The stories span many themes and subgenres of science fiction and fantasy, many of them drawing on Hernandezs Cuban heritage. But while the window dressing in each of the stories is unique, they have, at their core, stories of human love and loss, family relationships, and moments of betrayal and repentance. Theyre beautiful and strange and heartbreaking, and theyll resonate well after youve closed the pages of the book.
For readers who grew up on, or whose kids grew up on, the Percy Jackson series (the books, not the films, whose existence I shall deny), Riordan is a household name. In interviews, Hernandez has praised the luck that brought him to the attention of Riordan, who invited him to submit an idea to a then-newly-formed imprint for #OwnVoices middle grade fantasy novels. While most of the series published through Rick Riordan Presents are mythology focused, with gods and demigods running around, some have taken a more science fiction approach, including Yoon Ha Lees fantastic space fantasy Dragon Pearl and Hernandezs own Sal and Gabi books, which borrow some of the same ideas he has explored in his multiverse-bending short stories.
In Sal and Gabi Break the Universe, seventh grader Sal begins his career at a new middle school by combating a bullynot by fighting back exactly, but by performing a magic trick of sorts. While Sal is a stage magician, and quite good at it, he also has an uncanny ability to be able to relax and view the multiverse. Sometimes, he can pull things through. In the case of the bully, this means pulling a dead chicken out of the bullys locker. Ta da! It diffuses the bullying situation like a charm.
Unfortunately for Sal, in his heart of hearts, he misses his mother, who died when he was eight, and sometimes he brings a different version of her into his universe. It never goes well. But Sal cant stop missing his Mami, and he doesnt seem able to stop bridging the multiverse to see her, so his father, a calamity physicist, is working on a remembranation machine that will keep the multiverse from being so permeable. Meanwhile, Gabi, Sals new and soon-to-be-best friend, helps Sal approach the multiverse situation with totally fresh eyesand that new perspective may mean everything when it comes to saving someone the kids both care about.
The quest to make things right with the multiverse continues in Sal and Gabi Fix the Universe, only here, we realize that the stakes are bigger than anyone realized: if the multiverse becomes completely impermeable, it could wipe out reality all across the multiverse. Its up to Sal and Gabior, at least, one version (or more) of Gabi from elsewhere in the multiverseto save everything. (And, meanwhile, they also have to save back to school night from being dreadfully boring. Because while saving the multiverse is important, middle school at one of the coolest schools in the multiverse must go on.)
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An Introduction to Carlos Hernandez Sal & Gabi - Den of Geek UK
