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Our Child of the Stars
In this magical, bewitching debut, Molly and Gene Myers' marriage is on the brink of collapse. Then a child arrives, with a remarkable appearance. Will he bring them together, or tear their whole world apart?
Molly and Gene Myers were happy, until tragedy blighted their hopes of children. During the years of darkness and despair, they each put their marriage in jeopardy, but now they are starting to rebuild their fragile bond.
This is the year of Woodstock and the moon landings; war is raging in Vietnam and the superpowers are threatening each other with annihilation.
Then the Meteor crashes into Amber Grove, devastating the small New England town - and changing their lives for ever. Molly, a nurse, caught up in the thick of the disaster, is given care of a desperately ill patient rescued from the a sick boy with a remarkable appearance, an orphan who needs a mother.
And soon the whole world will be looking for him.
Cory's arrival has changed everything. And the Myers will do anything to keep him safe.
A remarkable story of warmth, tenacity and generosity of spirit, set against the backdrop of a fast-changing, terrifying decade.
Molly and Gene Myers were happy, until tragedy blighted their hopes of children. During the years of darkness and despair, they each put their marriage in jeopardy, but now they are starting to rebuild their fragile bond.
This is the year of Woodstock and the moon landings; war is raging in Vietnam and the superpowers are threatening each other with annihilation.
Then the Meteor crashes into Amber Grove, devastating the small New England town - and changing their lives for ever. Molly, a nurse, caught up in the thick of the disaster, is given care of a desperately ill patient rescued from the a sick boy with a remarkable appearance, an orphan who needs a mother.
And soon the whole world will be looking for him.
Cory's arrival has changed everything. And the Myers will do anything to keep him safe.
A remarkable story of warmth, tenacity and generosity of spirit, set against the backdrop of a fast-changing, terrifying decade.
417 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 1, 2018
34 people are currently reading
742 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Cox
3 books59 followersI’m interested in strong, believable characters and their relationships. I like writing to have hope and humour, and to recognise the dark and unfair side of life. Usually, my work has some speculative or fantastical elements, but I am not interested in strict barriers between genres.
“Cox’s writing style is 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.” (Run along the shelves blog)
The Crooked Medium's Guide to Murder - Spooky Sapphic Victorian Murder Mystery is published 1st Sept.
"London 1881. Two older women, lovers living off their spiritualist scam; a beautiful young Lady lost in grief; and a powerful man concealing a hideous crime." One reader said
"With the perfect mix of meticulous research, emotional depth and a rollicking good story besides, Stephen Cox delivers surprises to the very end."
My two previous novels are available throughout the Anglosphere - and hopefully wider. I am querying a novella and there is free short fiction on my website. I provide services for writers and readers.
The first book Our Child of the Stars was called 'heartfelt, imaginative and thrilling'. In a 60s small American town, a childless couple rescue an alien boy and try to keep him from the government.
Our Child of Two Worlds concludes the story - though not perhaps further stories in that universe.
'a remarkable story of family and the power of love, set against the backdrop of a fast-changing, terrifying decade and an interstellar threat almost beyond imagining.'
My grandmother told me I read too much. I remember walking in the garden when I was small, telling myself stories.
I post on the website and I have a regular newsletter
I’ve lived in several places. I spent nearly all my childhood in Bristol, and I’m now an adoptive Londoner. I have a partner and two adult children. I’m a professional communicator, a science PhD dropout, a recovering poet, and a Quaker.
I’m active in the All Good Bookshop writers group
Name buddies
I’m not the sculptor, the American Libertarian and expert on Jane Austen, or the guy who wrote a book about the Munchkins.
“Cox’s writing style is 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.” (Run along the shelves blog)
The Crooked Medium's Guide to Murder - Spooky Sapphic Victorian Murder Mystery is published 1st Sept.
"London 1881. Two older women, lovers living off their spiritualist scam; a beautiful young Lady lost in grief; and a powerful man concealing a hideous crime." One reader said
"With the perfect mix of meticulous research, emotional depth and a rollicking good story besides, Stephen Cox delivers surprises to the very end."
My two previous novels are available throughout the Anglosphere - and hopefully wider. I am querying a novella and there is free short fiction on my website. I provide services for writers and readers.
The first book Our Child of the Stars was called 'heartfelt, imaginative and thrilling'. In a 60s small American town, a childless couple rescue an alien boy and try to keep him from the government.
Our Child of Two Worlds concludes the story - though not perhaps further stories in that universe.
'a remarkable story of family and the power of love, set against the backdrop of a fast-changing, terrifying decade and an interstellar threat almost beyond imagining.'
My grandmother told me I read too much. I remember walking in the garden when I was small, telling myself stories.
I post on the website and I have a regular newsletter
I’ve lived in several places. I spent nearly all my childhood in Bristol, and I’m now an adoptive Londoner. I have a partner and two adult children. I’m a professional communicator, a science PhD dropout, a recovering poet, and a Quaker.
I’m active in the All Good Bookshop writers group
Name buddies
I’m not the sculptor, the American Libertarian and expert on Jane Austen, or the guy who wrote a book about the Munchkins.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 135 reviews
December 27, 2018
Suppose an alien spaceship crashed on Earth in the middle of the USA and the only occupant that survived was a small child. What would happen to him? Would the government and the FBI want to capture that child and lock him away in a lab to study and investigate him? What if kind, caring people in a small town hid him away to grow up in a loving environment while he waited for rescue by his own people?
This is the premise of this book. Molly Myers, a nurse and her husband Gene, who lost their own child, find themselves protectors of this strange alien child they name Cory, hiding him from the many powers who want him and his race's superior technology. Given that he looks nothing like a human child, this is not easy and eventually his existence becomes known to the federal agents and spies looking for him. A wonderful story about what it is to be a parent and love a child, doing all in your power to keep them safe. 4.5★
With thanks to Netgalley and Quercus Books for a digital copy to read
This is the premise of this book. Molly Myers, a nurse and her husband Gene, who lost their own child, find themselves protectors of this strange alien child they name Cory, hiding him from the many powers who want him and his race's superior technology. Given that he looks nothing like a human child, this is not easy and eventually his existence becomes known to the federal agents and spies looking for him. A wonderful story about what it is to be a parent and love a child, doing all in your power to keep them safe. 4.5★
With thanks to Netgalley and Quercus Books for a digital copy to read
December 7, 2018
Our Child of the Stars by Stephen Cox is a science fiction story about family, love and second chances.
In 1969 a meteor crashes in a town in New England. One child rescued from the site is taken to hospital and he is cared for by a nurse Molly Myers. This is no ordinary child and he must be hidden from everyone to keep him safe.
Molly and her husband take the child to live with them and grow to love him as their own.
I enjoyed this book it was a different type of read for me.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Quercus books for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.
In 1969 a meteor crashes in a town in New England. One child rescued from the site is taken to hospital and he is cared for by a nurse Molly Myers. This is no ordinary child and he must be hidden from everyone to keep him safe.
Molly and her husband take the child to live with them and grow to love him as their own.
I enjoyed this book it was a different type of read for me.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Quercus books for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.
January 24, 2019
I received a copy from Netgalley. My review is, as usual, honest.
Imagine an alien spaceship crashes on Earth in the 60's somewhere in the middle of the United States, and the only survivor is a small child.
A boy.
How many people would be after him? Of course, both the government and the FBI would love to get their hands on this child. Awaiting him: experiments galore. Poor thing.
Instead, a caring couple hide him away, adopt him as if he were their own and give him the possibility to grow up in a protected and nurturing environment. Cory looks nothing like a human child, and sadly, it's impossible to hide him forever.
This story is about family, love, trust, caring for each other, and the good in humanity prevailing.
Cox takes care to build a wonderful home for Cory, expanding on his family life for almost half the book. Despite that, there are no dull moments. The author's prose flows nicely, and the pacing is steady.
However, if you're looking for non-stop action, this isn't the book for you. Cox builds his characters with care, and by the time Cory is in danger you'll have fallen in love with him and his parents.
Our Child of the Stars is uplifting and heart-warming. It's neither groundbreaking nor does it explore any new ideas, but it's a welcome moment of warmth. I highly recommend it to readers who are looking for something comforting in these cold days where the news batter us constantly.
Imagine an alien spaceship crashes on Earth in the 60's somewhere in the middle of the United States, and the only survivor is a small child.
A boy.
How many people would be after him? Of course, both the government and the FBI would love to get their hands on this child. Awaiting him: experiments galore. Poor thing.
Instead, a caring couple hide him away, adopt him as if he were their own and give him the possibility to grow up in a protected and nurturing environment. Cory looks nothing like a human child, and sadly, it's impossible to hide him forever.
This story is about family, love, trust, caring for each other, and the good in humanity prevailing.
Cox takes care to build a wonderful home for Cory, expanding on his family life for almost half the book. Despite that, there are no dull moments. The author's prose flows nicely, and the pacing is steady.
However, if you're looking for non-stop action, this isn't the book for you. Cox builds his characters with care, and by the time Cory is in danger you'll have fallen in love with him and his parents.
Our Child of the Stars is uplifting and heart-warming. It's neither groundbreaking nor does it explore any new ideas, but it's a welcome moment of warmth. I highly recommend it to readers who are looking for something comforting in these cold days where the news batter us constantly.
January 23, 2019
This wonderful, enchanting novel spellbound me. I've not read anything like it before. Its portrayal of a young alien child, embraced by a human couple with so much love to give, in the paranoid, moon-reaching world of 1969, is all-powerful and astonishing. I love this book. Its beautiful cover fits with it perfectly. It might be only January but I know this will be in my top 10 for 2019. Review to follow shortly on For Winter Nights.
January 19, 2019
As always this review can also be found on my blog The Tattooed Book Geek: https://thetattooedbookgeek.wordpress...
Gene and Molly Myers have been through so much grief, loss and pain. Then, along comes Cory, thrust into their lives in an unconventional way. A survivor of the Amber Grove meteor crash, an orphan, someone to help heal their wounds. He gives them hope, a purpose and the possibility of a future.
It was a normal day, like any other in 1960’s Amber Grove, a small town in Amber County, New England and then, the sky fell to earth as a meteor struck. Many were injured and died with fires raging throughout the town.
In the aftermath of the meteor strike Molly Myers, a nurse is in the thick of it, helping the injured until she is tasked with looking after an alien child, secretly brought into the hospital after being rescued from the wreckage of a spacecraft found at the meteor site.
The alien child, who Molly starts calling ‘Cory‘ is kept in isolation in the hospital with only the head Doctor and a few other nurses knowing of his existence. During her time spent caring for him Molly bonds with Cory and he helps the darkness abate for her. Molly looks beyond his strange appearance and sees Cory for who he is, not what he is. Cory isn’t an ‘alien‘ to her, he is a child in need.
The FBI, the US government and the army led by Dr Pfeiffer, the President’s chief scientific counsel and a germ warfare specialist all become involved. They cordon off the lake near to Amber Grove and keep the public away under the cover story of residual radiation from the meteor crash. Hiding the truth that there is a damaged alien spacecraft submerged and that they are investigating it. If Dr Pfeiffer knew the truth about Cory and that he survived the crash then he would experiment and run tests on him, he would be a resource, a weapon and not a person.
With her spending so much time at the hospital and looking after Cory as he continues to recover from the crash Molly brings Gene, her husband in on the secret. After some initial reticence, he too bonds with Cory, the strange looking little boy.
Dr Pfeiffer knows that something is remiss and that there is something going on in the hospital. To keep him out of the government’s prying hands Dr Jarman (the head of the hospital) and Molly devise a plan and they fake Cory’s death saying that an alien child did, in fact, survive the crash but died shortly after and offered no important information about his race or why they were coming to Earth. To keep him safe Cory is taken to the Myers house where he is hidden away from the wider world and becomes their son and they become a family.
The everyday life of the new family is filled with happiness but it is also shrouded in a constant state of uncertainty over what the future holds. With the continued investigation of the crash site, Dr Pfeiffer asking questions and everyone searching for the truth Molly and Gene know that at any time the glass could shatter and that every knock on the door could be the government. They live in constant fear of discovery and to protect him they have to be ready to flee with Cory at a moment’s notice.
There is some great characterisation by Cox on display throughout Our Child of the Stars. Neither Molly or Gene are perfect and both they and their relationship have flaws. They have endured ups and downs, their plight and circumstances grip you and they are fully-fleshed likeable characters that make you feel. The secondary characters, even those with only a minor role are all well-realised and have a part to play in the story too.
And then there is Cory who is the star of the book and shines brightly. As a character, Cory is adventurous, clever, curious and inquisitive. To the reader, he is utterly endearing and you can’t but be drawn towards him. He is enthusiastic about everything and in turn, everything is a new discovery and experience for him but, hidden beneath that enthusiasm and joy there is also loneliness to him, a sadness. His is an isolated existence, mainly confined to the space between the four walls of the Myers household, he has no other children to play with and all of his own kind are either dead from the crash or remain on his home planet millions of miles away.
We get to learn more about Cory’s origin, his homeworld and his species through his dreams. Cory is able to project his dreams, his nightmares and his feelings onto others so that they can feel what he feels and see what he sees too.
Cox does a good job of transporting you back in time to the 1960s. Setting his story in a small and sleepy town against the backdrop of changing times, of the Moon landings, of Woodstock and of the Vietnam War was a masterstroke on his part as he brings the decade to life.
Our Child of the Stars isn’t fast-paced or action-packed, it’s not that type of story. It’s a slow burn until later in the book when Cox lights the touch paper and then, the pacing, the scope and in a sense, the action all pick-up. What Cox gives you with Our Child of the Stars is an emotional story that is filled with tension and one that has an underlying intensity to it. It is a quietly impactful enchanting story, a poignant portrait of a family life, a story that is threaded with hope, a story that highlights the ties that bind, the strength of those bonds and of those that have been bound together by fate and a story that asks, how far will you go to protect the ones you love?
I hadn’t heard about Our Child of the Stars (until its surprise arrival) and it turned out to be a revelation. It is something unexpected and something wonderful.
I highly recommend it.
Gene and Molly Myers have been through so much grief, loss and pain. Then, along comes Cory, thrust into their lives in an unconventional way. A survivor of the Amber Grove meteor crash, an orphan, someone to help heal their wounds. He gives them hope, a purpose and the possibility of a future.
It was a normal day, like any other in 1960’s Amber Grove, a small town in Amber County, New England and then, the sky fell to earth as a meteor struck. Many were injured and died with fires raging throughout the town.
In the aftermath of the meteor strike Molly Myers, a nurse is in the thick of it, helping the injured until she is tasked with looking after an alien child, secretly brought into the hospital after being rescued from the wreckage of a spacecraft found at the meteor site.
The alien child, who Molly starts calling ‘Cory‘ is kept in isolation in the hospital with only the head Doctor and a few other nurses knowing of his existence. During her time spent caring for him Molly bonds with Cory and he helps the darkness abate for her. Molly looks beyond his strange appearance and sees Cory for who he is, not what he is. Cory isn’t an ‘alien‘ to her, he is a child in need.
The FBI, the US government and the army led by Dr Pfeiffer, the President’s chief scientific counsel and a germ warfare specialist all become involved. They cordon off the lake near to Amber Grove and keep the public away under the cover story of residual radiation from the meteor crash. Hiding the truth that there is a damaged alien spacecraft submerged and that they are investigating it. If Dr Pfeiffer knew the truth about Cory and that he survived the crash then he would experiment and run tests on him, he would be a resource, a weapon and not a person.
With her spending so much time at the hospital and looking after Cory as he continues to recover from the crash Molly brings Gene, her husband in on the secret. After some initial reticence, he too bonds with Cory, the strange looking little boy.
Dr Pfeiffer knows that something is remiss and that there is something going on in the hospital. To keep him out of the government’s prying hands Dr Jarman (the head of the hospital) and Molly devise a plan and they fake Cory’s death saying that an alien child did, in fact, survive the crash but died shortly after and offered no important information about his race or why they were coming to Earth. To keep him safe Cory is taken to the Myers house where he is hidden away from the wider world and becomes their son and they become a family.
The everyday life of the new family is filled with happiness but it is also shrouded in a constant state of uncertainty over what the future holds. With the continued investigation of the crash site, Dr Pfeiffer asking questions and everyone searching for the truth Molly and Gene know that at any time the glass could shatter and that every knock on the door could be the government. They live in constant fear of discovery and to protect him they have to be ready to flee with Cory at a moment’s notice.
There is some great characterisation by Cox on display throughout Our Child of the Stars. Neither Molly or Gene are perfect and both they and their relationship have flaws. They have endured ups and downs, their plight and circumstances grip you and they are fully-fleshed likeable characters that make you feel. The secondary characters, even those with only a minor role are all well-realised and have a part to play in the story too.
And then there is Cory who is the star of the book and shines brightly. As a character, Cory is adventurous, clever, curious and inquisitive. To the reader, he is utterly endearing and you can’t but be drawn towards him. He is enthusiastic about everything and in turn, everything is a new discovery and experience for him but, hidden beneath that enthusiasm and joy there is also loneliness to him, a sadness. His is an isolated existence, mainly confined to the space between the four walls of the Myers household, he has no other children to play with and all of his own kind are either dead from the crash or remain on his home planet millions of miles away.
We get to learn more about Cory’s origin, his homeworld and his species through his dreams. Cory is able to project his dreams, his nightmares and his feelings onto others so that they can feel what he feels and see what he sees too.
Cox does a good job of transporting you back in time to the 1960s. Setting his story in a small and sleepy town against the backdrop of changing times, of the Moon landings, of Woodstock and of the Vietnam War was a masterstroke on his part as he brings the decade to life.
Our Child of the Stars isn’t fast-paced or action-packed, it’s not that type of story. It’s a slow burn until later in the book when Cox lights the touch paper and then, the pacing, the scope and in a sense, the action all pick-up. What Cox gives you with Our Child of the Stars is an emotional story that is filled with tension and one that has an underlying intensity to it. It is a quietly impactful enchanting story, a poignant portrait of a family life, a story that is threaded with hope, a story that highlights the ties that bind, the strength of those bonds and of those that have been bound together by fate and a story that asks, how far will you go to protect the ones you love?
I hadn’t heard about Our Child of the Stars (until its surprise arrival) and it turned out to be a revelation. It is something unexpected and something wonderful.
I highly recommend it.
November 10, 2018
A relatable, family-centric story with a compelling premise (adoption of an alien child) which reads like an urban fable. Though definitely warm-hearted, this is not a 'cosy' read -- there is genuine threat, moral dilemma and a twisting plot, all set against a background of social upheaval. A thought-provoking tale of love, community and what it means to be 'human.' Recommended; would make a fabulous film.
March 21, 2020
Ebook provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Until a week ago, aliens fell in the same category as zombies.: fantasy creatures I really don't like. But then I fell in love with Cory, the little alien orphan who fell on earth and was in need of a loving family. Despite his strange looks and habits, Cory's character is so loveable and believable.
Stephen Cox told the story through the eyes of multiple characters. Even though I did not have sympathy for every character, this way I could feel at least empathy. That made this story very credible. The author did a great job developing the main characters: he managed to give them each his or her own character and to not remain superficial.
Cox also describes the surroundings so accurately and vividly that I saw the whole story in front of my eyes as if I was there, without getting lost in long descriptions.
It is a wonderful story full of love from parents to a strange child in need, with a powerful message to accept others the way they are.
Until a week ago, aliens fell in the same category as zombies.: fantasy creatures I really don't like. But then I fell in love with Cory, the little alien orphan who fell on earth and was in need of a loving family. Despite his strange looks and habits, Cory's character is so loveable and believable.
Stephen Cox told the story through the eyes of multiple characters. Even though I did not have sympathy for every character, this way I could feel at least empathy. That made this story very credible. The author did a great job developing the main characters: he managed to give them each his or her own character and to not remain superficial.
Cox also describes the surroundings so accurately and vividly that I saw the whole story in front of my eyes as if I was there, without getting lost in long descriptions.
It is a wonderful story full of love from parents to a strange child in need, with a powerful message to accept others the way they are.
December 15, 2018
What a breath of fresh air this was! I loved the fact this was set in the 60's. I loved the fact that despite being science fiction, one of the main characters had reservations about getting a TV! I dare anyone not to fall in love with the Meyers family. They are so perfect, yet so flawed. Despite the outlandish nature of the plot, I could easily see this happening today, perhaps not aliens, but certainly government smear campaigns. It probably is.
I could gush about this book forever, so I am just simply going to say, go read it. Read this beautiful, wonderful book.
I could gush about this book forever, so I am just simply going to say, go read it. Read this beautiful, wonderful book.
April 13, 2019
Until a week ago, aliens fell in the same category as zombies: fantasy creatures I really don't like. But then I fell in love with Cory, the little alien orphan who fell on earth and was in need of a loving family. Despite his strange looks and habits, Cory's character is so loveable and believable.
Stephen Cox told the story through the eyes of multiple characters. Even though I did not have sympathy for every character, this way I could feel at least empathy. That made this story very credible. The author did a great job developing the main characters: he managed to give them each his or her own character and to not remain superficial.
Cox also describes the surroundings so accurately and vividly that I saw the whole story in front of my eyes as if I was there, without getting lost in long descriptions.
It is a wonderful story full of love from parents to a strange child in need, with a powerful message to accept others the way they are.
Stephen Cox told the story through the eyes of multiple characters. Even though I did not have sympathy for every character, this way I could feel at least empathy. That made this story very credible. The author did a great job developing the main characters: he managed to give them each his or her own character and to not remain superficial.
Cox also describes the surroundings so accurately and vividly that I saw the whole story in front of my eyes as if I was there, without getting lost in long descriptions.
It is a wonderful story full of love from parents to a strange child in need, with a powerful message to accept others the way they are.
November 12, 2018
" Our Child of the Stars" by Stephen Cox
A superbly written book gently placed in 1960's New England fraught with the cold war, the Space race and the Vietnam war. A slow burning opening changes dramatically when orphan boy child Cory arrives in the hospital of sleepy Amber Grove. Local nurse Molly Myers nurses and nurtures Cory from birth. She and her husband Gene recognise that Cory is special and has some unusual powers, and needs to be brought up discreetly in a family home to protect him from political and scientific exploitation.
The story develops as an extraordinary example of family and parental love. It reaches the point where all three have to make a harum- scarum escape driving along the Canadian border, followed by an equally breathless and thrilling course to the denouement. With Cory's coming America and the World would never be the same again. A riveting book full of originality and imagination. An absolute no brainer for film rights. I am already casting it.
A superbly written book gently placed in 1960's New England fraught with the cold war, the Space race and the Vietnam war. A slow burning opening changes dramatically when orphan boy child Cory arrives in the hospital of sleepy Amber Grove. Local nurse Molly Myers nurses and nurtures Cory from birth. She and her husband Gene recognise that Cory is special and has some unusual powers, and needs to be brought up discreetly in a family home to protect him from political and scientific exploitation.
The story develops as an extraordinary example of family and parental love. It reaches the point where all three have to make a harum- scarum escape driving along the Canadian border, followed by an equally breathless and thrilling course to the denouement. With Cory's coming America and the World would never be the same again. A riveting book full of originality and imagination. An absolute no brainer for film rights. I am already casting it.
November 29, 2018
This is a book that manages to be a meditation on family love as well as a total page-turner that ratchets up the tension right to the last moment. It takes a familiar story, alien comes to earth, and gives it a fresh slant as we follow the story through the couple that take him him and fight to keep him secret and safe. I totally fell in love with Cory, the alien orphan, his heart, his enthusiasm and his discovery of our world in all its messy complexity. He is totally believable as are all the other characters. The relationship between his adoptive parents, Molly and Gene, is wonderfully drawn, a picture of a marriage that has suffered some heavy blows but fights to endure. I also loved the exploration of their friends and family and how their support means everything in an impossible situation. It was one of those books that leave you with a sense of loss when you finish it as you're not ready to leave its world and its people.
October 28, 2018
I loved this book. It was one of those I couldn't put down but didn't want to end. It is beautifully written and certainly stirs the emotions. It is a tale of love, loss, friendship, loyalty and doing the right thing.
I won't write a precis of the book as I read it without knowing anything about it other than what was in the blurb on the back cover and I personally prefer it way. What I will say is it was a real rollercoaster of an emotional ride and I would recommend it to SciFi and fantasy fans alike.
I won't write a precis of the book as I read it without knowing anything about it other than what was in the blurb on the back cover and I personally prefer it way. What I will say is it was a real rollercoaster of an emotional ride and I would recommend it to SciFi and fantasy fans alike.
November 9, 2018
I really loved this. It's science fiction, with a twisty-turny plot, and peril - but it's about family and community and how people work.
I am already looking forward to the film. Someone should make the film.
I am already looking forward to the film. Someone should make the film.
December 26, 2018
I’ve never read anything more exciting than Our Child of the Stars. Over a heady 24 hours, in between Christmas preparations and family visits, I was reluctant to take breaks but afraid to finish. Cory the alien child is irresistibly charming, a character we smell and feel as well as see, hear and love. His strangeness and vulnerability make that emotional attachment as instant as any parent’s, even before he develops as a character in ways all parents recognise and others that set him apart. And for all the thrills that follow, in a climax as extended and dramatic as the best of Hitchcock, there is nothing in this story more powerful than the first scenes in the hospital where some shrink in disgust but Molly falls – like all new mothers – in passionate love. When the secret that is Cory breaks, the danger feels all too real in Cold War America where guns find solutions and gentle Cory draws on terrifying extra-terrestrial powers as survival reflexes. The blend of sci-fi with modern history and deeply human values and feelings reminded me of the latest series of Doctor Who. While the synthesis is difficult to manage, it all feels fluid as Cox builds and sustains a headlong pace through night, forest and snow, and like Molly and Gene, the reader is afraid to trust anyone – neighbour, sheriff, journalist, scientist, political zealot. As violence, earthly and unearthly, shakes the world of his ‘peacenik’ parents, we place our faith in Cory and love. Novels succeed in different ways. This is a gripping thriller but its unshakable base is emotional. It’s spare and tightly crafted in its urgency but never forgets its values. Cox is a great storyteller. The prose isn’t special, original, so striking in its individual style that I stopped to reread in awe – but then, there’s no time for that. Above all, this is a powerful read, spirited but tender and never predictable. Personally, I was disappointed by the ending, which sidesteps both the options I dreaded yet needed because of the rightness of the emotional arc they would complete. Instead I was left with a sense of mis-step, a kind of evasion. And then a suspicion that a series might have been proposed. As Doctor Who says, history is not to be messed with – a problem that a futuristic context would have avoided. But other readers may feel entirely satisfied. Here there are timeless themes and questions about truth and violence, and whether ideals – Cox is, like me, a Quaker – should ever be surrendered. Our Child of the Stars is a novel of many moods, with a childlike playfulness but a sad heart, like Cory himself. So it feels, at times in the first dozen chapters or so, like a children’s book, but its thoughtful, grieving realism about humanity – along with a fierce, bright hope regardless – makes it profoundly adult. I’ve read many good books in 2018, but over time I can’t imagine any of them proving more memorable than this.
January 20, 2019
Molly Myers is a nurse who is very good at her job. She and her husband Gene have to fight through their own tragedy after they lose their own child.
Their town is damaged by a meteor and Molly has to tend to patients, but there's one who she feels drawn to. An alien mother and son are in the hospital and Molly is more concerned about them than most. She feels she wants to do more to help him, that anybody deserves medical treatment, no matter what species.
There are the usual hospital problems, staffing issues and her colleagues Doctor Jarman does not make her life easy at times. but she wants to help the alien child who she ends up naming Cory.
There's tension between her and Gene and the death of their unborn child causes a terrible rift between them.
I adore scifi books and up til now many of what I've read have been Star Trek books but this, this really blew me away. It's tender, tense original gripping and realistic. Stephen Cox has a gift for creating a story and family that will melt your heart. This is all about a journey to rediscover what love really is.
The pacing of the book is quick but detailed and the snippets of information about life of the time at which the book is set adds atmosphere.
I got through this in a matter of hours and was hooked. ET made me feel the same way, made me emotional and this did too.
Our Child of the Stars will make you think feel and dream. I was praying Gene and Molly would find happiness. That Cory would flourish. The threat of the federal government finding about him was gripping.
Thanks to Stephen Cox for an ARC in exchange for an honest and voluntary review. 5 stars.
Their town is damaged by a meteor and Molly has to tend to patients, but there's one who she feels drawn to. An alien mother and son are in the hospital and Molly is more concerned about them than most. She feels she wants to do more to help him, that anybody deserves medical treatment, no matter what species.
There are the usual hospital problems, staffing issues and her colleagues Doctor Jarman does not make her life easy at times. but she wants to help the alien child who she ends up naming Cory.
There's tension between her and Gene and the death of their unborn child causes a terrible rift between them.
I adore scifi books and up til now many of what I've read have been Star Trek books but this, this really blew me away. It's tender, tense original gripping and realistic. Stephen Cox has a gift for creating a story and family that will melt your heart. This is all about a journey to rediscover what love really is.
The pacing of the book is quick but detailed and the snippets of information about life of the time at which the book is set adds atmosphere.
I got through this in a matter of hours and was hooked. ET made me feel the same way, made me emotional and this did too.
Our Child of the Stars will make you think feel and dream. I was praying Gene and Molly would find happiness. That Cory would flourish. The threat of the federal government finding about him was gripping.
Thanks to Stephen Cox for an ARC in exchange for an honest and voluntary review. 5 stars.
February 28, 2019
“Our child of the stars” is a book to savour. 1960’s USA. Moms in the kitchen, Space race, Martin Luther King, threat of the Bomb, Hippie festivals, music and lifestyles a-changing. Vietnam. Nurse meets Librarian. Suddenly their small town is blitzed by an extra-ordinary happening. Consequences? Can they protect their un-tellable secret? Can peaceful honest people resist vicious aggression without fighting back? How much power can the President’s pet scientist wield? What is one life worth? Realistic and fantastic this gripping story is relevant today. Brilliant read.
November 2, 2018
A good read. This is a charming story about love, trust, and finding your family - sometimes in unexpected places, such as in a crashed spaceship. Although there are dark parts, and the dangers involved are realistic, overall this is a warm book. The characters struggle with moral questions in a way which makes the story engaging. I'd recommend it to book groups and anyone interested in what it takes to build a community.
December 3, 2018
A page turner. I don’t dig Sci-Fi but once this book got going I was hooked. Mixed themes which are intriguing and I soon really cared about the characters. Several times it got exiting and I couldn’t see how it could go . Some really loving friends and wicked, powerful authority figures. Plus lots more. I don’t want to give the plot away so I will stop.
A good present for Christmas.
A good present for Christmas.
December 26, 2022
— 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 —
𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: Our Child of the Stars
𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬: N/A
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫(𝐬): Stephen Cox
𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Sci-Fi
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝: 1st November 2018
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: 3.5/5
"Human history was full of blood and terror and she was ashamed of it."
This was a really interesting read. A little slow paced, perhaps, but packed with tension, love, and all kinds of heart rendering emotions.
A meteor crashes next to the town of Amber Grove. Molly, a nurse, immediately repairs to the hospital where she helps everyone she can. Gene, her husband, is working at the local library at the time and is saved by not being flattened and impaled by foreign metal objects by sheer luck. Molly is called to her duty by the top doctor at her hospital, Dr Jarman, who needs her to work on a VIP patient. This patient is a survivor of the meteor - and the alien ship that fell with it. Discretion is of the utmost importance and Molly soon builds a maternal relationship with the alien life form, who she names Cory. Once Dr Jarman is arrested for obstructing the government, Molly and Gene take Cory and run.
I think that Our Child of the Stars by Stephen Cox is a great Halloween read, especially if you prefer science fiction to horror, which I personally don't, but even then I wouldn't be doing the author justice if I didn't appreciate the effort and level of standard that has gone into this novel.
This book is a really intriguing take on what would happen when (and if) humans discover extra terrestrial life. I think that humans are so intent in thinking that uncovering other life in the universe would lead to devastation, when there's plenty of destruction here on Earth that needs worrying about already that this insight is impetuously refreshing.
Personally, I think it shows just how selfish we are as people and how little we appreciate everything around us - there is an entire universe out there, an unknown number of planets that are waiting to be discovered and searched and we really think that we have this entire vast expanse to ourselves? Sorry to go all conspirator on you but I think it's much more likely that there is other life out there than just us. And if there isn't then isn't that just a little sad? That we're potentially alone? I like the direction the plot in this book takes because it shows us for what we are - bad guys. People literally invented the semantics and concept of 'bad guy', and this book will not let the reader forget it.
Something that also stood out in this book is the beautiful and realistic imagery that is produced. So, so necessary when reading a sci fi or a fantasy, detail is key , I literally can't get into a novel if the level of detail leads to a flat plot and an uninspiring monologue. This is not something to worry about in this book.
Another key component would be that the reader is shown first hand the unimaginable lengths that parents will go to - or should go to - to keep their child safe. The constant worrying about Cory and the actions spurred by this worrying really embody the love a parent has for a child. It is so uplifting and wholesome to read about, this novel is capable of melting the iciest and cynical of hearts.
Unfortunately, one major let down for me was Cory himself. Although he's described really well, his dialogue is single handedly the most fist clinchingly annoying perspective that is in this book. I've read books that are written from a child's perspective before - Room, for example, by Emma Donoghue - and what should be an endearing, soul-stirring account of a child alien life form fallen to earth turns into a gratingly frustrating monologue full of repetitiveness and phonetic mispronunciations. Soldiers, for example, become sowljers, and the repeating of his words makes me want to tear my eyeballs out;
🧚🏻♀️
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𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: Our Child of the Stars
𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬: N/A
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫(𝐬): Stephen Cox
𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Sci-Fi
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝: 1st November 2018
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: 3.5/5
"Human history was full of blood and terror and she was ashamed of it."
This was a really interesting read. A little slow paced, perhaps, but packed with tension, love, and all kinds of heart rendering emotions.
A meteor crashes next to the town of Amber Grove. Molly, a nurse, immediately repairs to the hospital where she helps everyone she can. Gene, her husband, is working at the local library at the time and is saved by not being flattened and impaled by foreign metal objects by sheer luck. Molly is called to her duty by the top doctor at her hospital, Dr Jarman, who needs her to work on a VIP patient. This patient is a survivor of the meteor - and the alien ship that fell with it. Discretion is of the utmost importance and Molly soon builds a maternal relationship with the alien life form, who she names Cory. Once Dr Jarman is arrested for obstructing the government, Molly and Gene take Cory and run.
I think that Our Child of the Stars by Stephen Cox is a great Halloween read, especially if you prefer science fiction to horror, which I personally don't, but even then I wouldn't be doing the author justice if I didn't appreciate the effort and level of standard that has gone into this novel.
This book is a really intriguing take on what would happen when (and if) humans discover extra terrestrial life. I think that humans are so intent in thinking that uncovering other life in the universe would lead to devastation, when there's plenty of destruction here on Earth that needs worrying about already that this insight is impetuously refreshing.
"He pleaded for humanity's encounter with another species to be more peaceful and productive than the clashes of culture seen on Earth."
Personally, I think it shows just how selfish we are as people and how little we appreciate everything around us - there is an entire universe out there, an unknown number of planets that are waiting to be discovered and searched and we really think that we have this entire vast expanse to ourselves? Sorry to go all conspirator on you but I think it's much more likely that there is other life out there than just us. And if there isn't then isn't that just a little sad? That we're potentially alone? I like the direction the plot in this book takes because it shows us for what we are - bad guys. People literally invented the semantics and concept of 'bad guy', and this book will not let the reader forget it.
"Bad Men? They were surrounded by people who'd betray them in an instant, but to call them Bad Men was unkind; there was a danger in good, kind men too, who'd do the wrong thing out of duty. That handsome soldier would have obeyed his orders an let them take her son away because he'd believe it to be the right thing to do."
Something that also stood out in this book is the beautiful and realistic imagery that is produced. So, so necessary when reading a sci fi or a fantasy, detail is key , I literally can't get into a novel if the level of detail leads to a flat plot and an uninspiring monologue. This is not something to worry about in this book.
Another key component would be that the reader is shown first hand the unimaginable lengths that parents will go to - or should go to - to keep their child safe. The constant worrying about Cory and the actions spurred by this worrying really embody the love a parent has for a child. It is so uplifting and wholesome to read about, this novel is capable of melting the iciest and cynical of hearts.
"He didn't know how anyone could be a father and not find their child and his needs at the beating heart of their life."
Unfortunately, one major let down for me was Cory himself. Although he's described really well, his dialogue is single handedly the most fist clinchingly annoying perspective that is in this book. I've read books that are written from a child's perspective before - Room, for example, by Emma Donoghue - and what should be an endearing, soul-stirring account of a child alien life form fallen to earth turns into a gratingly frustrating monologue full of repetitiveness and phonetic mispronunciations. Soldiers, for example, become sowljers, and the repeating of his words makes me want to tear my eyeballs out;
"'Eggs please-please breakfast Cory help,'"Coupled with talking about himself in third person made me wish that a less annoying alien crashed to Earth in this otherwise resounding book.
🧚🏻♀️
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July 2, 2020
An orphaned alien is 'adopted' by a childless couple in 1960s America. This was a sweet tale that had me utterly captivated. I was charmed by Cory and how he adapted to life on Earth. One for the ET fans.
November 9, 2019
Originally published on The Nerd Daily | Review by Carolyn Percy
1969, a year of extraordinary events like Woodstock and the Moon Landings, but also where the Vietnam war is still raging and global superpowers teetering on the precipice of mutual annihilation. About to be caught up in the middle of this are Molly and Gene Myers, a young couple living in the quiet New England town of Amber Grove. Tragedy has caused the Myers’ marriage to go through a shaky patch but they are starting to rebuild.
Then a meteor crashes into the town. A nurse, Molly is given the care of a desperately ill patient rescued from the wreckage: an orphan boy in need of a mother; a child with an incredible appearance. Naming him Cory, the Myers soon fall in love and will do anything to keep him safe, which is good, because soon the whole world will be looking for him.
Our Child of the Stars is author Stephen Cox’s debut novel and it is a brilliant achievement: an E.T. story with echoes of Ray Bradbury, set against the backdrop of the turbulent era of the 1960s, with the Cold War and the Space Race.
The beating heart of the novel are of course the Myers and Cory himself. Molly and Gene are depicted as a fairly ordinary, left-leaning, loving couple, but this is not over-sentimentalised nor does it render them cardboard cut-outs; they are flawed, their bond has already been tested soon after we first meet them and they spend the rest of the novel repairing it and making it stronger. Keeping Cory safe from those who would do him harm also brings out different facets of their characters, making them grow as people as they have to find out what they will do and how far they will go to stand up for their principles.
Cory is an endearing fish out of water allowing us to see our world through the eyes of an outsider and, of course, there is as much that confuses or upsets him as there is that fills him with wonder and childish enthusiasm, as he is also suffering from the trauma of what happened to him and his people. It’s easy to see how the Myers fall in love with him as the reader will too. But he is not over-anthropomorphised; his physical description and occasional reminders of his psychic abilities means that he still remains sufficiently alien.
The other story thread concerns the people – government, scientists and military–investigating the crash, (as it quickly becomes obvious that is not just a meteor that crashed), as they begin to suspect that someone may have survived it, and how this also begins to tie into wider events, such as the Moon Landings (as Cox throws in a bit of alternate history). It turns out that whatever attacked Cory’s ship may have made it to Earth too. What starts out as an effort to keep Cory a secret soon becomes a thrilling chase across the country, were we find both the worst and best of humanity
The story ends in a place of positivity but with enough loose threads left tantalisingly dangling to leave you with the feeling that the larger story is not yet over and indeed, a sequel that promises to pull at those threads further and answer some lingering questions, A Child of Two Worlds, is due out June next year. Bookended by two very different Halloweens, Our Child of the Stars is perfect if you like your Autumn reads with a little bit of Sci-Fi or a lot of heart.
1969, a year of extraordinary events like Woodstock and the Moon Landings, but also where the Vietnam war is still raging and global superpowers teetering on the precipice of mutual annihilation. About to be caught up in the middle of this are Molly and Gene Myers, a young couple living in the quiet New England town of Amber Grove. Tragedy has caused the Myers’ marriage to go through a shaky patch but they are starting to rebuild.
Then a meteor crashes into the town. A nurse, Molly is given the care of a desperately ill patient rescued from the wreckage: an orphan boy in need of a mother; a child with an incredible appearance. Naming him Cory, the Myers soon fall in love and will do anything to keep him safe, which is good, because soon the whole world will be looking for him.
Our Child of the Stars is author Stephen Cox’s debut novel and it is a brilliant achievement: an E.T. story with echoes of Ray Bradbury, set against the backdrop of the turbulent era of the 1960s, with the Cold War and the Space Race.
The beating heart of the novel are of course the Myers and Cory himself. Molly and Gene are depicted as a fairly ordinary, left-leaning, loving couple, but this is not over-sentimentalised nor does it render them cardboard cut-outs; they are flawed, their bond has already been tested soon after we first meet them and they spend the rest of the novel repairing it and making it stronger. Keeping Cory safe from those who would do him harm also brings out different facets of their characters, making them grow as people as they have to find out what they will do and how far they will go to stand up for their principles.
Cory is an endearing fish out of water allowing us to see our world through the eyes of an outsider and, of course, there is as much that confuses or upsets him as there is that fills him with wonder and childish enthusiasm, as he is also suffering from the trauma of what happened to him and his people. It’s easy to see how the Myers fall in love with him as the reader will too. But he is not over-anthropomorphised; his physical description and occasional reminders of his psychic abilities means that he still remains sufficiently alien.
The other story thread concerns the people – government, scientists and military–investigating the crash, (as it quickly becomes obvious that is not just a meteor that crashed), as they begin to suspect that someone may have survived it, and how this also begins to tie into wider events, such as the Moon Landings (as Cox throws in a bit of alternate history). It turns out that whatever attacked Cory’s ship may have made it to Earth too. What starts out as an effort to keep Cory a secret soon becomes a thrilling chase across the country, were we find both the worst and best of humanity
The story ends in a place of positivity but with enough loose threads left tantalisingly dangling to leave you with the feeling that the larger story is not yet over and indeed, a sequel that promises to pull at those threads further and answer some lingering questions, A Child of Two Worlds, is due out June next year. Bookended by two very different Halloweens, Our Child of the Stars is perfect if you like your Autumn reads with a little bit of Sci-Fi or a lot of heart.
February 21, 2020
Due to my ill-timed slump, it took me longer than usual to complete this. Nevertheless I did find myself intrigued by the overall premise of the story. Once diving into the read, the reader is thrown into the Woodstock era where we meet married couple Gene and Carol, a troubling duo whose lives soon spin of control when dealt with death, grief, deception, infidelity, and substance abuse. Fast forward, we meet 'Corey', a special 'boy' that comes along and everything changes.
I won't go too much into it since it'll spoil the story but this is ideal for readers who are looking to steer off their usual route and indulge themselves with a family oriented, science fiction mixed type of story.
To close this out, "Our Child of the Stars" was a debut that didn't particularly stand out and didn't fall in my favor, but the concept was unique and refreshing, and I would recommend this novel if you're looking to step out of your comfort zone. Yet be warned, it can be a hit or miss, that's for sure.
June 26, 2019
Thank you Netgalley and Quercus Books for providing me an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
Our Child of the Stars is original and heartwarming, but in the end it didn't quite hit the mark for me.
Our Child of the Stars tells the story of a couple that has been touched by tragedy and, besides their love for each other, is finding it hard to overxome their issues and keep their marriage together. Then, a meteor falls and everything changes: now there's an orphan little kid that needs a family, but no one can know about him.
From the beginning, I had some problems with the writing. The book had some beatiful passages, but it was also clunky and it didn't help that the first 100 pages or so (the main couple's backstory) were a lot of telling, which, honestly, was boring. If i's important for the book and for the readers to know these characters, some of those scenes should be shown and we should feel what the characters are feeling, in my opinion.
Besides, I think I missed the point of the whole plot. It feels too long and disjointed and something only starts happening when you pass the halfway mark, but it's not even something interesting! The end was also kind of meh, I think.
However, I think the story was pretty unique and I really liked the little kid, he's adorable. Our Child of the Stars also has some pretty heartwarming scenes, especially the ones that has to do with the family together and trying to obercome the adversities.
In the end, the premise of this book was very interesting but the execution left something to be desired. There are lots of people that enjoyed it though, from what I've seen in reviews. So, if you like family stories or alien stories or like your contemporary with a dash of something "magical" or sci-fi, you could really enjoy Our Child of the Stars!
Our Child of the Stars is original and heartwarming, but in the end it didn't quite hit the mark for me.
Our Child of the Stars tells the story of a couple that has been touched by tragedy and, besides their love for each other, is finding it hard to overxome their issues and keep their marriage together. Then, a meteor falls and everything changes: now there's an orphan little kid that needs a family, but no one can know about him.
From the beginning, I had some problems with the writing. The book had some beatiful passages, but it was also clunky and it didn't help that the first 100 pages or so (the main couple's backstory) were a lot of telling, which, honestly, was boring. If i's important for the book and for the readers to know these characters, some of those scenes should be shown and we should feel what the characters are feeling, in my opinion.
Besides, I think I missed the point of the whole plot. It feels too long and disjointed and something only starts happening when you pass the halfway mark, but it's not even something interesting! The end was also kind of meh, I think.
However, I think the story was pretty unique and I really liked the little kid, he's adorable. Our Child of the Stars also has some pretty heartwarming scenes, especially the ones that has to do with the family together and trying to obercome the adversities.
In the end, the premise of this book was very interesting but the execution left something to be desired. There are lots of people that enjoyed it though, from what I've seen in reviews. So, if you like family stories or alien stories or like your contemporary with a dash of something "magical" or sci-fi, you could really enjoy Our Child of the Stars!
November 10, 2018
I would classify myself as a casual fan of science fiction. I enjoy it but it’s not my favourite genre and although I dabble from time to time in reading it, a majority of the time my sci-fi fix is from tv or films. That being said I loved ‘our child of the stars’. It’s a thrilling, compelling and heart-warming tale and once you get going it’s very hard to put down. It’s perfect if you’re new to sci-fi/ not really a fan of conventional sci-fi because it doesn’t feel like you’re reading a science fiction novel which it could technically be classified as. The humorous, familial and deep aspects makes it confining to exclusively describe it as one thing- it’s a unique blend of genres. Its very intellectual but not so much that you feel like you’re overwhelmed with worldbuilding and facts: you’re just a tag-along in this family’s wacky adventure.
November 20, 2018
One of the most rounded female characters I have read about in a long time
What does a real woman do when she has a moral dilemma that will challenge her whole world?
Molly, the most rounded woman I've read about in a long time, decides to do the kindest thing, despite her own misgivings, her crippling depression, and the conforming behaviour expected of her.
Living in a fearful, traditional community, Molly and her husband Gene listen to their hearts. Aware of the dying plea of a very different mother, to take care of her strange, difficult child, Molly learns the transformative power of parenthood, and finds allies in unexpected places.
By raising a child with love, Molly's actions change everything.
A Good feeling to read something uplifting for a change. Ignore genre habits and read this, it's about my kind of people.
What does a real woman do when she has a moral dilemma that will challenge her whole world?
Molly, the most rounded woman I've read about in a long time, decides to do the kindest thing, despite her own misgivings, her crippling depression, and the conforming behaviour expected of her.
Living in a fearful, traditional community, Molly and her husband Gene listen to their hearts. Aware of the dying plea of a very different mother, to take care of her strange, difficult child, Molly learns the transformative power of parenthood, and finds allies in unexpected places.
By raising a child with love, Molly's actions change everything.
A Good feeling to read something uplifting for a change. Ignore genre habits and read this, it's about my kind of people.
December 2, 2018
Gripping and heartwarming sci-fi
This is a really enjoyable book. Was gripped throughout and intrigued by Cory, and it is a lovely heartwarming story as well.
This is a really enjoyable book. Was gripped throughout and intrigued by Cory, and it is a lovely heartwarming story as well.
March 13, 2019
Beautiful and hopeful
March 18, 2020
In the 1960s, a loving couple named Molly and Gene Myers meet, marry, conceive a baby, and lose the baby. After that, while they still love each other very much, their marriage turns turbulent. Then a meteor hits their sleepy small town. Molly is a nurse and is called upon to treat many patients. However, the most interesting patient of all came with that meteor, which is actually a ship--an alien child.
Our Child of the Stars is primarily about Molly, Gene, and that child, later to be called Cory. The Myers eventually take Cory to hide and to raise him. Unfortunately, unlike Kal-El from Krypton, there is no way that Cory can blend in among human beings. A few other people know of or have guessed at Cory's existence, some benign and some extremely not. As Molly and Gene become more withdrawn in order to protect Cory, their friends and neighbors wonder what's going on with them. While Cory is small in frame, he's a very big secret, and can't be hidden for long...
Stephen Cox' characterizations of the Myers, Cory, the people around them, and the eventual villain who wants to get hold of Cory are nuanced and vivid. I was particularly impressed by how Cox rendered Cory truly alien, but also sympathetic. Molly and Gene manage to come off as ordinary and flawed, but also potentially heroic people with a lot of love to give. The small town of Amber Grove comes to life on the page. The conflicts are realistic, and it becomes extremely understandable how the Myers' and Amber Grove's limits will be stretched.
This is soft science fiction, much more about people than technology, although of course the technology of the ship plays a role. As a child refugee, Cory knows some things about it, but not many. Love is all over the novel, from the anti-war movement Molly and Gene sympathize with to their friends to the ambitious lesbian couple who help them. However, menace from unloving forces is a very real part of the Myers family's lives, and sometimes they must protect themselves. The question of how far is too far is a theme that pervades Our Child of the Stars.
There is unavoidable violence, but it is not gratuitous. Cory, of course, struggles with the loss of his family, and a character deals with alcoholism. Molly, Gene, and their friends aren't hippies, but they're definitely liberal. The unnamed President at the time (Richard Nixon) is not popular with them. The author is British, and my ARC had some British terms and spellings that were a bit jarring in Cox' otherwise well-rendered American small-town setting. I hope these were edited out.
All in all, Our Child of the Stars is a beautiful and fascinating novel that deserves to take off into the stratosphere and beyond! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Our Child of the Stars is primarily about Molly, Gene, and that child, later to be called Cory. The Myers eventually take Cory to hide and to raise him. Unfortunately, unlike Kal-El from Krypton, there is no way that Cory can blend in among human beings. A few other people know of or have guessed at Cory's existence, some benign and some extremely not. As Molly and Gene become more withdrawn in order to protect Cory, their friends and neighbors wonder what's going on with them. While Cory is small in frame, he's a very big secret, and can't be hidden for long...
Stephen Cox' characterizations of the Myers, Cory, the people around them, and the eventual villain who wants to get hold of Cory are nuanced and vivid. I was particularly impressed by how Cox rendered Cory truly alien, but also sympathetic. Molly and Gene manage to come off as ordinary and flawed, but also potentially heroic people with a lot of love to give. The small town of Amber Grove comes to life on the page. The conflicts are realistic, and it becomes extremely understandable how the Myers' and Amber Grove's limits will be stretched.
This is soft science fiction, much more about people than technology, although of course the technology of the ship plays a role. As a child refugee, Cory knows some things about it, but not many. Love is all over the novel, from the anti-war movement Molly and Gene sympathize with to their friends to the ambitious lesbian couple who help them. However, menace from unloving forces is a very real part of the Myers family's lives, and sometimes they must protect themselves. The question of how far is too far is a theme that pervades Our Child of the Stars.
There is unavoidable violence, but it is not gratuitous. Cory, of course, struggles with the loss of his family, and a character deals with alcoholism. Molly, Gene, and their friends aren't hippies, but they're definitely liberal. The unnamed President at the time (Richard Nixon) is not popular with them. The author is British, and my ARC had some British terms and spellings that were a bit jarring in Cox' otherwise well-rendered American small-town setting. I hope these were edited out.
All in all, Our Child of the Stars is a beautiful and fascinating novel that deserves to take off into the stratosphere and beyond! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.
January 26, 2019
I'm grateful to Jo Fletcher Books for an advance e-copy of this book via NetGalley - and indeed for a finished hardback copy too which is a real work of beauty. If you can, take yourself to a bookshop and hold it in your hands! And then buy it, obviously.
I'd been looking forward to the book, based on advance "noise", and there was a extra layer of intrigue because of it being Cox's first book. That always raises the possibility of something a little different. I mean, obviously some aspiring authors will want to write, say, another space opera (or whatever) in line with all the previous space operas, and there's nothing wrong with that, but I've found that, in contrast, some debut authors produce books that are a little different (and not just in the "X meets Y" sense).
Cox's IS one of those, and the result is amazing. While this is firmly a SF novel - Aliens! Spaceships! - for much of the book that aspect is almost incidental. Allow yourself to suspend disbelief in a crashed alien spacecraft and a Government cover-up (and patently, lots of people do) and you have a story of a frightened, injured child and the woman and man who will do anything to protect him. And, eventually, of the others they gather around them to help.
The sheer verve with which Cox portrays these three - especially Cory, the alien child who wants so much to learn and experience the world and to put behind him the dreadful things that have happened - is a joy be read. After introducing the story with Cory's joyful Hallowe'en, Cox turns to Molly and Gene's background. It's the 1960s, they're a bit counter-cultural, stranded in hyper-conformist middle America under, I think, the Nixon administration with the Vietnam War in the background and the Cold War behind that. Molly finds Gene and Gene finds Molly, but it's not all roses. She suffers depression after a miscarriage and struggles with drink. He... can't cope and looks elsewhere. The effects of this are a major theme, sensitively handled, not just a hook so that their acceptance of the alien boy they call Cory is plausible.
That happens after an event called Meteor Day, bringing death and destruction to Amber Grove but also astounding new evidence of extraterrestrial life. The cover-up follows, something Cox makes very believable. I said above "Allow yourself to suspend disbelief", but remember, this is the late 60s we're talking about. In that period and running into the 70s such things were in the air (something expressed much batter than I can in the Hookland Guide, see https://hookland.wordpress.com/about/). The spectacular conspiracy sketched here, involving the President's Chief Scientific Adviser, the FBI, the CIA and more is actually very convincingly done, pitting the Myers against the apparatus of the State in defence of a child they fear will be treated as a monster. It's not only the US Government that pays attention - they need to worry about criminals, the Russians and inquisitive neighbours, too.
As all this develops, Cox succeeds in portraying the alien - the child - at the centre of everything as an inquisitive and hopeful, if very lonely and scared, little boy. Yes, you could see ET vibes here if you wanted but I think that by providing a substitute family for Cory - even as he mourns the death of his mother and his playmates and wishes for the return of "Cory people" to him - the central theme of love and acceptance is built into the heart of this book. And heart is the right word, this story has a great deal of it, dwelling on themes of motherhood, fatherhood and love that had tears in my eyes several times.
There is, also, a more conventional SF post going on in the background, which perhaps had John Wyndham-esque overtones (the disaster of Meteor Day is never really accounted for, nor a couple of other events which suggests a sequel in the works) but that felt, at times, a little optional to me in what is really a very human story. I said I hoped for something new and different, and the book delivers that, but it also does a very old thing in showing us ourselves through the eyes of a helpless and vulnerable stranger come to challenge and affirm our humanity.
(And if that last sentence feels as though it could have been written over Christmas you shouldn't be surprised. It may be early but this would make a great present for 2019 if you're the ultra organised type).
A great SF story, a great story of humanity, full of action but also of heart. Strongly recommended.
I'd been looking forward to the book, based on advance "noise", and there was a extra layer of intrigue because of it being Cox's first book. That always raises the possibility of something a little different. I mean, obviously some aspiring authors will want to write, say, another space opera (or whatever) in line with all the previous space operas, and there's nothing wrong with that, but I've found that, in contrast, some debut authors produce books that are a little different (and not just in the "X meets Y" sense).
Cox's IS one of those, and the result is amazing. While this is firmly a SF novel - Aliens! Spaceships! - for much of the book that aspect is almost incidental. Allow yourself to suspend disbelief in a crashed alien spacecraft and a Government cover-up (and patently, lots of people do) and you have a story of a frightened, injured child and the woman and man who will do anything to protect him. And, eventually, of the others they gather around them to help.
The sheer verve with which Cox portrays these three - especially Cory, the alien child who wants so much to learn and experience the world and to put behind him the dreadful things that have happened - is a joy be read. After introducing the story with Cory's joyful Hallowe'en, Cox turns to Molly and Gene's background. It's the 1960s, they're a bit counter-cultural, stranded in hyper-conformist middle America under, I think, the Nixon administration with the Vietnam War in the background and the Cold War behind that. Molly finds Gene and Gene finds Molly, but it's not all roses. She suffers depression after a miscarriage and struggles with drink. He... can't cope and looks elsewhere. The effects of this are a major theme, sensitively handled, not just a hook so that their acceptance of the alien boy they call Cory is plausible.
That happens after an event called Meteor Day, bringing death and destruction to Amber Grove but also astounding new evidence of extraterrestrial life. The cover-up follows, something Cox makes very believable. I said above "Allow yourself to suspend disbelief", but remember, this is the late 60s we're talking about. In that period and running into the 70s such things were in the air (something expressed much batter than I can in the Hookland Guide, see https://hookland.wordpress.com/about/). The spectacular conspiracy sketched here, involving the President's Chief Scientific Adviser, the FBI, the CIA and more is actually very convincingly done, pitting the Myers against the apparatus of the State in defence of a child they fear will be treated as a monster. It's not only the US Government that pays attention - they need to worry about criminals, the Russians and inquisitive neighbours, too.
As all this develops, Cox succeeds in portraying the alien - the child - at the centre of everything as an inquisitive and hopeful, if very lonely and scared, little boy. Yes, you could see ET vibes here if you wanted but I think that by providing a substitute family for Cory - even as he mourns the death of his mother and his playmates and wishes for the return of "Cory people" to him - the central theme of love and acceptance is built into the heart of this book. And heart is the right word, this story has a great deal of it, dwelling on themes of motherhood, fatherhood and love that had tears in my eyes several times.
There is, also, a more conventional SF post going on in the background, which perhaps had John Wyndham-esque overtones (the disaster of Meteor Day is never really accounted for, nor a couple of other events which suggests a sequel in the works) but that felt, at times, a little optional to me in what is really a very human story. I said I hoped for something new and different, and the book delivers that, but it also does a very old thing in showing us ourselves through the eyes of a helpless and vulnerable stranger come to challenge and affirm our humanity.
(And if that last sentence feels as though it could have been written over Christmas you shouldn't be surprised. It may be early but this would make a great present for 2019 if you're the ultra organised type).
A great SF story, a great story of humanity, full of action but also of heart. Strongly recommended.
June 23, 2024
really wholesome and a good quality story
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