Do You Dream of Terra-Two?

June 15, 2019
This debut novel suggests that in space, there is always room for drama. Even the most casual genre fan knows that a multiyear journey to a distant planet is probably doomed from the start. Unfortunately, no one sent the memo to the alternate early-21st-century Britain where this story begins. Decades after probes send back images and data from a seemingly idyllic Earth-like planet with no sentient life, the U.K. Space Agency plots a 23-year-long colonization mission to this "Terra-Two" with four adult astronauts plus six teenagers who have spent the last six years in a highly competitive academy that has trained them for space to the point of burnout, so much so that one of them, Ara, commits suicide the day before the launch in 2012. The senior crew are practically ciphers, particularly the noble and kind captain; the story focuses on the young prodigies: gifted pilot Harry, whose arrogance often tips toward cruelty; Astrid, whose devotion to the mission mingles with a religious mania; her twin, Juno, who relies on science and rules to the exclusion of tact; beautiful polyglot Poppy, whose polished exterior masks the emotional damage she suffered as an abused and neglected child; Eliot, a brilliant engineer and Ara's grieving boyfriend; and Jesse, who believes it was his destiny to go on the mission but, as Ara's last-minute replacement, never quite feels part of the crew. Despite extensive psychological testing, no one seems to have realized that this group might have some trouble getting along, which is presumably essential for a decadeslong journey in a small vessel. There's friction from the beginning, magnified by serious mechanical trouble within the mission's first year. Why was this mix of careful planning and egregious blind spots allowed to launch in the first place? Was the need for the U.K. to win the space race so important that it was worth sacrificing these people and resources even though the possibility for success was so slim? Preferring to focus on the fraught interplay among the junior crew, author Oh never provides answers to the many questions her plot raises, nor offers much hope that the ensuing 22 years will lead to a happy outcome. Curiously unresolved; perhaps intentionally so but unsatisfying either way.

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July 1, 2019
A century ago, an astronomer theorized that the universe contained a second Earth, Terra-Two. Once the existence of another habitable planet was confirmed by NASA, nations scrambled to send exploratory missions. The UK Space Agency's mission consists of six teenagers, selected from hundreds of applicants, and four adults, veterans of late-twentieth-century missions to the moon and Mars. They have a decades-long journey before them, and despite the careful planning and testing surrounding their selection, things go wrong. The mission itself is ultimately a framework for a story about how a group of people under pressure copes with isolation and responsibility for one another's safety?and the consequences of agreeing to a journey well beyond anything humans have experienced before. The mission is complicated by the very real dangers of space travel. A relatively small cast of characters allows for some satisfying exploration of the ways people might cope with exactly what being on an interstellar journey means for their relationships and whether or not they are ready for the consequences.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)