In Ruben and the Curious Cosmonaut by A R Marchant, belonging is not something granted easily and bravery is not defined by loud gestures or fearless certainty. Both are discovered slowly, in quiet choices made under pressure, in unfamiliar places where nothing behaves as expected.
Set against a backdrop of floating wreckage and fading celestial light, this middle-grade fantasy reimagines what it means to find your place in a universe that feels both vast and fragile.
At the heart of the story is Ruben, a reserved boy who does not see himself as remarkable. He is not the strongest voice in the room or the most confident on the playground. Yet when a worn cosmonaut helmet in his grandfather’s costume shop activates a hidden mirror, Ruben is pulled into a world far beyond anything he has known. He steps into the Yard: a suspended expanse of broken structures, drifting machinery and silent, weightless debris orbiting a forgotten system known as the Cosmic Engine.
The Yard is not a typical fantasy realm. It is vast, disjointed and filled with remnants of something once complete. Panels float like forgotten thoughts. Metal fragments hang in impossible balance. Entire sections of what may have once been worlds drift without clear direction. It feels abandoned at first glance, yet something still moves through it. It is here that Ruben begins to understand that brokenness is not the same as emptiness.
Belonging, in this world, does not come with arrival. Ruben does not step through the mirror as someone who fits here. He is an outsider in every sense: uncertain, untrained and overwhelmed by the scale of what he sees. But belonging in Marchant’s universe is not about origin. It is about participation. About what you choose to notice and what you choose to care for.
Ruben is not alone for long. He meets Sparky, a small glowing being whose presence brings warmth and guidance through the cold geometry of the Yard. Sparky is not simply a companion. He is a reminder that connection can exist even in fractured places. Alongside them is the Custodian, a mechanical guardian who understands the Yard’s systems and its history, and who slowly becomes a reluctant mentor in the restoration of something vast and failing: the Cosmic Engine.
The Engine sits at the centre of the narrative. A colossal structure responsible for sustaining the alignment of stars and constellations across space. When it weakens, stars begin to fade. Entire systems drift out of connection. What might appear distant and abstract becomes deeply personal, especially for Sparky, whose own home star is among those at risk.
Bravery in this story is not a sudden transformation. It is a process of learning how to move carefully across unstable ground, how to solve problems that resist force and how to act even when certainty is absent. Ruben must align floating mirrors, interpret fractured crystals and stabilise delicate systems that respond not to strength, but to patience and understanding. Each task reinforces a central truth: courage is not the absence of fear, but the decision to continue despite it.
What gives the book its emotional weight is the realism beneath its fantastical setting. Ruben frequently doubts himself. He missteps. He hesitates. Yet these moments do not define failure. They define growth. In the Yard, mistakes are not endpoints. They are information. They teach him how to listen more closely to the world around him.
The idea of broken stars runs throughout the narrative as both literal and symbolic. Stars fade in the story’s universe, but so too do confidence, certainty and connection. And yet nothing is truly lost. The Cosmic Engine, once restored, reveals that systems can be repaired and that even fractured components still hold purpose. A cracked crystal still carries light. A misaligned mirror can be corrected. A hesitant boy can become part of something much larger than himself.
By the end of the novel, Ruben’s understanding of belonging has shifted entirely. He no longer sees it as something he must earn by being different from who he is. Instead, he recognises it as something formed through presence, attention and care. He has not become someone else. He has become more fully himself.
Ruben and the Curious Cosmonaut offers young readers a story about finding courage in quiet places and connection in unexpected worlds. That even broken stars still shine. And that being ordinary, if you pay close enough attention, turns out to be more than enough.
Ruben and the Curious Cosmonaut is available now from Amazon
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