Terra Nova

On the surface, Terra Nova is a beautifully written follow-up to Dominion, the first book in the Molly Stout Adventures. It takes us back to the world of Terra Nova and plunges us into Molly’s life shortly after the events of Dominion. It’s fast-paced, filled with action, and a sheer pleasure to read. Terra Nova is a world where instead of building on the back of human slaves, denoted as less worthy by skin color or some other chosen arbitrary measurement, we harnessed the power of some more beings more obviously ‘other’. It gives us a steampunk world only a few steps removed from our own. 

I zoomed through Terra Nova, reading it in a couple hours. From the very first page, Arbuthnott had me entranced and right back in the thick of it beside Molly. My stomach was churning, my emotions were roiling, and I was completely absorbed in this book. He is a fantastic writer, and I thoroughly enjoyed his story-telling abilities and the fictional aspects of his work.

But I want to talk about the other part of it, as well.

Terra Nova is a call for young people to realize their worth, their power. To understand that they have a voice, and if they use that voice, they can get things accomplished. It is a call to arms for a younger generation to lead others down the right path, to do what everyone else seems afraid to do. To not be a sheep.

"I wish we could just go flying together instead of always skulking around, Molly thought. But if that's what I want, I guess we have to make a world where that can happen."

But it's about more than that as well. It's about growing up. About realizing that while you need to own your mistakes or consequences, you need to recognize that some are not yours to make or take on. 

It's a solid story, with great writing. Terra Nova makes me simultaneously want to stand up and applaud, whilst also making me squirm uncomfortably. Because this also spoke to me as an adult. Terra Nova reminded me that it is my job to guide my child, but it is not - nor will it ever be - my job to rule my child. If at some point in the future, she gets set on doing something she believes is the right thing, my job will be to keep her as safe as possible while she does it, not to stop her from doing.

Sometimes a book comes along that rocks you back on your heels, smacks the self-pity, the selfishness, and ignorance out of you, and makes you ashamed of your own timidity. And sometimes that book happens to be a kids’ book. 

Read Dominion, and then read Terra Nova. Read them for you. Read them for your kids. Read them to your kids. Let your kids read them and ask you questions. I don’t care how you do it, I’m just asking you to do it.