From School Library Journal
YA-Hopkinson regales readers with a tale in which West Indian folklore and cadence are combined in a futuristic fantasy set on a planet that borrows from both Haiti and Canada in its geography and cultural history. Sixteen-year-old Tan-Tan, the victim of incest, murders her trespassing father, only to become a permanent runaway from her society on the planet of Toussaint. Her childhood heroine, the Robber Queen, becomes something more personal to Tan-Tan as she fights to survive in New Half-Way Tree, a land of exile and horrifying creatures: Tan-Tan learns to emulate her heroine. In this compelling and literary novel, the author provides fully developed characters of both genders and all ages. Tan-Tan's allies include her old godmother and a male peer who quietly took the implied blame when Tan-Tan became pregnant at 14, although her father was that aborted baby's sire. The beasts of New Half-Way Tree are also fully realized, making Tan-Tan's world seem less like one of a horror story and more one of myth. While the language consistently blends Creole with standard North American English, teen readers will have little trouble following the linguistic nuances. As she did in Brown Girl in the Ring (Warner, 1998), Hopkinson provides an engaging nexus of science fiction and folklore.
Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
As the beloved daughter of the mayor of Cockpit County on the planet Toussaint, Tan-Tan grows up spoiled and cherished until her father's crime leads to her exile with him to the prison planet of New Half-Way Tree. Forced to survive in a lawless world, Tan-Tan takes refuge in childhood games, becoming the legendary Robber Queen, whose daring deeds provide the young girl with the courage to overcome her harsh surroundings. The author of Brown Girl in the Ring once again draws from African, Caribbean, and Creole folklore to flavor her tale of a fierce and resourceful young woman determined to make her way in a world she has not chosen. Highly recommended.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The Caribbean colony-world Toussaint enjoys social harmony, thanks to a global computer that speaks to each inhabitant through a tiny aural implant. Those who violently break the social code are exiled to wild New Half-Way Tree. Proud, handsome Antonio, the mayor of Cockpit County, has an equally fiery wife, Ione, and a winsome daughter, Tan-Tan. He has always felt entitled to infrequent affairs, but when he discovers Ione in flagrante delicto with his friend Quashee, Antonio plots to disable his rival in single combat. But his handmade drug misfires, Quashee dies in the ring, and he is exiled. Tan-Tan stows away to be with him; avoiding poisonous plants and voracious wildlife, they survive by the sweat of their brows. Tan-Tan grows into a beauty, which, unfortunately, incites her father's sexual predation. Pregnant at 16, she fights back but must flee into the bush to avoid retribution. Hopkinson's exhilarating prose drives an exciting story that continues with Tan-Tan befriending New Half-Way Tree's natives and coming to terms with self-hatred. Roberta Johnson
From Kirkus Reviews
Out-of-the-ordinary science fiction from the author of Brown Girl in the Ring (1998). Planet Toussaint, colonized by Caribbean islanders, has developed Granny Nansi's Web, a nanotech sentient interface that connects everyone; the inhabitants communicate with it in nannysong. Antonio, mayor of Cockpit County, catches his wife, Ione, in bed with Quashee. During Carnival, the two fight a machete duel, but Antonio cheats, poisoning Quashee, and is hauled off to jail. Hes arranged to escape, though, via a nannysong device that he has his seven-year-old daughter, Tan-Tan, deliver. The device opens a gateway to New Half-Way Tree, a repository for criminals and undesirables, from which there is no return. Antonio forces Tan-Tan to accompany him. The planet is inhabited by dinosaurlike douen, one of whom, Chichibud, helps Tan-Tan and Antonio survive. Claude and One-Eye run the human village, Junjuh, and rigidly enforce the rules. With no machines or nanotech, life consists of unremitting toil. As the years pass, Antonio starts to sexually abuse Tan-Tan. With a friend, Tan-Tan tries to leave Junjuh, but Antonio beats and rapes her. She kills him. By the rules, she must hang, so Chichibud helps her escape to a douen settlement, where Tan-Tan's in for a number of surprises and finds her adventures only just beginning. Spicy and distinctive, set forth in a thoroughly captivating Caribbean dialect. -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
"Deeply satisfying...succeeds on a grand scale...best of all is the language....Hopkinson's narrative voice has a way of getting under the skin."―The New York Times Book Review
"Caribbean patois adorns this novel with graceful rhythms...Beneath it lie complex, clearly evoked characters, haunting descriptions of exotic planets, and a stirring story...[This book] ought to elevate Hopkinson to star status."―Seattle Times
"Spicy and distinctive, set forth in a thoroughly captivating Caribbean dialect."―Kirkus Reviews
"Hopkinson's rich and complex Carib English is...quite beautiful...believable, lushly detailed worlds...extremely well-drawn...Hopkinson owns one of the more important and original voices in SF."―Publishers Weekly
"Highly recommended."―Library Journal
"...employs Caribbean folk elements to tell a story that is by turns fantastic, allegorical and contemporary."―Washington Post
From the Back Cover
Nalo Hopkinson has gained spectacular acclaim for her unique vision and the way she brings the vibrant traditions of Caribbean literature and lore to modern science fiction. The author of Brown Girl in the Ring, winner of the Locus Award for Best First Novel and finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award, now offers a haunting new tale of innocence and experience.PRISONER OF NEW HALF-WAY TREE
It's Carnival time and the Caribbean-colonized planet of Toussaint is celebrating with music, dance, and pageantry. Masked "Midnight Robbers" waylay revelers with brandished weapons and spellbinding words. But to young Tan-Tan, the Robber Queen is simply a favourite costume to wear at the festival -- until her power-corrupted father commits an unforgivable crime.
Suddenly, both father and daughter are thrust into the brutal world of New Half-Way Tree. Here monstrous creatures from folklore are real, and the humans are violent outcasts in the wilds. Here Tan-Tan must reach into the heart of myth -- and become the Robber Queen herself. For only the Robber Queen's legendary powers can save her life...and set her free.
About the Author
Nalo Hopkinson was born in Jamaica and has lived in Guyana, Trinidad, and Canada. The daughter of a poet/playwright and a library technician, she has won numerous awards including the John W. Campbell Award, the World Fantasy Award, and Canada's Sunburst Award for literature of the fantastic. Her award-winning short fiction collection Skin Folk was selected for the 2002 New York Times Summer Reading List and was one of the New York Times Best Books of the Year. Hopkinson is also the author of The New Moon's Arms, The Salt Roads, Midnight Robber, and Brown Girl in the Ring. She is a professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside, and splits her time between California, USA, and Toronto, Canada.
