Bookworm Speaks!- Space Case by Stuart Gibbs

Bookworm Speaks!

Space Case by Stuart Gibbs

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The Story: It’s a murder mystery on the moon in this humorous and suspenseful space adventure from the author of Belly Up and Spy School.

Like his fellow lunarnauts—otherwise known as Moonies—living on Moon Base Alpha, twelve-year-old Dashiell Gibson is famous the world over for being one of the first humans to live on the moon.

And he’s bored out of his mind. Kids aren’t allowed on the lunar surface, meaning they’re trapped inside the tiny moon base with next to nothing to occupy their time—and the only other kid Dash’s age spends all his time hooked into virtual reality games. 

Then Moon Base Alpha’s top scientist turns up dead. Dash senses there’s foul play afoot, but no one believes him. Everyone agrees Dr. Holtz went onto the lunar surface without his helmet properly affixed, simple as that. But Dr. Holtz was on the verge of an important new discovery, Dash finds out, and it’s a secret that could change everything for the Moonies—a secret someone just might kill to keep.

The Good: It is obvious the author has done his homework in regards to ins and outs of what an actual base on the moon would be like. The author uses a combination of present day technology and future developments that are very plausible. The way he describes life on a lunar base is very realistic and indeed, he admits that it is not as romantic as people would think. Its hard and it can be boring at times. 

Also plausible is the future of race relations. It is nice to see a kid be depicted in popular fiction and a minority at that. Dash is a biracial child of an African-American woman and a caucasian man. He is of brown complexion and on top of that pure caucasian stock is dying out. That really could be the future of the human race as travel and intermingling increases along with changing social standards. Of course, unless that is what the book is about its hard to pull off racial profiles in literature. It’s mentioned once or twice then goes away.  

The immersion factor is done very well. It is hard to describe but Dash’s perspective does allow us to really feel the world he is in, both on the moon and developments on the Earth, how he makes references to current technologies and other things, makes it all feel normal and not as fantastic as the setting would suggest. 

One of the greatest challenges of books of this caliber is writing children in a realistic manner and its pulled off greatly in the character of Dash’s little sister Violet who is six years old. She is as happy as can be and likes cartoons and music. Truly, an accurate picture of most six year old girls. 

The Flaws: Perhaps it paints too good a picture of life in space. Playing the devil’s advocate on the part of NASA and Nina, but Bookworm is a firm believer that space travel is fundamental towards the future of the human race and it needs all the good publicity it can get, both in fiction and non-fiction. 

Obviously, considering it’s a space base, intelligence and maturity are probably important factors in the selection process, but Dash seems a little too smart for and eleven year old. Maybe thirteen or fourteen would be a more appropriate age. They acknowledge this in the book but maybe it would be too much for the reader. 

Also, while Violet is a fairly accurate picture of a six year old, at times she is more annoying than cute. She is not given a lot scenes and is little more than a background background. The way she spots childish things is distracting and irritating a lot.

There is a large cast of characters in the book and as a result, many of them are somewhat flat in regards to personality. Luckily, what is there on the surface and what Dash mentions about their histories is interesting enough to carry them through it.  

After the villain is revealed, the story kind of loses steam. Its getting close to the end so it is understandable that things would start winding down but there is one final twist in the book that is really a misfire. Read if you want to find out, but it does not really gel well with the hard science fiction that made up the majority of the plot, its also kind of…silly. Pseudo-Science rather than hard science.

Final Verdict: Space Case is a unique tale about the near future of space travel and a delightful change from the angst that dominates youth culture. Be sure to be pick up a copy!

Four out of Five Stars 

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