Recent reads – Radhika Rages at the Crater School.

Cover art and design – Ben Baldwin

It’s fair to say readers familiar with the Crater School will come to this fourth novel with expectations. A new pupil will arrive and find her place among women and girls who value each other’s skills and merits, even if the hierarchical, patriarchal society of Old Mars fails to appreciate them. Along the way, newcomer and established pupils alike will learn subtly unobtrusive life lessons. So far, so formulaic, but there’s infinite scope for variation on these themes as Brenchley crafts another note-perfect story inspired by classic science fiction and the English school story tradition.

Let’s start with the title. Useful things, prepositions, with their multiple meanings. “At” can simply indicate location. It can also indicate an action directed towards some target. Both are applicable here, and Radhika has plenty to be angry about. She hasn’t come to the Crater School by her own design, or through some benevolent twist of fate. She doesn’t want to be here, but she has no choice. Her father is a disgraced British officer from the Indian Army back on Earth, seeking anonymity on Mars. Living in not-so-genteel poverty, he must find his daughter an acceptable, chaperoned lodging when her mother, his Indian wife, is taken seriously ill and admitted to the Sanatorium across the lake from the school. He has already strained the tolerance of polite society by marrying outside the expectations of his class and upbringing, with the ominous, unspoken implications that has for his daughter’s future.

No one at the Crater School would dream of disparaging Radhika’s complexion. Mistresses and pupils pride themselves on welcoming newcomers, whatever their backgrounds. Readers have already seen girls from strikingly different cultures learn to rub along together here, as their sharp corners are knocked off. We see the widespread expectation that Radhika will leave behind the Hindi she has spoken with her mother, the childhood songs from a very different, non-European musical tradition, and the ruthless, competitive attitudes an army brat learned playing cricket on the Raj’s parched pitches. She will realise they’re not quite the thing, if she’s going to fit in.

Such comfortable, blinkered assumptions lay bare the school’s hitherto hidden flaws. If the Cratereans cannot see for themselves why Radhika rebuffs this pressure to conform so furiously, they risk failing their latest pupil without even realising. With this gulf between them, how can Radhika find a way to help herself?

Brenchley crafts an entertaining, thoughtful read which will more than satisfy returning readers and engage those new to the series equally well.

For a full roster of purchase links, visit the Wizard’s Tower Press webpage.

For thoughts on previous books
Three Twins at the Crater School
Dust Up at the Crater School
Mary Ellen, Craterean

Author: Juliet

Juliet E McKenna is a British fantasy author living in the Cotswolds, UK. Loving history, myth and other worlds since she first learned to read, she has written fifteen epic fantasy novels so far. Her debut, The Thief’s Gamble, began The Tales of Einarinn in 1999, followed by The Aldabreshin Compass sequence, The Chronicles of the Lescari Revolution, and The Hadrumal Crisis trilogy. The Green Man’s Heir was her first modern fantasy inspired by British folklore in 2018. The Green Man’s Quarry in 2023, the sixth title to follow, won the BSFA Award for Best Novel. The Green Man’s War continues this ongoing series. Her 2023 novel The Cleaving is a female-centred retelling of the story of King Arthur, while her shorter stories include forays into dark fantasy, steampunk and science fiction. She promotes SF&Fantasy by reviewing, by blogging on book trade issues, attending conventions and teaching creative writing. She has served as a judge for the James White Award, the Aeon Award, the Arthur C Clarke Award and the World Fantasy Awards. In 2015 she received the British Fantasy Society’s Karl Edward Wagner Award. As J M Alvey, she has written historical murder mysteries set in ancient Greece.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.