‘Terra’ is the name she’s given, and she grows up as the only one of her kind on the planet she’s taken back to – in a neat and very interesting twist, it is the human being in this story who is the alien, the outsider, the curiosity. Terra is the story of a human girl, taken from Earth and adopted by a scientifically-minded explorer named Lbbp after he’s inadvertently discovered by her parents on a research trip to Earth (‘Rrth’ in his own language), terrifies them into running for their lives, and decides upon finding the baby they left behind in their panic that Earth is a terrible place for a child to be raised. I’m not as familiar with his books as I am with Terry Pratchett’s, but the man’s on the money – if you enjoy the sense of humour that pervades Pratchett’s work, then this is a book that’s not to be missed. You’ll note that on the cover shown in the picture above, it’s gotten some serious love from none other than Neil Gaiman. In my defense, it sounded like a fun book to read. But, as I have a habit of sometimes doing, I let my curiosity get the better of me. I almost didn’t reply to that email from Gollancz, asking if I’d like one I had a handful of other books lined up to read and review for the month, and my TBR pile is certainly not lacking in books to keep me going afterward.

When I requested a review copy of this book, it was more or less out of a moment of impulsive interest. Terra is out next week – you can hear some of his celebrity mates reading it here!

You can follow Lisa on Twitter and Facebook and check our her brilliant blog for more sci-fi and fantasy reviews. This week, Lisa McCurrach has sent in her fantastic review of Terra. Our most recent Gollancz Geeks mailing is Mitch Benn’s debut, Terra, and we were thrilled to see the reviews are coming in already.

Terra by Mitch Benn