CENTAURIUS

A YA space opera sees a princess step toward her destiny as an interstellar savior.

In the Andromeda Galaxy, Princess Warrior Nella Grizel Reiner of the planet Centaurius has just turned 1,800 spiral rings in age. Nella, roughly equivalent in development to an 18-year-old earthling, has been commissioned by King Montrobius to command a mission to Earth, the mirror planet of Centaurius. The princess, along with her protector, Konan, and members of the Fur and Feathered Warriors (including the birdbot Cluck-Cluck), travels on her ship, the Phoenix. Their assignment is to stop the terrorists Zennibar and Abigor (of the Whirlpool and Fireworks Galaxies, respectively) from releasing a dangerous captive entity called the Red Brume. Created by the wizard Jarvis, the Red Brume was designed to “educate intelligent life forms of the catastrophic results of greed, hatred, and war,” but “something went wrong.” Meanwhile, on Earth, Allen Killian McBride is Nella’s warrior twin, prophesied by the Book of Twenty (“the Bible to the Universe”) and with whom she’ll join forces. Allen’s stake in the matter is nothing less than Earth itself, which humanity has pushed to the environmental brink. He and Nella must stop Zennibar and Abigor so their galaxies can one day peacefully merge into the New Milkomedia Galaxy. Though McGarry (Echoes of the Mind, 2017, etc.) opens her adventure with the harrowing murder of a gorilla family in Congo, the tone softens, inviting fans of space epics like Star Wars along for the ride. There’s an enjoyable profusion of gadgetry and lore embedded in every page, from brain chips that animals use to telepathically communicate to the Wooden Warriors—talking trees—of Wethersfield. This first volume in a series brings a tremendous amount of backstory to light, including Allen’s birth and Nella’s training. But the focus always returns to the plight of Earth, where oceans will rise, “regardless of any future efforts...to curb greenhouse gasses.” Occasionally, gaffes appear (like “emancipated” instead of emaciated), but they don’t detract from a bighearted message.

A series opener that skillfully balances sobering ecological facts with fanciful galactic adventures.