Danika's Planet by Debbie DiCaprio
Title: Danika's Planet
Author: Debbie DiCaprio
I received the author signed copy of this book on Goodreads. It is a short read which can be finished in one or two sitting as it is quite gripping and is 217 pages long. It talks about a girl's adventure out on another galaxy/universe/planet.
This is the first time I'm reading a partly sci-fi book by an authoress. I call it partly sci-fi because at times it becomes a fantasy book, sometimes christian fiction and sometimes it feels like a scene straight from Home Alone or Baby's Day out.
The story in the book occurs in the year 2030 where people are looking out for a better place than Earth to stay. Looks like a scene from the movie Avatar/Elysium. The story talks of an intelligent, resourceful, curious yet innocent girl Danika who is the daughter of spaceship scientists. She has literally been brought up on the Colo Colui spaceship of which her parents Adam and Brenda Trew are the chief architects. So when they have to leave on a space voyage with 10 other people for a period of ten days, in order to avoid staying away from her parents, she sneaks on board and it turns out that there are some hijackers as well who have sneaked in order to take control of the ship and send out the space scientists on the jetter after drugging them.
Then follows Danika's adventure where she handles the situation like an intelligent child but you can also sense her innocence in many situations. Danika is very endearing and you tend to empathize with her and her emotions.After she fights out the intruders she is forced to leave the Colo Colui on a vehicle named Piethos. On this she travels to various other planets and finally arrives at Daneecha's Planet where the prophecies have been written that an orphan girl will arrive to solve an untreatable disease and will settle there for a span of seven years long.
On the other hand there is a lot of disagreement among crew members regarding plan of action whether to search for the girl or return back home to their families. Finally three crew members stay onto search for the girl. Meanwhile one crew member Pepe just separates from the entire group and nothing is spoken about him so far. It is unclear whether he returns to Earth or hovers in the space and why he is doing so when he could have easily stayed on with the other crew members. There are a lot of loose ends like this in the book. It is also unclear what Danika decides to do whether stay in Daneecha's planet and her course of action there or just returns after a specified time. But she really means to help the people seek enlightenment and the love of God. All these open ends leave a scope for another book which can describe more of other planets, the crew members who are searching for her or some new elements to the character of Pepe.
What I personally didn't quite like was the mixture and sudden jump of genre from sci-fi to fantasy and then some christian fiction beliefs thrown in here and there. I found a few parts very repetitive like the conversations said from one to another about the brief summary Danika has been to. There are not many notable characters worth remembering other than the person who helps her get to Daneecha's Planet. Apart from my qualms about the book, it was a good read which can be enjoyed by all age groups and I would surely pickup the second in the series if at all the DiCaprio decides to write a sequel.
Rating:3/5(It was an OK read)
