Champions of the Galaxy Age

From the author of the hugely successful Onyeka series comes this new book, which is likely to prove just as popular with Okogwu’s readers.

The story begins with twelve-year-old Kola gaming with his squad of misfits. Ostensibly part of the gang – he is actually feeling sad and misunderstood – having just missed out on a chance to be the first child on a UK Space Mission. This is a role for which his grandfather – who designed the first British aircraft capable of orbiting the earth – has spent years preparing him. Now he feels stuck in a humdrum life, with the added worry that his sister Simi, who is in hospital with sickle cell, might not recover. All this changes overnight, when some aliens called the Onni make contact with Earth, which as you might expect, sends all the adults into a massive panic. But it seems the aliens come in peace. Indeed, to prove their sincerity, they offer solutions for cancer, global warming and water shortages through their advanced technology and knowledge. They also warn that the Alliance is heading towards Earth to destroy it within the next week. Most of the Onni were destroyed by the Alliance (a group of powerful planets) many years before and so the Onni offer to help Earth fight back – but first humanity must prove itself worthy of their aid. Humanity it seems does not have a very good reputation within the Universe at large. To do this, Earth must give up 91 of its finest young people to be ‘champions’, who will be entered into a series of contests. If they prove that humans are worthy, the Onni will help take on the Alliance. To his surprise and alarm, Kola is selected for this mission and whisked away from his anxious family along with the other children to an Onni spaceship. Kola makes friends with Juan a champion from Spain, but soon they are all divided into pods or teams of four. Kola finds himself with Thea, an American with a criminal background, Achan from South Sudan with an amazing photographic memory and Kim Dae Jin from South Korea,  who has terrific physical ability. Initially suspicious of each other, the four must pull together to successfully complete the trials and persuade the Onni to help Earth against the might of the Alliance. But are the Onni all that they seem and will the children ever make it back safely to Earth and save it from being ‘recycled’ by the Alliance?

Part Hunger Games and part Star Wars but with a style and message all of its own, this is an enjoyable space based adventure story for older primary school children and above. At times, I felt some of the challenges were quite difficult to visualise and the ending seems a little rushed after some excellent world building and characterisation. The book is peppered with riddles and scientific facts, with some clever twists along the way, which make it fun to read, with an optimistic ending, which is sufficiently open-ended for a sequel.

Ultimately Champions of the Galaxy is a wake up call for humanity to realise what we are doing in real life to our planet and each other. Its overall message that we are far stronger united in spite of our differences, seems to be especially pertinent in these current times.