Free by EB Roshan
Publisher: Roshan Publishing
Genre: Middle Grade (8 – 12 y.o.), Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by AstilbeAn accident brought Rex’s career as an interplanetary bodyguard to an abrupt end. Now, he spends his time tending fruit trees and dreaming of his exciting past. One day, he gets an unexpected opportunity to pick up a ray gun again, but things aren’t how he remembered them…
What could be more exciting than exploring outer space?
The world building in this graphic novel was well done. Rex had already had many thrilling adventures by the time the audience met him, and yet there were even greater things still waiting for him. I enjoyed getting to know the fruit moon where Rex had ended up after a terrible accident took his leg and thought this setting was explained nicely. Farming was completely different from what he’d done before, but his coworkers were friendly and the fruit they picked was delicious.
I would have preferred to see a little more character development here. While I liked nearly all of the characters, especially Rex, there wasn’t a lot of time spent displaying his personality or showing how he’d changed as a result of his accident and the years he’d spent as an interplanetary bodyguard. There was plenty of space there to dive into these topics, and I would have gone for a full five-star rating if the author had done that.
Let’s see how much I can share about the ending without sharing spoilers. I thought it was the best part of this tale and perfectly fit everything I’d learned earlier due to how much time was spent showing what made Rex truly happy and which direction his life might head next. It was also something that I wouldn’t necessarily expect from the science fiction genre, so pushing the boundaries of that genre and the audience’s expectations, especially for the middle grade age when it doesn’t seem to happen as often as it does for adult readers, was also a breath of fresh air.
Free was a wild ride.
