snazel's review against another edition
Oh my word, Sophia McDougall should write MG forever, what a good story this was. Adventure! Aliens! Humour! Friendship!
Also, I really appreciated how in the first book, The two books together inform each other so well, while still standing alone well.
Also, I really appreciated how in the first book,
Spoiler
they defused a war by actually talking to the other side, but this one makes the point that some wars are legitimately wars of aggression and you can't solve it by being friends with them, they will just crush you with affection. Some violence needs to be resisted in other ways than an outstretched hand.yapha's review against another edition
4.0
Fantastic sequel to Mars Evacuees! Alice Dare and the other "plucky kids from Mars" (Carl, Noel, Josephine, Thysaa, and of course Goldfish) have been invited to go back into space to celebrate the opening of a new home planet for the Morrors. This time they are traveling on a somewhat sentient ship called the Helen of Troy out into deep space when things start to go terribly wrong. Full of the same humor, science, and adventure as the first, fans of science fiction will not want to miss this series! I can only hope that there will be a third. Highly recommended for grades 5 & up.
eARC provided by publisher via Edelweiss
eARC provided by publisher via Edelweiss
the_fabric_of_words's review against another edition
5.0
I found this book over the summer a few years ago when I was looking for science fiction for middle grade readers. There's only two books in this series, and I entered on this, book 2, then bought the first, Mars Evacuees, because my library didn't have it (although it later subscribed to Hoopla, and it is available there). They're a bit older (2016-ish), so if your library doesn't have them, they'll need to be purchased.
Alice Dare and her friends, including a freezing, tentacled Morror named Thsaaa, are back on Earth and back in school. The Morrors are using Antarctica to live on and global warming isn't an issue. She wrote a book about her first adventure, but with all the peacefulness spreading around, Alice, daughter of a fighter-spacecraft pilot, is just itching for her next in-space adventure. She doesn’t have long to wait.
She's invited to the Morror planet to accept her accolades for bringing an end to the war between Earth and Morror, along with her friends, Carl, Noel and Josephine (although she hasn't heard from her in a while).
Except Alice's Dad is dead-set on her NOT going, not even leaving Earth. He gets sick right before the ship takes off, and Alice decides to go on her own, without him. Ooof. Quite a blow.
The kids -- all of them -- are reunited with the Goldfish teacher AI aboard the sentient Archangel Planetary Ship, Helen. Helen's in love with its Captain, Rasumus Trommler, although his tween daughter, Christa, is singularly unimpressed. Dr. Muldoon is doing experiments on the ship, but the kids aren't terrifically knowledgeable about that.
Tensions over Alice's book and how she portrays her friends rise just in time for Helen to be attacked, this time by another alien species, the Krakkiluk. Helen is trespassing in their territory, and they're insect-like and ruthless. To prove they're serious, they flush Carl out the space lock. It isn't long before Alice, Lena and Goldfish follow. Their only chance of survival with no oxygen tanks on their space suits is a controlled entry into the planet's atmosphere below. So they don't burn up. Can Goldfish do it? Can they?
Up on the Helen, things are not as they seem. Trommler may not have Earth's best interests at heart, starting with his plan to hand over Dr. Muldoon to the Krakkiluk. The Krakkiluk haven't been exactly honest, and on the planet, Alice and Lena and Carl start to put things together. But the air is not exactly breatheable -- it is, but it'll kill them in about a week. So they better get off planet, and fast.
I won't say how the rest of it unfolds, just know, when it was over I was bitterly disappointed there isn't another in the series. And I ran out and bought the first one, as my library STILL isn't doing ILLs (inter-library loans).
Enjoy!
Looking for more book suggestions for your 7th/8th grade classroom and students?
Visit my blog for more great middle grade book recommendations, free teaching materials and fiction writing tips: https://amb.mystrikingly.com/
Alice Dare and her friends, including a freezing, tentacled Morror named Thsaaa, are back on Earth and back in school. The Morrors are using Antarctica to live on and global warming isn't an issue. She wrote a book about her first adventure, but with all the peacefulness spreading around, Alice, daughter of a fighter-spacecraft pilot, is just itching for her next in-space adventure. She doesn’t have long to wait.
She's invited to the Morror planet to accept her accolades for bringing an end to the war between Earth and Morror, along with her friends, Carl, Noel and Josephine (although she hasn't heard from her in a while).
Except Alice's Dad is dead-set on her NOT going, not even leaving Earth. He gets sick right before the ship takes off, and Alice decides to go on her own, without him. Ooof. Quite a blow.
The kids -- all of them -- are reunited with the Goldfish teacher AI aboard the sentient Archangel Planetary Ship, Helen. Helen's in love with its Captain, Rasumus Trommler, although his tween daughter, Christa, is singularly unimpressed. Dr. Muldoon is doing experiments on the ship, but the kids aren't terrifically knowledgeable about that.
Tensions over Alice's book and how she portrays her friends rise just in time for Helen to be attacked, this time by another alien species, the Krakkiluk. Helen is trespassing in their territory, and they're insect-like and ruthless. To prove they're serious, they flush Carl out the space lock. It isn't long before Alice, Lena and Goldfish follow. Their only chance of survival with no oxygen tanks on their space suits is a controlled entry into the planet's atmosphere below. So they don't burn up. Can Goldfish do it? Can they?
Up on the Helen, things are not as they seem. Trommler may not have Earth's best interests at heart, starting with his plan to hand over Dr. Muldoon to the Krakkiluk. The Krakkiluk haven't been exactly honest, and on the planet, Alice and Lena and Carl start to put things together. But the air is not exactly breatheable -- it is, but it'll kill them in about a week. So they better get off planet, and fast.
I won't say how the rest of it unfolds, just know, when it was over I was bitterly disappointed there isn't another in the series. And I ran out and bought the first one, as my library STILL isn't doing ILLs (inter-library loans).
Enjoy!
Looking for more book suggestions for your 7th/8th grade classroom and students?
Visit my blog for more great middle grade book recommendations, free teaching materials and fiction writing tips: https://amb.mystrikingly.com/
noapo88's review against another edition
3.0
קראתי בעברית נקרא חטופים בחלל.
במסורת ארוכת שנים, הספר השני פחות טוב מהראשון.
גיבורי הספר הראשון מוזמנים לחנוכת בית של כוכב הלכת החדש של החייזרים מהספר הקודם. בדרך כמובן יש בעיות והפעם הם צריכים להסתדר בלי סרט הדבקה.
הספר חביב, אבל באיזשהו שלב נעשה בלתי אפשרי לעקוב אחרי כל הדמויות החדשות עם השמות המוזרים ושתי מערכות שפה נוספות... פשוט ויתרתי וזרמתי. חביב אבל אפשר לוותר
במסורת ארוכת שנים, הספר השני פחות טוב מהראשון.
גיבורי הספר הראשון מוזמנים לחנוכת בית של כוכב הלכת החדש של החייזרים מהספר הקודם. בדרך כמובן יש בעיות והפעם הם צריכים להסתדר בלי סרט הדבקה.
הספר חביב, אבל באיזשהו שלב נעשה בלתי אפשרי לעקוב אחרי כל הדמויות החדשות עם השמות המוזרים ושתי מערכות שפה נוספות... פשוט ויתרתי וזרמתי. חביב אבל אפשר לוותר
sara_gabai's review against another edition
4.0
Nice and exciting. Not quite as good as the first book.
library_hungry's review
4.0
My opinion of this book is strongly shaped by the fact that I committed to read it out loud with accents, and I didn't realize when I started the first in the series how MANY accents there would be.
Spunky, heartwarming, charming, adventurous, and exciting!
Spunky, heartwarming, charming, adventurous, and exciting!
qwerty88's review against another edition
5.0
So much fun.
The first book was also fun, and moved along quickly from crisis to crisis, but ultimately wasn't huge on plot. This book feels much more mature, with emotional resonance and even some relationship ramifications from the events in the first book. Plus Goldfish is great fun.
For an adult reader, there is a late revelation which I felt was very telegraphed earlier. I'm not sure if I would have noticed as a MG reader or not. It didn't hurt the story for me, but it was a fairly obvious gun on the mantelpiece.
The first book was also fun, and moved along quickly from crisis to crisis, but ultimately wasn't huge on plot. This book feels much more mature, with emotional resonance and even some relationship ramifications from the events in the first book. Plus Goldfish is great fun.
For an adult reader, there is a late revelation which I felt was very telegraphed earlier. I'm not sure if I would have noticed as a MG reader or not. It didn't hurt the story for me, but it was a fairly obvious gun on the mantelpiece.
nigellicus's review
5.0
Alice and friends go back to space for a special ceremony to mark the colonisation of a new planet by the human's ex-enemies. Intercepted by a big ship belonging to another alien race with their eye, or eye-stalks, on the planet, it's not long before Alice and friends are hurled out of the nearest airlock to prove that the aliens mean business. Certain death beckons! But also adventure and suspense, rescue and revolution, heroism and betrayal! Space Hostages is rousing and enjoyable and manages to feel like old-school science fiction and at the same time fresh and new.