This stellar second novel from Christopher Edge follows on from the success of his first book, the 2017 CILIP Carnegie Nominated: ‘The Many Worlds of Albie Bright.’

There’s a lot of buzz around all things space at the moment thanks to Tim Peake’s stay on the International Space Station, and this book is perfect for anyone who followed his mission and loves all things space (or simply enjoys a brilliant read!)

Life’s tough when your father is Commander Dan Drake and currently orbiting the Earth aboard the International Space Station.  It’s even tougher when your whole school has gone space-crazy as the crew make preparations for their final mission – to launch a swarm of nano-spacecraft to the ‘goldilocks zone'(read the book to find out what that is!) and see if other intelligent life exists.

Like gets even tougher when, whilst exploring an abandoned observatory, Jamie accidentally stumbles upon a rogue astronomer who has hacked the Hubble Telescope’s abandoned feed.  Things take another turn for the worse when Jamie innocently tries to charge his phone and, instead, downloads a strange alien intelligence.

With his phone spouting weird mathematical equations and making him draw mysterious alien landscapes, Jamie can’t wait to seek his dad’s advice at their next satellite link-up. However Commander Dan doesn’t seem to believe him.  To make matters worse, Jamie overhears his parents discussing their divorce plans!

Head spinning, can Jamie figure out a way to save an alien race as well as his family?

I was super-excited to be sent this title to read but also a little concerned that I might become baffled by science.  There certainly is a lot of scientific information presented within its pages, but it is done so in such a way that it’s very easily understandable.  I learnt several new things whilst reading this books, my favourite of which being the existence of a ‘Goldilocks Zone’ which is not, as you might imagine, full of bears and bowls of porridge.

You don’t have to understand all the science, or be a fan of all things space, to enjoy what is a cracking story not only about space and alien lifeforms, but also families and how complicated the relationships within them can be.

Truly stellar!

Library Girl.

*Many thanks to Nosy Crow for sending me this copy to review*