This would possibly have gotten another star if not for the gender binarism and heteronormativity. (Mav doesn't want to be 'it', but is an alien, not human, but simply must have a human pronoun? YOU ARE LOOKING FOR 'THEY'. They do not actually have to be 'he' or 'she'.)

Not that I think it would have been any better if Mav had decided to identify as not-male, because the fact that he kept trying to force 'joining' on Joss early on? Made of squick. And then to have this bit?

'It was my fault,' I said. 'I should have tried harder.'
...
'..We can try and join again. Let's just rest a bit then we'll have another go.'
Mav reached over and took my hand.
'I did not have the strength to break through, Joss. That was the last try.'

That's just the most jumbled virginity-and-rape thing I... actually, no, I am docking this another star just for that, because that's even grosser. I mean even without the Joss-is-female-so-Mav-must-be-male shite, even after Joss explains that queer people exist, that's just nope.

Plus the swearing. I get that the author couldn't say 'fuck' in a book that was going to be up for the Children's Book Council Awards, but it doesn't take more than one appearance of 'snork' to infer from context that it means 'fuck'. Likewise 'screte'='shit', which is at least a bit clever because of its derivation from 'excreta'. I'm familiar with a lot of synonyms for 'fuck' and I still can't work out where 'snork' came from. And 'wankman'? Just say 'wanker'. Just fucking say it. SAY. IT.

And then alien snot in the petri dish. ALIEN SNOT. IN THE PETRI DISH. THIS IS HOW YOU SPLICE DNA, PEOPLE. And people were bagging on Jupiter Ascending for bad genetics, JFC. ( )

Quick, fun read featuring aliens, a harmonica, and a dash of adventure. ( )

Top marks for originality on this one; Goodman is just plagued a little by a few rough spots in the novel. Still, I enjoyed it.

Joss Aaronson is stunned on the day when it is her class's turn to choose partners. Joss is ready to become a student in time-travel...but she could never have anticipated her partner. That's because for the first time ever, Earth has allowed an alien into the program, a Chorian named Mavkel. And now he's chosen Joss as his travel-partner.

Joss, rebellious, bold, and a blues fan, has no idea what to make of Mav. So begins a story of family, of alien culture shock, of a surprisingly original futuristic world with Australian overtones (the author is Australian). The plot moved along a bit too quick for my tastes, and the characters apart from Joss weren't developed enough. But just reading about Goodman's take on the future and Mav's alien race make it worth at least one read. ( )

If prizes were awarded for the best speculative fiction titles, Singing the Dogstar Blues would surely garner its share of accolades. It's witty and clever, projecting a degree of dignity while at the same time not taking itself too seriously. On top of that, it's relevant to the story at hand. Fortunately for readers, this young adult novel by Australia's Alison Goodman is more than just a pretty title. Goodman's story is an engaging character-centered time travel adventure that--while uneven at times--manages to overcome its shortcomings and deliver the goods.

Part of the novel's problems stem from the fact that Goodson is a wee bit too ready to rely on cliche when it suits her. The main character, a 17-year-old girl named Joss, is your typical disaffected anti-establishment type who is smarter than anyone gives her credit for. Despite getting thrown out of pretty much every school she's ever attended, she's managed to get accepted into the prestigious Centre for Neo-Historical Studies. The ultra-competitive Centre is the world's first, last and only institute for the education and training of time travelers. And before long, it become apparent that it's also got the only time machine in the known universe, as aliens from the planet Choria are keen to get a handle on the technology for their own uses. Chorians know the secret of interstellar travel, humans know the secret of time travel. Both worlds want what the other has, and neither is quite willing to give up its own secrets in an even trade.

Joss, being the anti-establishment type that she is, runs afoul of the Centre's acting director, Professor Camden-Stone, by page 4. Camden-Stone--cut from a long line of sour college deans whose sole mission in life seems to involve extinguishing any small flicker of joy from students' lives--is scant minutes away from booting Joss from the Center when the unexpected happens. Despite all of Camden-Stone's machination and planning, Mavkel, the first Chorian ever accepted into the Centre, chooses Joss to be his time travel training partner. And things, as they say, get interesting from there.

Goodson never really adds anything new to the genre with Dogstar Blues, but rather takes existing tropes, ideas and themes and weaves them together in fresh and interesting ways. That fresh approach only carries Dogstar Blues so far, however. The execution of Joss and Mavkel's unscheduled temporal jaunt reads almost like they're following a flow chart of events from the author's outline, and ultimately echoes Back to the Future too much for its own good. A seemingly pertinent plot point about Joss trying to hack the security system of the super-secure residential complex she's forced to share with Mavkel is abruptly dropped and never pays off for the reader.

In this case, however, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and Singing the Dogstar Blues succeeds in spite of its missteps. As a young adult novel, the narrative never talks down to the reader, which is a good thing. The best young adult works have a universal quality to them, equally accessible to adults and teens. The advantage Goodson has, of course, is that many readers of young adult books will not have yet encountered the time travel tropes and ideas she plays with here, and thus to them, everything is unique and original. For everyone else, she's given us characters to care about in a fast-paced adventure, and it's hard not to pull for Joss even when she walking a path that was well-trodden even 50 years before.
( )

Given to me by SDN, this is a nice little YA book with blues harmonica, telepathic aliens, and time-travel. It's fairly slight but has got a good pace to it and a lively heroine with plenty of energy and pluck.

The use of jargony future slang like 'screte' (for excrete = cack) is always a bit hard to get right and I'm not sure that particular example works entirely, but generally the future is pretty solidly done.

Lovely cover! ( )