The children’s-youth collection of editorial Los Ríos has been betting on a wide variety of books, with texts and illustrations that seek their own expression, freed from a certain normative idea of content that is the majority on the shelves for this audience.
One of the most recent releases is Popz, interstellar travelerby Danisa Ríos, which by extension and proposal assumes several risks.
It is an initiation novel, in key sci-fi, which tells the journey of Popz, a young woman who lives on Dea, a planet of water. Although she knows she didn’t always live there, Popz feels a deep sense of belonging in her watery hunting days. One day, they come looking for her from Tao Alúm (an interplanetary alliance) to start her training as a pilot, a role for which she seems predestined.
On another planet, where there is some kind of global university of the galaxy, Popz surrounds himself with pupils and pupils who have horns, strange skins and gifts related to the four elements. By interacting with these species, he begins to better understand the history of his ancestors and, simultaneously, his own identity.
Danisa Ríos takes up traditions of the genre that come from the universe created by Úrsula LeGuin to more recent novels for young people, such as Harry Potter o The Hunger Games. With these tools, he builds the architecture of his own diverse and coherent galaxy. He naturally creates names, stories, and rituals that support verisimilitude and, at the same time, give density to his protagonist.
The author is clear that the hero’s journey (of the heroine, in this case) is the compass of the story, which advances towards that north without losing direction: this girl who ignores her origin and searches for a future is the key to pacify planets in tension The only digressions are in the episodes that play with another narrative time, which are assembled without noise in the main story.
Dania Ríos chooses a genre in which imagination abounds, but not always the writing that does it justice. And therein lies the charm of her novel: without neglecting the importance of the adventure story, she reels off the exterior and interior world of Popz, creating clear images.
With short chapters, which progress without respite and carelessness (that’s what Liliana Bodoc did so well), at the hands of Popz we go through action scenes, close encounters of the third type, dramatic moments, first friendships and complex political structures.
Its addressee is not limited to young readers, but to all those people who enjoy adventures in other worlds. Everything is given for the novel to continue within its own saga. Will it be so?
- Popz, interstellar traveler. From Danisa Rios. Editorial Los Rios. 220 pages