Starcross
A Stirring Adventure of Spies, Time Travel and Curious Hats
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
There is an old saying: if something is too good to be true, it probably is. Take the holiday that Art Mumby, his irritating younger sister Myrtle, and their mother take to Starcross, the finest sea-bathing resort in the entire Asteroid Belt. The fact that there are no seas anywhere should give you a clue. Sure enough, Art and family quickly find themselves grappling with French spies, Yankee rebels, and man-eating starfish. With stops to the future and prehistoric Mars, it's all Art can do to keep his head about him - which is essential, since everyone else is losing theirs!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this dashing and outrageous sequel to Larklight, plucky Art Mumby, his annoying and lovelorn sister Myrtle and their highly competent mother (who is simultaneously a traditional Victorian gentlewoman and a "four-and-a-half-thousand-million-year-old entity from another star") travel through space to Starcross, "the Asteroid Belt's Premier Resort Hotel." They have been promised a relaxing respite from ongoing repairs to their orbital home the resort purports to offer "the most tactful auto-servants... healthful air & the best opportunities for sea bathing in the Solar System." Instead, however, they encounter murderous Punch and Judy shows, giant carnivorous sand crabs, time-traveling pieces of the planet Mars, and a nefarious plot by alien top hats to wrest control of space from the British Empire. ("Britons never, never, never shall be slaves, or the victims of man-eating hats," Art tells himself when he is attacked in his hotel room.) While hilariously spoofing 19th-century imperial and colonial attitudes, various excesses of Victorian propriety, and such literary forms as the spy thriller and the space opera, this rambunctious, fast-moving tale also manages to provide plenty of thrills and excitement. This installment should easily win new readers for Reeve. Ages 10-up.
