We Do Not Welcome Our Ten-Year-Old Overlord

Garth Nix is probably one of the most well know modern Australian authors, most associated with the Sabriel books.  This current title is aimed at his slightly younger audience and mixes a story of sibling friction with an element of science fiction.  The hero, Kim, always feels as if he is in the shadow of his brilliant younger sister Eila.  When they find a strange glowing globe in the wood, Kim wants to get rid of it, but Eila seems to connect with it, and says it is actually a person called Aster, here to study our world.  As the days go by Eila becomes more absorbed by Aster and things go from bad to worse.  When the local police get involved, Kim and friends decide they have to do something about the situation.

This is a delightful modern science fiction tale, which mixes real life with aliens and the modern addiction to gaming.  It is fascinating to see how the young people deal with the situations and in particular when the adults get taken over and change their behaviour.  At the heart of the story is the relationship between the two siblings and the frustration that Kim feels when he is compared to his sister and found wanting.  There is also a secondary theme about the different sets of parents and their varying ways of parenting; especially the parents of Kim and Eila, who have an ‘alternative lifestyle’, which includes no television and minimum use of electricity.  The alien Aster has a great impact on the area, as they try and learn about the earth, but because they are a child (in their own terms) they do not understand the damage that they can do.  This is a fantastic introduction to a science fiction theme, which takes the concept beyond stories such as ET.