Francisco thrills with a coming-of-age debut set among the stars. Sixteen-year-old Val Vega from New Jersey worries about her SATs and hangs out with BFFs Kate and her nonbinary crush, Will. Her Uncle Umberto, adored by Val for being understanding and easy to talk to, has just returned from his work in Istanbul, where he negotiates for the rights of marginalized territories around the world. But when Umberto dies—reportedly of a heart attack—shortly before he’s scheduled to arbitrate an important negotiation, Val’s life is turned upside down.At Umberto’s wake, Val discovers the true nature of his work: he was Earth’s ambassador for the interstellar council of planets, his co-workers are space aliens, and he was most likely murdered. On top of those otherworldly revelations, the Interstellar Assembly is coming up, and Val’s been named as Umberto’s successor—and she’s urgently needed to negotiate a treaty between the Etoscans and the Levinti, alien colonists who are fighting for control of the planet Hosh. As Val finds her footing in the interstellar world of politics, her confidence slowly grows, a much-needed shift given her suspicions about her uncle’s death.
Readers will relish being swept into Val’s efforts to find the traitor amongst her uncle’s alien co-workers: is it Johnny, a Synthetic who used to be a war machine; Pash-Ti, an arrogant seven-foot-tall stick insect and Levinti sympathizer; or Wasala, a Hoshan exile and telepath, who resembles a six-legged raccoon? To aid with her search, Val confides in and enlists the help of Timoteo, her older brother and Harvard poli-sci major, who happens to have the hots for Johnny. Francisco’s writing is fast-paced and heartfelt, with diverse characters and a charming blend of politics, momentous space negotiations, and murder mystery—along with a crucial message that people can work through their differences without resorting to violence.
Takeaway: Teenager steps up as Earth’s ambassador to negotiate interstellar peace.
Comparable Titles: Marissa Meyer’s Cress, Jina S. Bazzar’s Imperial Stardust.
Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
In Francisco’s debut novel, a teenager is tasked with mediating an interstellar conflict.
Sixteen-year-old Valeria “Val” Vega lives with her mother; her brothers, Miguel and Timoteo; and her uncle, Umberto Olmeda, a diplomat who’s often away traveling. When Umberto dies unexpectedly and mysteriously, Val and her family are plunged into grief. Then, Umberto’s colleagues Johnny, Wasala, and Pash-Ti, drop another bombshell. Umberto wasn’t an ordinary diplomat, they explain—he was Earth’s ambassador in an intergalactic council—and before he died, he’d named Val as his successor. Val soon finds herself in the middle of a centuries-old power struggle over the planet Hosh, involving three alien civilizations: the Levintis, the Etoscans, and the resident Hoshians. Val must act as a mediator in the new peace treaty discussions. However, the more Val learns about the conflict, the more she finds out about each party’s nefarious motives and tactics. She also learns that Umberto’s death was actually an assassination. Val desperately wants to help bring peace to the planets and solve her uncle’s murder—but she wonders if she’s capable of doing so. Francisco presents a thrilling coming-of-age SF story that not only explores the precariousness of colonialism and sectarian conflict, but also the complexities of identity and relationships. Val is a smart, resourceful, and highly empathic protagonist, and her arc as an intergalactic diplomat is compelling. However, it’s her scenes on Earth that make her so easy to root for, as when she acts as an English-to-Spanish translator for her mother while planning her uncle’s funeral and when she and her friend Des make up after a fight. Readers will enjoy the author’s sharp prose style and quippy dialogue, as well as the book's vast, imaginative worldbuilding, including high-tech gadgets and intricate extraterrestrial biology. The cast of human characters is also realistically diverse: Val and her family are Puerto Rican and speak Spanish at home; she identifies as “more sapiosexual than anything”; her crush, Will, is nonbinary; and Umberto is gay.
A captivating, heartfelt tale about family, diplomacy, and finding one’s place in the universe.
