2 out of 4 stars
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The Ruins of Arlandia by William F. F. Wood opens as Calvin Range, newly graduated from the Space Academy of New Arlandia, prepares to enter the Space Command. Although New Arlandia has not commissioned a manned space mission in ten years, Calvin and his father, Senator Range, are confident that New Arlandia will reconsider and send humans into space again someday soon. Despite their confidence, everyone is surprised when the Sorenia is sent to fly a training mission around New Arlandia’s solar system, and Calvin is thrilled to be assigned to the only mission in ten years. Unexpectedly, the Sorenia's mission runs into trouble, and Calvin finds himself stranded with only his friend Jax in the heavily damaged spaceship. Calvin needs to figure out what went wrong, where the rest of the Sorenia’s crew disappeared to, and how he and Jax can safely return home to New Arlandia. Meanwhile, they are dodging apparently hostile robots in a spaceship graveyard.
However, this is only the beginning of Calvin’s story. Soon, he will learn the real history of the original Arlandia and the truth of a vicious threat to the universe, including both Arlandia’s historical allies as well as New Arlandia itself. Calvin is no longer just a kid with dreams of flying in space. Now, he must save the universe.
The Ruins of Arlandia is the first book of a planned science fiction series for children or young adults by William F. F. Wood. As with many books that declare themselves Book One of a series, The Ruins of Arlandia is not designed to be read alone. The plot is not yet finished when the reader reaches the end. However, it is very clear that the book (and probably the series) is set up so that there will be many small conflicts and accompanying resolutions throughout. In this way, the reader may still feel like he or she has read a cohesive book. Given the youthfulness of the book’s intended audience, this will probably make an acceptable compromise. A kid won’t be intimidated by a long book, and his or her attention will be captivated by the small plots as he/she makes his/her way through the series. It’s a sticky dilemma for an author, but Mr. Wood may have found a workable and satisfactory solution.
There’s a lot that the reader must accept as presented in science fiction. The reader must adjust to technology, alternate universes, vast changes to society as we know it, and more. I find that many children’s science fiction authors seem to deal with the problem one of two ways. Either the reader is encouraged to take a chance on something new and different by the sheer strength of characters and plot (a book you cannot put down), or the author explains everything new to make it understandable for the reader. This book does neither. Calvin is neither so vivid nor the plot so strong that the book is entirely engrossing, and the author takes very few pains to explain the inventions of his imagination. I thought that this diminished the book’s stimulus of the imagination. I wasn't picturing this new world, and I really didn't feel like I was being encouraged to do so.
Overall, I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars. I found it mostly ordinary. Granted, for a child, it may be much more vibrant and even fascinating, but as an adult reader, I couldn't connect with it. In the Indonesian language, which I speak every day, there is the concept of “sedang”. It’s used as an adjective when things are just as they are with nothing special - not spicy, not cold, not hot, not sweet, etc. In other contexts, it refers to actions happening at the present moment. This is a book that is sedang. It just is.
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The Ruins of Arlandia
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