H. M. Hoover - Let's Not Forget Friday

I think about Orvis every now and then.  When I use hot glue to create fashions for a grandchild's toy, I remember the retired space travelers creating clothes for the two main characters - not counting Orvis - and warning them that the glue was not quite dry.

I remember details of Orvis' self-propelled journey to the dump and then his surprising mutiny.

I remember children who were homesick for space while on Earth since a space station had been their only home - and children who tired of space travel.  How two of these children - one yearning for space and the other trying to avoid returning there - join forces with the run-away robot is a wonderful yarn.

Orvis is just one of H. M. Hoover's sci-fi books that I have read and re-read. 

Although I recognize the social commentary that is central to almost all science fiction, it was Hoover's books that showed me how a rousing good story in a distant time and place, absent of "magic" but redolent with the possibilities of alternate life forms, could shed light on the issues of today.

Inequities between the haves and the have-nots, as in Away is a Strange Place to Be; the assumption of human superiority over other life forms, as in The Lost Star, are only two of the issues dealt with in Hoover's books.

Loneliness, family structure, oppression, and exclusion - all of these things may have been the germ that fueled her stories.  The stories themselves had me and young readers returning to the shelves again and again.

Hoover hasn't published a book since 1996.

Fantasy has long outstripped sci-fi in popularity.  Hoover's books have disappeared from a lot of library shelves.  (Orvis remains on my local library shelves, though.  Huzzah!)

Twenty plus books keep H. M. Hoover's reputation alive.  I won't forget!