Last Gate of the Emperor

Last Gate of the Emperor, by Kwame Mbalia and Prince Joel Makonnen, is a science fiction adventure for 9 year olds about a boy, a bionic lioness and one game he should never have entered.

What happens

Yared Heywat lives on Addis Prime, a space colony where the sky is permanently hidden behind a swarm of Authority drones. They watch everybody. They also zap anyone who flies higher than ten metres without a permit, and permits cost money Yared and his uncle haven't got.

Yared has been at four schools in two years. He is, as he puts it, alone.

What he does have is Uncle Moti, who tells him stories, sets him strategy exercises and archery lessons, and never raises his voice. And Besa, a battered silver lioness made of diranium who doubles as his computer and is terrified of heights.

The book opens with Yared standing in front of his class, telling the story of the empire of Axum. Warriors with black-flamed swords. A monster called the Bulgu. A traitor who cost them the stars. His teacher tells him off for handing in fairy tales, and she looks oddly nervous while she does it.

Then he climbs out of a window to get to his game.

The Hunt for Kaleb's Obelisk is the biggest thing in Yared's life. It's a battle royale played across the real city with a filter over the top, and it turns a floating market into an obstacle course. There's prize money. He wants it for his uncle, not for himself, though he'd quite like the glory too.

But the admins have wiped the database, and this year everyone must sign in under their real name.

Uncle Moti has spent Yared's whole life making sure his name stays off the network. They once moved house overnight because of a school photo. Yared knows all this. He signs in anyway, and for a moment the screen flashes red before it turns green.

You can feel it coming, and that's the fun.

Reading it is loud and quick and extremely funny. Yared talks straight to you, mostly to make himself sound better than he is. Besa answers in single meows and wins every argument. The world is dense with real Ethiopian words, food and place names, and your reader will pick them up from context rather than a glossary, which is the right way round.

The soft bit underneath is money. Yared's power keeps cutting out. His uncle has a cough he can't afford to see anyone about. The sharpest scene in the whole opening is Yared clinging to a ledge, hearing the headmistress talk about his unpaid fees, and crying where nobody can see him.

What to read next

If they take to this, Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky is Kwame Mbalia again, doing something quite different. Fair warning, it starts two weeks after a funeral, with a boy who blames himself, so it's a heavier opening than this one.