Our Child of Two Worlds by Stephen Cox
Warning - spoilers for the first half of this great duology will be given. If you don’t want to be spoiled then run and and read the excellent https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/blog/2022/4/27/our-child-of-the-stars
Publisher - Jo Fletcher Books
Published- Out now
Price - £10.85 Paperback £4.99 Kindle eBook
In this gripping sequel to Our Child of the Stars, Cory and his new family are having to deal with the consequences of fame - but Molly is more concerned about the future, for Cory's people are on their way.
This is the time of Woodstock and the moon landings; war is raging in Vietnam and the superpowers are threatening each other with annihilation - but the Myers know there is a far greater threat approaching from the stars, and only Cory's people possess the knowledge to fight off the invaders.
Science Fiction is often very good with the what if scenario but I think far less at what happened next? When the galactic war is won; the spaceship finally lands and the science is created what happens then? Now generally that’s because this story is told and the rest is for us to imagine as readers but reading Stephen Cox’s excellent Our Child of Two Worlds we get a science fiction novel that builds upon the excellent re-writing of history that the first half of this duology delivered and gives us an impressive and very satisfactory new story building on earlier events delivering a smart, intelligent tale with heart.
In the earlier story we meet Gene and Molly who live in the small US town of Amber Grove in 1969 as the hope and joy of the sixties already starts to grow fearful of what comes soon with Vietnam in the news and environmental concerns rise over water and land development. The town was rocked by what sone thought it be a meteor but in reality turned out to be a crashed alien spaceship contained and mother and her son. The mother did not survive but the young alien they named Cory did and Molly hid him from the authorities. Our Child of the Stars is a warm humane tale that also without warning re-writes human history as both Cory is presented to the world but also the Snakes the other alien force that caused the crash are revealed when the moon landing of Apollo 11 is detected by their attacks. Now time has moved on and Cory dreams of one day his other family finding him out in space. His parents are constantly arguing if Cory should stay on earth or they go with him to the stars and in the depths of the solar system a hidden danger plans the destruction of the human race.
Having re-written human history I loved how for this book I had no idea where Cox would take the story next. We are so often used to these type of first contact stories where no one in power knows aliens are real but instead here Cory is one of the most famous people on the planet. Inspiring songs, scientists and conspiracy theorists. I loved how Cox showed the different human reactions to this revelation and it felt really on the ball how there is no single reaction (recent massive events show some people will want everything to be a hoax so this was very hitting home). Some believe and others all claim it’s a US Govt propaganda project.
This story has two core plot lines the discovery that Cory’s home world has heard him in his strange telepathic dreams and are on their way. But also then Earth itself becoming under attack from Snakes. Both of these plot lines have a huge impact on the family that Gene, Molly, Cory and new human daughter Fleur comprise with all having new dangers and challenges to face.
On the human level what I loved here was how all the core characters have changed yet stay true to themselves. Molly and Gene are both aware they’re famous and their lives are thrown into disarray by the arrival of Selena who is Molly’s estranged sister fleeing a violent marriage. Gene the dreamer wants to explore space; Molly wants her family around her on Earth; Cory is still joyful and curious as an alien can be but warm, funny and often a rebellious teenager who just wants the two worlds he knows to get along. The family is off balance with all these pressures just as the two plots begin and part of the drama here is can all these differences be put aside before it’s too late.
These human stakes that we care about get then placed into an alien invasion plot that while in sone ways feels classic actually Cox delivers it with a fresh take. For a a start Cox makes this truly global with alien attacks across the globe (so great to see some SF writers remember that Africa and Asia do actually exist); also Cox reminds us that early 1970s Earth wouldn’t have the technology to beat invaders from another planet. We watch as major superpowers get humbled and in several chilling chapters see the devastation and confusion these attacks are creating. As history has been re-written there is no safety net of knowing our world will Survive it’s possible something terrible can happen and I really appreciated the rise in tension that builds throughout.
The other interesting strand is what will Cory’s people do. Can they find him across the vastness of space and if they do what will they do? Take him away; save us or bring us into a new age of wonder?smartly all the human plot points around Cory - the industrialists who want his technology; the people who are violent and hateful towards aliens and are constantly seeing conspiracies all feed into an interesting question. Are humans worth saving? Cox prods the reader to look at ourselves with non human eyes. Already climate damage was being seen, war and cruelty was on the rise and this planet isn’t a safe world. Are we really worth putting other race’s lives in danger for and what can we do to persuade them. We cannot say fifty years later we have learnt too much so for me this was a thoughtful and hard question to answer! Cory though does have some thoughts to share.
Our Child of Two Worlds is a rather beautiful piece of science fiction building on the earlier novel and still surprising me showing how the characters and world it lives in have evolved and importantly why I care about what happens to them. All of which is down to Cox’s writing style - warm, lyrical and not afraid to explore humanity’s many complex and opposing points of view. This is the kind of book that makes you think about what being human is and could be. Definitely an author I will be looking out for more stories from and I strongly recommend you get this pair of wonderful science fiction stories now - in times like these hope for the future (even when it is in our past) is so important.
