra showed up with proof that she’s been abducted by aliens and raised on another planet, thereby destroying the creative market for science fiction. She almost immediately disappears. Billy is astonished when Tracey, a beautiful girl he doesn’t even know, turns out to love cyberpunk novels as much as he does and even asks him out on a date. Unsurprisingly, given Billy’s luck, Tracey turns out to be a hideous alien in disguise. Fortunately, Terra, who has been secretly attending Billy’s school, turns up just in time to save his life, steal the alien’s spaceship, and set off on a quest to liberate her adoptive planet. Much of Benn’s gently satirical humor lies in the depiction of neurotic aliens, the repeated use of strategic understatement, in-joke references to SF writers, and vowel-free names (e.g., Crkl-sh-Gkh-sh-Lfft) that are only funny once. (June)