Orion Lost by Alastair Chisholm

Orion Lost by Alastair Chisholm

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I’m always interested when a book does something differently, and this really does. Orion Lost is a big, meaty science-fiction story set aboard a space-ship where everything suddenly goes wrong. And the only people who can put things right are the kids – thirteen year old Beth and her friends. Being in charge is never easy, and it’s particularly uneasy when your crew is panicking, you’re responsible for the lives of every one on board, you’re ricocheting from crisis to crisis, and the AI might actually be evil.

There’s a clear heritage here to things like Firefly, Star Wars and Star Trek, but what really appealed was how Chisholm handled his characters. They’re real people, flawed and fascinating and this is a story that you don’t want to put down. I had no expectations about this when I started it, but then I really couldn’t put it down. It’s a big, powerful, hooky read.

Also, I was pleased that it’s as big as it is – there’s a lot of story here, in a way that’s perhaps unusual for middle grade books, but it’s all there for a reason. I thought that the ending could perhaps have done with a little more and that’s again an unusual thing for this age-group. Stories sometimes strain against circumstance and genre, but this is a story that fits so very well into its situation and could even give more under the circumstances. I really do want to say something about the engines being able to take it but I’m not sure I can write that in an appropriate ‘Scottish engineer on the Enterprise’ tone of voice so just consider it as implied, thank you.

This is a really great read. I was happily surprised and I’m delighted to be; this is something fresh, unique and rather well handled indeed. And it surprised me – a lot – and I love that.

My thanks to the publisher for a review copy.

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