The Starlight Watchmaker

Local Description

Review:

"SUCH an adorable and fun short story ... You're in for a treat" -- Alice Oseman, author
"Rich and brilliantly bonkers ... Its themes of social justice and equality really set it apart in the sci-fi genre" -- Belfast Telegraph
"Charming and funny" -- BookTrust
"James creates a world full of impossible wonders ... an important story about friendship and doing the right thing by others" -- The Letterpress Project
"Fantastic science-fiction ... wildly inventive" -- Armadillo Magazine

 

 

Prizes: Short-listed for STEAM Children's Book Prize 2020. Nominated for Carnegie Medal 2020.

Description

Readers are transported to a whole new galaxy in this wildly imaginative sci-fi adventure from the author of The Loneliest Girl in the Universe.

At an elite academy where the wealthiest students from across the galaxy come to be educated, Hugo works as a watchmaker in a dusty attic room. But he is one of the lucky ones. Many androids like him are jobless and homeless. A privileged student like Dorian could never understand their struggle - or so Hugo thinks when the pompous duke comes knocking at his door with a broken time-travel watch.

But when Hugo and Dorian discover that powerful quantum energy is being stolen from the watches, they fear that someone is plotting a sinister scheme ...

Android and student must reconcile their differences if they are to track down the culprit before the whole academy is placed in danger.

Promotion info

An unlikely friendship is forged between android and student in this wildly imaginative sci-fi adventure from YA star Lauren James.

Author description

Lauren James is the Young Adult author of The Loneliest Girl in the Universe, The Quiet at the End of the World and The Next Together series. Her books have sold over fifty thousand copies in the UK alone, and have been translated into five languages worldwide. She was longlisted for the 2016 Branford Boase Award and was named 'one to watch' by Kirkus.