A Sequence of Cosmic Accidents by S.A. Reyhani
Our guest blog today comes from author, S.A. Reyhani about the friendships in their book, A Sequence of Cosmic Accidents!
Honestly, who doesn’t love a good middle-grade story? There’s something about that age – when the seeds of defiance and independence grow their first exploratory roots – that lends itself to extraordinary adventures. With three middle-graders in my own house, I’m in the thick of this germination period.
It’s a time of significant adjustment for me too, relinquishing my position at the centre of their universe as friendships and peer influence take over. And I can’t help but wonder how the stories our children read might help them navigate these new relationships.
In A Sequence of Cosmic Accidents, the two main characters, Arian and Madlock, start the story as the worst of enemies. Being twelve years old is, on the face of it, the only thing they have in common – they are literally from different planets. But they come to discover that, irrespective of their vastly different upbringings, they are motivated by the same core emotions, including processing the loss of a loved one. It is this grief that ultimately sets them on the path to an epic friendship.
I hope their friendship goes some way towards reminding readers that no matter what culture, religion, background (or planet) they may come from, they are likely to share more in common with one another than they realise. Folkloric tales and legends illustrate this point beautifully, highlighting our commonalities across all forms of diversity.
While writing, I thought a lot about Rostam, the legendary hero immortalised in the Shahnameh, the Persian Book of Kings. Rostam has all the traits of a hero: he’s brave, intelligent, selfless, strong. But he is not without his flaws and makes some catastrophic decisions – a reminder that even the best of us can still harbour aspects of the worst of us. Arian, like Rostam, is far from perfect, but he strives to be so and therein lies his true worth as a friend.
Those exceptional qualities we gravitate towards are not found solely in archetypical heroes like Rostam, or indeed demigods or knights. In A Sequence of Cosmic Accidents, it is the Blacksmith – based on the legendary Persian blacksmith in the Shahnameh – whose sacrifices and actions will ultimately save the day.
Blacksmiths and craftsmen, recurrent in legends the world over, are loved because they are ‘everyman’ archetypes, with attributes we not only admire but can readily acquire like grit, humbleness and modesty. To me, they embody that kind of friend who encourages us to bring out the best in ourselves.
But what of those individuals who are not so easy to like? Raised in a sewer and with her multitude of flaws, Madlock is detested by her peers. Arian alone manages to see past her outer layers to the diamond at her core and, in doing so, he secures the most loyal friend in the galaxy.
It does make me smile when my son tells me he “hates but likes” Madlock. Relationships are complex things, after all. Thank goodness books are there to shed a light on life’s complexities and, in the case of middle-grade readers, help their tentative tendrils find those friendships worth anchoring themselves to.
Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Federation.
