Agent

by Leam Hall

Alba “Al” Domici trains hard to be special, but special gets redefined in a big way!

Every kid on every planet in the Free Trade League reveres Sangrean Games winners. Back world tomboy Alba "Al" Domici is driven; she trains for a team scholarship. She trains to be a somebody.

Al struggles, and stumbles, with the people closest to her. Friends think her laundry folding dad is a hit man for the star spanning Domici family. The brother she didn't know about might be an intergalactic spy, and her side-kick Wilbur is seriously not her boyfriend. Al crashes every relationship possible and then must overcome thugs, wearing a dress, mutiny, tough coaches, and weird prophecies from the Mad Knitter.

Or she can just stay a nobody.

318 pages, ebook

First published September 15, 2019

About the author

I write Coming of Age YA SciFi with a Christian Warrior Ethos.

That's the "official" term, anyway. The reality is that an over-confident backworld tomboy wanted to be special; to be somebody. I wrote her story. She was a bit miffed that I included things her parents weren't supposed to know, but she got over it when she found out the truth about her semi-weird family. Took her a while to get used to the really weird other family on another planet. It took her even longer to figure out the Mad Knitter, but that was a good story.

Err...I've been directed to say that "Al is a very good girl at heart, just misunderstood. Loving, kind, and always dutifully obeys." I'm specifically forbidden mentioning her blowing purple snot out of her nose or her feelings about the best girl on the planet now smiling-when-they-are-together friends with Wilbur. You know, the guy who liked Al. Everybody on the planet, except Al, was quite aware of it. Even Al's dad knew...

Al eventually makes a good choice or two. And that's before the end of the first book, "Agent". Which, honestly, surprised me. Surprised Al, too.

I'd love to go on and tell about how Al grew up to be a wonderful princess-y do-gooder, where her life was blessed and she lived "happily ever after". Al becomes an awesome non-princess woman as she suffers trauma, struggles with PTSD, and sacrifices her mental health to save her friends. Her leadership inspires others to greatness.

In the end, broken and dying, she accepts who she really is. I'm honored to know her.

Reviews

[T.B. Johnson · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m afraid I must be harsh. This book feels condescending. There’s a common misconception among writers that books for the young ones are easier to write because the young ones are stupider. They’re not, and they’re not. Adherents to this belief fail to realize that they’re just older children and that, though their intelligence level may be different now from then (higher or lower), they’re still in the same ballpark of stupidity. I can’t know the author’s mentality going into writing, but I get the feeling that at some point, they thought something like, “Whatever. It’s for kids.” It’s especially jarring to drag myself through a book like this right after finishing Ray Bradbury’s “The Halloween Tree,” which tells its tale with such vigor, such powerful turns of phrase, and such integrity that it easily reaches the ranks of the literary classics, grown-up books included.

Agent The Domici War: Al (not AI, AL; I doubt an LLM generated this) doesn’t quite get there. The prose is purely functional. It’s almost written like a screenplay with how sparse and to-the-point the descriptions are and how heavily it relies on dialogue. But only almost, because the dialogue lacks subtext (i.e., what the characters say to each other tends to only work on one level: the surface, or their immediate meaning). The prose isn’t bad (aside from a handful of punctuation errors—excusable trivialities), but it also isn’t good.

The narrative isn’t very adventurous or science-fictional. For instance, much of the plot of the middle of the book revolves around a sporting event. What crazy science-fiction games did the author think up to include in the event? Uh… none. There’s swimming and shooting and stuff like that.

Finally, the protagonist is insanely dull. I’ve read a few of the reviews praising her as “strong,” but I don’t see it. I won’t spoil anything, but early into the book, it becomes clear that the protagonist isn’t who she thinks she is. This trope feels weak to me because the reversal in fortune comes about through no action on the part of the protagonist. She doesn’t make these changes occur; they happen to her. That’s what I call weak character.

Overall, this book is fine to gift to one of your dumber kids to shut them up for a while. But don’t expect it to stick with them, and don’t bother reading it yourself. (There’s nothing inappropriate in the book. You can trust me. I wrote a dark erotica novella, so I know what’s appropriate and what’s not.)

This review was given as part of the Goodreads Review Group.

[S.D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

13-year-old Alba, aka Al is a tomboy navigating adolescence on the planet Saorsa. She's no wilting violet but at the same time feels disadvantaged compared to the rich kids at her school. There's a school scandal, its competition team disbanded, and Al's social world seems to spin out of control. To make things worse her best friend Wilbur tries to kiss her. On top of that, everything she believed about her family turns out to be false and she is forced to rethink her place in the scheme of things.

There are a lot of characters introduced in the opening chapters for the middle grade target reading audience. I had to reread to sort them out but once I identified Alba as the main character I stopped thinking and entered her world. She is a likable but flawed protagonist. Like Al, the otherworld/Sci Fi thrust of the story develops as her understanding of her family, her world, its dangers and herself progresses. This is where the story comes alive.

I do believe the first third of the story could have been tightened. In spite of this, I liked Al a lot and for that reason kept reading. Kids who like Sci Fi will enjoy the ride.

[Ann Birdgenaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the strong female lead character; Alba, in Leam Hall’s scifi book for young adult readers. Agent, book one in the Domici War series is set on uncannily Earth-like, planet Saorsa. Alba (Al) is smart, ambitious and willing to work hard to get a “…job that paid more than shoveling blagy stalls.” Al has skills, she can fix anything and she longs to participate in the contest of shooting, fencing and riding. But can she navigate the pitfalls of being 13 years old: her best friend, Wilbur may have a crush on her; the wealthy kids have all the advantages, and is she the daughter of the famous Marco Domici, hero of the Free Trade League and rescuer of thousands. I look forward to reading book 2 in the series to find out if Al can live up to her potential and destiny.

[Loralee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Al is a spunky young lady who, with her sidekick, Wilbur gets herself and Wilbur into adventures in a story that takes place in the future, but often seems to be more of a modern teen angst story. The kids do things that are relatable to modern kids nowadays but are combined with space travel and living in colonies on other places besides Earth. The story seems to wear several hats, and I'm not sure which one was the dominant one.
I do have to say that being a middle aged adult, I'm not in the target audience of this book, and so it is likely that teens would enjoy the story. It is clean, and has a strong, likeable heroine. Teens who like sci-fi with strong female leads would likely enjoy this story!

[Denis Roubien · Rating 4 out of 5]

After getting over the problem of understanding who is who and what their role in the book is, which is usual for me when the story takes place in another time/world, I found this book entertaining and the main character interesting and likeable. The fact that we are taken to another planet in the future but behaviours and situations are very similar to our own world/time is, according to me, a very interesting side of this book. All in all, I think this will be an enjoyable read for teenagers and young adults and in general for readers who like sci-fi and heroes who get themselves mixed in all kinds of adventures.

[Richard Pinkerton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leam Hall has created a world similar in many ways to our own, but where big beasties called Blagys need to be given respect and where the common frog can be quite horrifying.

Al is a girl who has aspirations of competing in what appears to be this world’s Modern Pentathlon, involving fencing, shooting and hors...lizard riding. She also has the everyday struggle that all kids have… trying to fit in.

Good reading for younger readers, where the young heroine gets to do a little bit of crime-fighting along the way.

[Sadhana Wadhwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not often that I get to read YA/middle grade fantasies now. However this was a good pick. The prologue is interesting and the opening chapters have a lot of characters so it takes sometime and perhaps couple of re-reads to get the picture clear. But once done, you actually enjoy the story. Alba is similar to the teenage girls who are in search of their identity. Her journey, the school band getting disbanded and then the truth about her family everything - how it all affects her - keeps your interest intact. Good read overall.