"ET meets The Man Who Fell to Earth meets Jules Verne — this suspenseful historic sci-fi adventure teams alien lifeforms with themes of friendship and finding home."
Set in 1902, and inspired by a real science prize that promised 100,000 francs to anyone who could communicate with life on another planet and receive a response back, Sarah Merrett’s The Others tells a rather splendid story of family secrets, friendship, and a race against time to save a blue-glowing alien lifeform from the clutches of an evil professor.
While Reuben longs to be “normal”, he’s anything but. He lives in an observatory with his astronomer grandma who’s determined to win the Guzman Prize: “Since the competition was announced two years ago, scientists had raced to be first to make contact with a planet other than Mars, and receive a response. Mars was exempt, as everyone knew about Martians, and it would be too easy. But no one had come close to winning the prize. Until now”.
Reuben is also different because he’s never left Grandma’s observatory, and he has to wear special glasses that let in no light: “He knew the slightest bit of light would damage his irises and leave him permanently blind”.
Then, right after Grandma thinks she’s made contact with extra-terrestrials, a spaceship crashes and she runs into the night to locate it. When Reuben dares follow her, he finds a friend in local lad Archie, and together they find a mysterious girl who glows blue.
After discovering that Grandma’s science rival, Professor Pinfield, is on a mission to capture Blue, as he names her, Reuben sets out to keep her safe, and discovers some rather shocking secrets about himself.
Bristling with adventure, The Others also radiates a whole lot of heart through its wonderfully-drawn characters.
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