We Do Not Welcome Our Ten-Year-Old Overlord

 Title: We Do Not Welcome Our Ten-Year-Old Overlord

Author: Garth Nix

Genre: Science Fiction

Publisher: Allen and Unwin

Published: 29^th October 2024

Format: Paperback

Pages: 256

Price: $17.99

Synopsis: From master storyteller Garth Nix comes the thrilling tale of a strange object with the potential to destroy the world, and what happens when it falls into the wrong hands. Perfect for fans of Stranger Things.

All Kim wants to do is play Dungeons & Dragons with his friends and ride his bike around the local lake. But he has always lived in the shadow of his younger sister. Eila is a prodigy, and everyone talks about how smart she is, though in Kim’s eyes, she has no common sense. So when Eila finds an enigmatic, otherworldly globe which gives her astonishing powers, Kim not only has to save his sister from herself, he might also have to save the world from his sister!

With his trademark creeping menace and a strong sense of 1970s nostalgia, bestselling fantasy author Garth Nix (Sabriel, Mister Monday, The Left-Handed Booksellers of London) has expertly crafted this pacy and exciting standalone middle grade novel.

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It’s 1975, in an alternate Canberra. Kim lives with his family on a research farm, where scientists often come, and he’s not allowed to read fiction or play games. His life is all about education and chores. And, he lives with his ten-year-old sister, Eila who is a prodigy. Everything is going well, even though Kim has to sneak off to his friend Bennie’s house to play Dungeons and Dragons with his friends on the weekend. That is, until Eila finds a strange globe from another world. A globe that gives her astonishing powers – powers that can control anyone and everything in strange ways. Kim and his friends have to band together to save Eila, and save the world from Eila.

Garth Nix’s new middle grade novel is a creepy and menacing science fiction novel is a pacy read that doesn’t want to be put down. From the moment Eila finds Aster, there’s a constant sense that something unsettling is going to happen – and it isn’t something good. Aster is the globe, the otherworldly presence that is trying to take over Eila and their world throughout this novel, though at first it isn’t clear to everyone. Kim is the only person who can see that something isn’t quite right. He may not be a prodigy like his sister, but he’s smart enough to see through Aster and her goals. Kim is the hero of the novel – even if he doesn’t like doing all the things his parents tell him to do or that they obligate him to. Their simple life can be dreary, and as the novel goes on, Kim becomes suspicious about the changes in his family life – the things that if he did them or asked for him, would be negatively received. He knows things don’t add up – the very essence of a good story like this that plays with history, space, and time, and how we respond to unforeseen changes and strange goings on.

This epic standalone for middle grade readers fits nicely alongside his previous works, like Sabriel, Frogkisser, Newt’s Emerald, and The Left-Handed Booksellers of London. He has a nice mix here of middle grade and young adult, mostly in the fantasy and science fiction world. The world in We Do Not Welcome Our Ten-Year-Old Overlord is both familiar and new, where we get to explore Canberra through Kim’s eyes, the 1975 version captured within this novel. Even though there is a sinister and creepy feel to this novel, it’s layered and bubbles along quietly at times, building up to something big that will take all of Kim’s friends to help – once they realise what Aster is really up to. Everyone who knows about her sees her as innocuous, curious and helpful at first, especially Eila who is determined to prove that nobody but her understands Aster. It’s this clash of how we respond to each other that creates the tension in this novel, and moves it along well. There is a constant sense of wanting to know what is going to happen.

Everything in this novel, down to Kim’s Dungeons & Dragons game is carefully thought out, and delivered at the right time. It means that we get to hit all the beats effectively, and find out what we need to know at crucial points throughout the novel. This worked well, because it kept me reading, as I wanted to see how this all came together. It was an interesting premise, and I like that it explained Dungeons & Dragons a bit so those who are unfamiliar with the game can get an idea of how it is played. But just enough so the action could move swiftly towards saving the world and Eila. This novel is filled with Garth’s humour and ability to write epic quests, whether in a single book or within a series that spans several books. I think that readers of science fiction and fans of Garth Nix will appreciate and enjoy this new book.