Galax-Arena

Galax-Arena #1

by Gillian Rubinstein

Peter, Joella, and Lianne are forced onto a spaceship and taken to the planet Vexa where they are made to perform death-defying stunts for their alien captors. Joella has never been a good gymnast and now she faces the unspeakable alternative - becoming a Vexan's pet....

Genres: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Fiction, Childrens, Fantasy, Dystopia, Middle Grade

199 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gillian_...

Also works under the pen name Lian Hearn

Reviews

[Jacqueline Brocker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another Australian book, this time, what was one of my first forays into science fiction, and also perhaps one of the darker books I encountered. Not dark just because of the theme of its plot – children kidnapped into space to perform high-risk gymnastics so their adrenalin rush would be transmuted to their alien audience – but because of the rather eye-opening social dynamics between the children and teens who had been abducted. You had your three Australian kids – Peter, Joella (the narrator), and Liane – encountering African and Latin American street kids who already know that harsh realities of life, and who aren’t at all sympathetic to our protagonists, who naturally have little understanding of them at first. Throw this into the mix of the gymnastics games (the Galax Arena of the title), where acts are performed without nets, rife with competitiveness, and you have what was an incredibly engrossing story that I read several times growing up.

Being a fairly sheltered child, it was one of the first books I’d encountered characters who were willing to hurt each other if that’s what it took for their own survival, and also, sometimes, taking pleasure in that pain. By the time I’d read it, I’d seen a film adaptation of Lord of the Flies (would only read the book some years later), and it was clear Rubinstein was riffing on some of that, but these children weren’t so much left to their own devices, but also goaded and encouraged to compete by a trainer who remains one of the nastiest characters I can remember reading; Hythe was all charm and tenderness, but also ready for a slap and censure and taunting. The violence of the story as well I remember shocking me too. There was a distinct lack of comfort in the novel – there were moments of it, but it was not a comfortable read overall. And I think at some point in a reader’s life that is inevitable. Galax Arena was definitely that book for me.

[Erin]

Do you remember when the Hunger Games came out and all those Suburban Mom types ran around clutching their pearls sobbing "Think of the CHILDREN" and "This is the dark work of the DEVIL" and "First it was wizards, then it was vampires werewolf love triangles, and now it's kids fighting to the death! What is this world coming to!? The rapture is NEAR!!!!"?

Anyone? No, just me? Sorry, I grew up in the American South. It gets weird down there.

Anywho, the Christians Mamas were real upset, and tried to get Hunger Games taken out of the school libraries. This made teenage me absolutely giddy, because those Suburban Mom types would have shit their pants if they found out there was a copy of Galax-Arena just sitting on the the public school library's shelf, waiting in the shadows, ready to be checked out by sheltered 9 year olds with too much curiosity and a grimy library card clutched in their sweaty, pre-pubescent hand. It made me gleefully joyous knowing it had escaped their wrath and was still sitting there on the bookshelf, even though it was truly the darker tale (in my opinion).

I mean... sure, I was a sheltered kid. But I feel this book was many preteens first foray into some very dark sci-fi themes. There are drugged kids, kidnapped children, human to alien trafficking, forced labor, etc. The concept of having your humanity stripped away was an abstract concept for lil me. The thought of living as an alien's pet for the rest of my days shocked me to my core.

For years this book faded to the edges of my memory as just one of the thousands of books I read through middle school and high school as escapism, and though I searched later in my 20's (to prove a point at a college party no less!) I couldn't even track down the name or author! It took me til this very night to stumble across one of those "tip of my tongue" reddits and revisit this novel. I thought it was interesting to read all other reviews that said the same thing I'll reiterate:

This may not have been a classic piece of literature or even a fully fleshed novel (some are saying it's only 150 pages? I remember it felt short). I don't remember being particularly attached to the characters or writing. It's definitely intended for young audiences. But the fact that I remember being shocked by the concepts in expressed so vividly, decades later, even after the title and author escape me, speak volumes about how effectively it conveyed it's message.

[Tulsi · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fantastic piece of complex writing. Told from an adolesence point of view, this is the story of three siblings who are kidnapped from Earth by aliens, and brought to another planet to perform tricks in a circus. It sounds a little silly, but it's an amazing premise on which to explore so many themes on a much darker level than what is usually seen in children's literature - everything from the deconstruction of humanity, to love, family and survival of the fittest. I love how this book does not talk down to young adults and pretend all is well in the world. The ending is incredible and the sequel Terra Farma, is even better.

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read this book in middle school - it's a children's book so it is pretty short. I loved it so much that it stuck with me over the years and I just HAD to find it to own a copy of my own. It took me forever (because I couldn't remember the title) - but I was so excited when I finally found an old library copy on Amazon. This book is on my "Forever" shelf - and I pull it out to re-read quite often.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

6/10 - I read this waayyy back when I was in primary school, and I had to track it down because the last few years I have occasionally had these vivid memories of it - and as I’ve seen in the reviews, I’m not alone in that experience!
I remembered a kinda f**ed concept, but none of the specific details of the characters, or the name of the book or author 🤔 But it’s literally about kids being abducted and forced to perform in a circus where some of them die (pre-dating Hunger Games by 16 years).
After many strange google searches I tracked it down… It was aight though, I can’t really be bothered critiquing it since I just read it so I could stop questioning what that book was or if I made up the memory 😂

[Kaila · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this in middle school book club and a post on Reddit made me remember it. After a quick Google search for "ya gymnastics aliens" it came right up, crossing my fingers it was the right book. There was one very specific scene that I remember vividly for whatever reason - and for once, I actually remembered it exactly right!

It's a terrible title and the book was just okay. The ending especially left me unsatisfied. What I would give for a recording of the book club where we discussed it. What opinions did 11-year-old Kaila hold?

Note that this is the nineties version of YA, so some seriously screwed-up shit happens. And obviously, I am no longer the target audience, but it certainly stuck with me when I was a kid.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Galax Arena is quite a complex piece of writing with a lot of hidden symbols in it. At first it was a little challenging to grasp what author Gillian Rubinstein was trying to prove, although at the end of the book it was very apparent.

Galax Arena is about three siblings Joella, Peter and Liane. The trio's mother abandons the family while their father is on the verge of going insane. The three are supposedly traveling to live with their aunt Jill when a mysterious person named Hythe approaches them eventually drugging them and launching them into outer space, where they are forced to perform death defying gymnastic stunts to aliens on the planet Vekax. Those who are unable to perform become pets.

To be completely honest I didn't really enjoy reading this book, although I do like how the novel makes you think as to what the author is trying to symbolize. Throughout the book the kids were somewhat depressed and felt that there was no hope for them, they felt that they needed to grow up faster due to the fact that they were on their own performing these death defying stunts, they had to stick together, etc. For example Joella cannot perform the tricks so she is sent to become a pet. It is here where she realizes that all the kids had been seeing was a lie. They weren't in space and they weren't surrounded by alien. It was all part of an elaborate scheme called Genesis 5. The aliens were just humans in costumes which meant that the kids were still on earth. This discovery led to the kids banning together and believing. They still had how and that is ultimately what led to them escaping.

This book wasn't my favorite by any means and I don't really recommend it unless you just want to try something new, which is what I was doing. Having said that the book was well written and the characters weren't fake which is something I liked.

[Lore · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book for school, not for my own personal enjoyment.

For the record. Anway, it was okay. A very 'eh' book. I think a 2-star 'it was okay' is appropriate.

The Plot: This, for lack of better words, is something of a Christopher Pike decides to write MG books.
Granted it is more subdued than a CP book.

Anyway, Joella, her sister Liane and brother Peter get kidnapped by some guy who drugs them with coffee and they get sent into outter space.
There, they are forced to perform tricky circus stunts for Aliens and maybe even die.
They are not alone, of course. There are other kids there. They call themselves the 'Peb' and spend their days arguing and talking in thier own Petwa language which is highly annoying to read.

It was only 161 pages long and well...it might have done well to make it a little longer and maybe have a little more plot.
Simple book.

Not my type at all.

On Actually Reading it: Since I read it for school, I had to make it go on. And I had to dissect the thing which made it even more of a boring task. I don't mind discussing Novels, but they way we did it mimmiced the childishness of the book.
I'm not going to go into that part.

The Final Verdict: If you are a MG lover, then read this. It's typical MG and pretty well...bad.

[Danae · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is, hands down, the most Bee-zar book I've ever read.
I was in India and took *A Map of the World* with me, and read it in short order.
At one of the Havali's, tourists had left a stack of paperbacks on a shelf (take one, leave one style) and because I had a 12hr overnight bus ride looming, I needed additional reading.
I chose this book because the first few pages sounded compelling (kids getting kidnapped for ???) and for the first chapter or so, I was right there. Unfortunately, the book then takes a *Dude where's my car?* random left turn, and goes down the rabbit hole into the land of EXTREMELY creative fiction.
It is a childrens book, and had I been a non or semi-thinking 10 yo, I might have been drawn in, but for the most part the story is not believable.
Strangely, many of the visuals in her work come back to me now, as books often do, but I equate that to the time and place I read it more than to amazing writing.
In any event, it's a QUICK read and might be fun to read, to get an idea of the quality of childrens fiction *deen unduh* (Austrailia).

[Steph · Rating 5 out of 5]

a fascinating, disturbing read. the ending is a complete shock and surprise. i was fully immersed in the story as a science fiction work and then was shocked to be jerked out of that mindset back into reality. this book was amazing just because of the astonishing creativity of the plot concept - a truly original, and surprising idea seems so rare these days, and here even though the idea is so novel it seems fully plausible as something that might actually happen today. also, the children's interactions with each other, the changing dynamics and power struggles, are really interesting.

[Christina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know what to say about this book.
For one, their made up language was so unbelievably irritating.
And another - I don't understand why the stuffed toy could talk. Especially with the way the book ended.
I'm also not sure if I'm meant to class this as science-fiction anymore...
On the other hand, it does have an interesting premise, and an interesting plot twist.
Hmm. I don't know. Mixed feelings, clearly.

[CraftyChara · Rating 1 out of 5]

This would have been a lot better without the twist
.
.
Spoiler Alert.
.
The Galax arena is an experiment called Genesis 5 created by rich, old (white) humans who kidnapped disaffected kids and force them to do dangerous stunts to make them immortal by channeling the kids adrenalin into the old people’s bodies to trick the body into thinking it is young and not close to death.

And the kids who are not good at gymnastic are keep as pets by the humans.

[Kirsten · Rating 2 out of 5]

so we're gonna spend 10 weeks studying science fiction in high school at an advanced level and this is the best book we could read?? really ms parsons, really??
oh was i harassed for my take on this

[Caroline Harbour · Rating 2 out of 5]

This had an interesting premise, but the back cover blurb made it sound way more exciting than it ended up being.

[Kenya Starflight · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book would probably feel like it was trying to ride on the coattails of other young-adult post-apocalyptic series such as The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, etc.... if it wasn't for the fact that it predated those series by a decade. It promises an interesting premise involving aliens, a competition, and possible death for the competitors. But while entertaining, it never really rises to greatness, and doesn't feel like it stands well on its own.

Three children -- Joella, Peter, and Liane -- are struggling to survive in a world undergoing vague but devastating disasters when they're abducted by a mysterious stranger. Said stranger brings them to the Galax-Arena, where he reveals that they and other stolen children -- the "peb" -- will be forced to perform gymnastics to entertain the alien Vexa, who are thrilled by the children's fear and deaths. Joella, a clumsy girl with no gymnastic aptitude, realizes her days are numbered... but also discovers she's in a position to uncover the truth about the Galax-Arena and free them all...

The writing in this book is a little flat, but does its job. It tells the story and maintains a decent pace throughout, and does a great job of showing the culture built by the peb. The pebs' dialect can be a bit difficult to read at times (though the book contains a glossary), but I did appreciate that it tried to be racially diverse, and even incorporate some other languages into the pebs' dialect. (Your mileage may vary on whether this dialect is effective or if it's a caricature of black and brown people's accents...)

The worldbuilding feels a little flat, as we don't really get much of a sense of what's going on in the world beyond Galax-Arena. Likewise, characterization is fairly flat too, with many of the side characters getting more characterization than the actual main characters. The book also feels like it's missing bits and pieces of story and worldbuilding, and feels a little incomplete. I get that this is because it's the first in a series and some revelations and plot events were being set up for future books, but it's still frustrating when a book doesn't stand well on its own. (And it's made even worse by there being ten years between the first and second books, and no sign of the third book after twenty years...)

The book also throws in a twist halfway through that will either make or break the book for you. Personally I was of a mixed mind regarding the twist -- while it was clever, it also felt like there wasn't much setup for it. And I'll admit, I was disappointed that the aliens turned out to be a hoax and the whole thing was a front for an evil scientific experiment... but that's just me.

"Galax-Arena" was an entertaining enough read, and can be seen as a sort of proto-Hunger-Games, a predecessor to the many dystopian YA books that now flood the market. But it feels a little flat and incomplete... and not just because the series was never finished...

[Elizabeth Newton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Galax-Arena is a very unique story, packed with suspense that is about power, control and survival. When siblings, Joella, Peter and Liane are kidnapped and whisked away in a rocket to another galaxy, they find their worst nightmare awaiting them. They find themselves being owned and trained among other kids as performing animals to an alien race – not wanting to imagine what kind of creatures are peering at them on the other side of the glass. During the strange and horrendous struggles for power and alliances between the captives who are slowly spiralling into madness, you will never look at animals in a zoo quite the same again.

Rubinstein weaves this very original thriller in a scarily realistic way, where Joella is telling the story in fragments as she remembers it. The character’s narrative voice is so believably miserable and disturbed, while being beautifully honest and innocent. The way in which Rubinstein reveals certain parts of the story through this character is clever and made this book quite the page-turner. The kids who are in captivity have developed a simple broken form of English which really adds to the realism, even though at the start, it takes a little getting used to reading these words fluently.

To be honest, the story started dragging for me at about three quarters of the way through. I started getting tired of reading the broken English and listening to all the dramas between the kids, but shortly after this, literally in the next chapter, the story took a shocking turn and from that point on, I was on the edge of my seat, flipping pages at record rate and guessing desperately until the end what would happen.

An unusual story – unlike anything I’ve ever read before. I would recommend it for kids well into high-school and up – no younger, as some events and suggestions throughout are fairly distressing and ominous, (as well as there being some mild infrequent course language). But despite this, it was an enjoyable read. The well-written characters, the journal-like story-telling structure, and psychological stuff going on beneath the surface that is left unsaid, all work together to make it a very original, thought-provoking, enthralling book.

[Pratik Kessler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gripping science fiction novel that plunges readers into a dystopian world where children are abducted and forced to perform death-defying acts in a space arena. The story is intense and fast-paced, with well-developed characters that evoke strong emotions. The plot twists and moral dilemmas keep readers on the edge of their seats, mp3 juice making it a thought-provoking and engaging read. Perfect for fans of thrilling adventures and speculative fiction, "Galax-Arena" explores themes of survival, freedom, and the human spirit.

[Emily Wrayburn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review originally posted on A Keyboard and an Open Mind 11 May 2018:

This… was a weird book. I think there were some interesting ideas in there, but to be honest, I found it both slow and not very-well fleshed out. Now that I write that, the two things seem a bit contradictory, but somehow that was my experience.

The plot was intriguing, but I think it could have done with a bit more fleshing out. I guess one could argue that the focus was more on the characters, I don’t think the characters were quite strong enough to carry the book on their own.The character dynamics were interesting, and realistic, but not enough to adequately make for a character-driven story. Some of the character development was there but some actions felt a bit forced – “SEE WHAT THIS CHARACTER WAS DRIVEN TO DO?” kind of thing.

There was also the dialogue. The young characters all learn Patwa, or Jamaican Creole, in order to communicate with each other. It took me out of the story every time I had to say a line out loud to work out what it was, or consult the glossary at the front of the book. With so much of the dialogue written this way, it was distracting.

The twist towards the end made sense in some ways but not in others. The bigger reveal made sense, in fact I had suspected, but the intricacies of it seemed like an awful lot of effort to go to for perhaps not much reward.

This is the second book by Gillian Rubinstein that I’ve read this year (the first was Across the Nightingale Floor, published under the penname Lian Hearn), and I’m beginning to think that her writing maybe just isn’t for me.

This review forms part of my 2018 Australian Women Writers Challenge. Click here for more information.

[Ilse Andringa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Het verhaal wordt niet fijn opgebouwd en de personages zijn vlak. Ik vind het boek meer een beschrijving van gebeurtenissen dan een verhaal waar je jezelf in kan verliezen. Daardoor kan ik het boek niet waarderen.

[S.L. Stacy]

For some reason, the plot of this book popped into my head the other day. Googling "kids perform in alien circus" brought up the correct book right away! Does anyone else remember this weird little book? Am I aging myself? (Yes.)

[Greta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting experience reading the updated version directly after the original as it both makes it a better book in many ways while it also makes it age worse. Perhaps that’s just because I remember more of 2001 to be embarrassed by cultural cringe (the favourite Australian pastime).

[Jen Kadach]

I remember reading this in 1998 as a YRCA nominee and while i don't remember much except that there were aliens and gymnastics, it sticks out in my head as my introduction to sci fi and dystopia. Will have to read it again just to see what my 11 year old self felt and then never forgot.

[Yael · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was strange. I might be the only person in to have read this in a very long time. Especially not as a reread. I think it was pretty interesting. I can see some kids getting a good kick out of it.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite childhood book.

[Cazlam · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I had read this when I was younger - I am sure I would have loved it, however being older now and in today's modern age, the plot just felt ridiculous and characters felt convoluted.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent science-fiction book for tweens.

[Hayley · Rating 4 out of 5]

We had to study this book for English and I really like the twist in the end.

[Sage · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favourite books as a kid

[Caitlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best children's book I ever read as a child. Still readable as an adult too. Complicated and slightly frightening!

[Anne Shirley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mental 😁