Midnight Robber

Nalo Hopkinson has gained spectacular acclaim for her unique vision and the way she brings the vibrant traditions of Caribbean literature and lore to modern science fiction. The author of Brown Girl in the Ring, winner of the Locus Award for Best First Novel and finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award, now offers a haunting new tale of innocence and experience.

PRISONER OF NEW HALF-WAY TREE

It's Carnival time and the Caribbean-colonized planet of Toussaint is celebrating with music, dance, and pageantry. Masked "Midnight Robbers" waylay revelers with brandished weapons and spellbinding words. But to young Tan-Tan, the Robber Queen is simply a favourite costume to wear at the festival -- until her power-corrupted father commits an unforgivable crime.

Suddenly, both father and daughter are thrust into the brutal world of New Half-Way Tree. Here monstrous creatures from folklore are real, and the humans are violent outcasts in the wilds. Here Tan-Tan must reach into the heart of myth -- and become the Robber Queen herself. For only the Robber Queen's legendary powers can save her life...and set her free.

"Midnight Robber" is a coming-of-age story starring Tan-Tan, a young girl who lives on a Caribbean-colonized planet named Toussaint. Beloved by both parents, Tan-Tan becomes the focus of a custody battle between the two. Her father, a local mayor, kidnaps her through a "dimension shift" to another planet: New Half Way Tree, where creatures from Caribbean folk tales are real.

As Tan-Tan matures, her adventures become mythologized in local folklore until she takes on the aspect of the "Midnight Robber", a traditional sort of Robin Hood character from the Trinidad Carnival. The novel will take on the issues of colonized peoples, child abuse, and displaced persons trying to find new ways of life in a strange land.