The full Circle: Whakataukī Among the Stars: Volume IV
As
I came to the end of Whakataukī Among the Stars: Volume IV, what stayed
with me most was not one plot twist or one favourite character, but the feeling
of it. This is a book with warmth in its hands and steel in its spine. It is
hopeful, yes, but never soft-headed about the cost of survival. It is funny in
the way people are funny when life is hard and humour is part defiance, part
kindness, part keeping the lights on.
If I had to put a
rating on it, I’d call it 4 out of 4 stars for heart, ambition, and sheer
emotional honesty.
What stood out to
me most in this volume is the way the stories keep asking difficult questions
without pretending there are neat answers. Again and again, these pieces return
to memory, responsibility, community, grief, repair, and the stubborn human habit
of trying to build shelter for one another even in impossible places. Some
stories are playful and odd in the best way. Others carry a real ache. A few
left me properly winded. That balance matters to me. I never wanted this series
to be science fiction in a cold, shiny sense. I wanted it to feel inhabited.
Lived in. A little battered. Capable of laughter and consequence in the same
breath.
I also think this
is the strongest the series has been at letting the whakataukī do real work.
They are not decorations here. They press on the characters. They expose them.
They ask something of them, and, I hope, of the reader too.
That said, this
book will not be for everyone. If you want hard military action with no pause
for reflection, or very plot-driven science fiction that races from explosion
to explosion, this probably is not your book. These stories are more interested
in people than machinery, in moral weight than spectacle, and in the long echo
of a choice after the dramatic moment has passed. They take their time where it
counts.
More than
anything, I wanted this volume to feel human. Not perfect. Human. Curious,
frightened, brave, ridiculous, loving, guilty, hopeful. If readers close the
book feeling a little more tender, a little more unsettled, and a little more
willing to listen carefully to the wisdom inside the whakataukī, then I think
it has done its job.
And now, with
Volume IV released into the world, I’m already looking ahead to Volume V
of Whakataukī Among the Stars. If this book is about what survives, what
is revealed, and what must be carried honestly, the next one will take that
conversation further. I’m very excited to share where the series goes next.
— Rebecca
Rebecca Vardy on Amazon
Stories, stars, strange futures, and a little mischief between the galaxies.
Rebecca Among the Stars
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