James Nicoll Reviews

Monica Hughes’ 1975 Crisis on Conshelf Ten is the first volume in her Conshelf near-future young-adult science fiction Conshelf Ten duology.

Kepler Masterman, son of Moon Governor Masterman, accompanies his father to Earth. Kepler’s father intends to plead the Moon’s case for national recognition. Kepler being fifteen, he is classified as a ​“non-productive unit” and not permitted residence on the Moon without a parent¹.

There’s just one minor problem with Earth from Kepler’s perspective, one that makes all of its wonders irrelevant to the young non-productive unit.

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Monica Hughes’ 1978 The Tomorrow City is a stand-alone juvenile science fiction novel.

Joe Henderson what he believes will be a cure for the many ills that plague his home city of Thompsonville. He has invented a supercomputer. The City Central Computer — C3 for short — is the most powerful machine of its sort on Earth. Under its guidance, Thompsonville will enjoy efficient governance unmatched anywhere else on Earth.

The first sign of trouble is a malfunctioning elevator.

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Monica Hughes’ 1985 Sandwriter is the first entry in her Sandwriter duology. 

Princess Antia of Kamalant has led a pampered life. Her parents are dead (of an accident, it is said) but she has been carefully raised by King Rangor (her uncle) and Queen Sankath (her aunt). Her immediate retinue includes doting nurse Nan and tutor Eskoril (whom Antia finds most attractive). Her childhood has been pleasant. 

Now the bill for that childhood has come due. 

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1981’s The Guardian of Isis is the second volume in Monica Hughes’ Isis trilogy. 

Fifty-five years after Pegasus II delivered eighty-odd colonists to Isis, sole habitable world of the star Ra, the human numbers have swelled to about eight hundred. Only a few of the original colonists are still alive. David London is one of those few. When his father died, David grabbed the office of president for himself. He has never stepped down. David has spent his long decades in power enforcing his vision of the perfect community: advanced technology forbidden, strict taboos imposed, women reduced to the status of domestic animals. Above all: no exploration of the world outside their small valley. 

Jody n’Komo, one of those eight hundred colonists, is the grandson of one of David’s bitter (vanquished) rivals; he has the misfortune to look like his grandfather. David has transferred all the hate he felt for the grandfather to the grandson. Sooner or later, he will find some crime for which to punish young Jody. 

Spoilers.

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1980’s The Keeper of the Isis Light is the first volume in Monica Hughes’ Isis Trilogy.

Olwen Pendennis has been the keeper of the Isis FTL beacon ever since she was an infant, an infant orphaned by calamity on distant Isis. For her, life with no human companions is perfectly normal. After all, she has her wise robot Guardian to advise and keep watch over her, her amiable but formidable-looking Hairy Dragon Hobbit for company, and an entire planet to call her own.

On her tenth birthday — sixteenth by Earth years — her life changes forever. 

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