This week, 4H look up at the stars and beneath their feet with reviews of a subterranean fantasy novel, and a non-fiction work of space exploration.

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Recommended by Aditya Bhimalingam

The Starless Sea is focused on a boy named Zachary who at his university library finds a book, in which one of the chapters recounts an experience from his life. Understandably curious, he follows symbols in the book to an underground and mysterious library as he tries to understand why he was in the book.

The book is fiction and in the fantasy or magical realism genre. It is for people who like descriptive poetry, as there are some great descriptions in the book fit for a poem. It would also be for those who are into mild fantasy, fantasy without advanced magic systems or supernatural races, just with small traces of magic and the supernatural.  Overall, I quite enjoyed it, mainly due to its unorthodox descriptions, which are incredibly visual, illustrating the world in a way I have not seen before. Also, the main story is very well written, creating a strong main narrative. It also creates suspense between each part of the story, as each chapter flits between the story and the shorter stories in the book that Zachary took out, which slowly piece together.

The descriptions being incredibly vivid helped sell the atmosphere of each scene in the book, creating a strangely similar fantasy world. The contrast between the familiarity between objects and items common to us, and fantasy societies tasked with protecting this library, helps create an eerily similar but vastly different reality, slightly throwing the reader off as they head into the book. In addition, the suspense is well kept as very slowly you discover details about this world, as you strive to find another piece to the puzzle. It also is quite invigorating when subtle details in some story link to another, hinting at a complete timeline. Sometimes some elements of the story are quite unexpected, but in a way that makes perfect sense in hindsight, like a sea of honey or an intricate dollhouse, all still intricate pieces of the puzzle. 

The storytelling style of flitting between narratives to tell a larger picture is unique, as it adds a layer of mystery to the conclusion and also encourages the reader to focus on smaller details to try and piece the book together. In some other cases, the author's style of description in clever metaphors and unexpected analogies is incredibly evocative of supernatural themes. However, my main criticism of the book is that with so many ends it is hard to piece them together in a satisfying coherent narrative, without hundreds of pages of explanations. The book only ties the main threads of the story together leaving the reader wanting something more at the end. The book does not fully explain some stories that I’d like to know more about and for the book to tell me how other stories link to the main narrative. The book could have been improved by cutting down on the number of different narratives and spending more time on other stories, and fleshing out both the story progression and making the links to the main narrative less subtle, making the overall book seem more coherent and connected. This would help balance the book and also allow further depth to the main story.

I would recommend it, as even though the ending may not be great, the journey and the feeling you get when reading the book is unique and worth it. Reading the unorthodox descriptions or finding links between chapters makes the journey of the book seem like an adventure in itself. It is also very unique in its narrative style, with many smaller stories that are segmented within the main story, which works like puzzle pieces when compared to the overall book. In hindsight, the book was an amazing read with just a slight let-down in the conclusion.

Space Exploration by Dhara Patel.

Recommended by Ettore Bresciani 

Space Exploration is a book which discusses the evolution of astronomy, including very influential astronomers, scientific breakthroughs and pinnacle moments. It delves into the development of robotic spacecraft and what crewed and uncrewed missions have discovered. It teaches us about the technology which enabled people to step on the moon and to create space stations and how newer technologies could lead to commercial space flights and even a human base on Mars.

 

Space Exploration is a scientific non-fiction book. The book is a factual based scientific book which explains about the development of astronomy. This book is not for the faint hearted, from mathematical equations to explanations of the newest astronomical discoveries and technology, the book is extremely hard to comprehend. I suggest the book to people who already have an understanding of how the universe works and what is happening in recent activities of space and astronomy such as the James Webb Telescope.

Personally, I love the book. I greatly enjoyed how the author explained the complicated theories and made them simple so that they became easier to understand. I loved how the author not only discussed present astronomers but also past astronomers. I liked the book because I love space and I am very intrigued by it. It is one of my favourite topics and so the book very intrigued me and stimulated me to develop my knowledge of space. I liked that the author's sentences were not too long and that they went straight to the point, they did not ramble on and stray away from the point. I also liked that the author used subtitles every time he moved onto a new topic so you knew exactly what you were reading about from topic to topic and you understood how they connected.

The James Webb Space Telescope (Getty Images)

However, the book was short and so there was not as much knowledge as I wanted. It could have been improved if it was longer. By making it longer the author would be able to go in more depth about certain topics and this would have made the book more interesting. If the book had more images or drawings I think it would have helped to entertain the reader. For example, when he talks about space satellites and telescopes it would have been nice if there were images of real telescopes or satellites. Also, when the author talks about the universe, I believe some images would have made it more interesting.Other than those criticisms I think that the book was perfect and that nothing else should be changed.

 
I would recommend Space Exploration to people because it is an extremely interesting read and the book never slows down or ever gets boring. This is very common for scientific non-fiction books as many of them are slow and eventually become uninteresting.