EXOSTAR: The Lost Space Treasure Series, Book 1 by Rae Knightly – Sci-Fi, Middle Grade Adventure, Space Opera

It has been said that “the Golden Age of Science Fiction is twelve.” Rae Knightly’s Sci-Fi adventure, Exostar, embodies this childlike sense of wonder that the best of the genre evokes in its readers.

Twelve-year-old child-robot Trinket takes off on a rocketing spaceship straight towards danger and excitement, with the mostly able assistance of the blue-furred spy and saboteur Woolver Talandrin. Trinket is searching for identity—as all the best young science fiction protagonists do. Woolver is trying to bring down an evil empire—as all the other best science fiction protagonists do.

Together they’ve been thrust into the kind of epic tale that is guaranteed to keep young readers on the edge of their seats—including the twelve-year-old that lurks inside every science fiction fan.

Trinket doesn’t know exactly who or even what she is.

Her memories begin at age six with a mad scientist she believed, or at least hoped, was her creator. But the old man is dead, and Trinket is alone and looked down upon by the residents of her backwater colony as a ‘piece of scrap’. Her dreams of escape are on the verge of coming true when she’s captured by the occupying forces of the Remnants who are gobbling up the galaxy, even as Woolver and his crew attempt to stage a rebellion.

The Remnant’s Supreme Leader is convinced that Trinket, whether child or android, is the key to the biggest treasure the galaxy has ever seen. Trinket knows only that there is some great secret locked in her mind—or maybe it’s her memory banks—that will either save the universe or destroy it. And her, as well.

Exostar is fast and utterly furious from the very first page.

Trinket’s search for identity will resonate with young readers, while older science fiction fans will also be caught up in the struggles of the wider galaxy. The epic fight between good and evil, the fractured Alliance vs. the rapacious Remnants, is sure to light a spark in any and all readers.

As the opening salvo in The Lost Space Treasure series, Exostar does an excellent job of setting the scene for the ongoing adventure.

Trinket begins as a young person searching for herself, and it’s clear from this first book that the series will be her coming of age journey where she finds that identity, whatever it might be. She has been beaten down by her circumstances and will have to learn to stand confidently on her own two feet—even if one of those feet is attached to a prosthetic leg.

The universe in which Trinket finds herself is in a chaos that deepens over the course of Exostar. There is a huge struggle on the horizon of this epic space opera. The reader is introduced to it in careful stages as Trinket learns that the galaxy she will have to navigate is much bigger than her small town on its tiny planet could have prepared her for. As her perspective expands, her universe gets bigger, and she brings the reader right along with her on a grand adventure of deadly peril and potentially universe-shattering consequences.

Exostar by Rae Knightly won Grand Prize in the 2023 CIBA Gertrude Warner Awards for Middle Grade Fiction.