A #SciFiMonth Inner Space Odyssey Book Review | “The Heart of the Uni-verse” by S.D. Henke

Posted Monday, 13 January, 2025 by jorielov , , , 0 Comments

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Acquired Book By: I’ve been wanting to read this lovely novel for the past year, as I received it ahead of #SciFiMonth in (2023) and had fully intended to either read it ahead or feature it during the event itself. Due to various reasons, I was delayed, and my review was pushed forward until now. The author reached out to me via my Review Policy page, and I was truly grateful they had as it was a different kind of story and format of a book, and I was most eager to read it. I am hoping by featuring it this year during #SciFiMonth other readers might give it a chance to leave an impression on them as well.

I received a complimentary copy of “The Heart of the Uni-verse” direct from the author S.D. Henke in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

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An apology to the author for taking a bit longer to read this lovely story:

I had fully intended to read this lovely story closer to the time it arrived by Post, however, as it turnt out, the best timing for me was this #SciFiMonth instead. Everything was going fine, too, as I was hugged so dearly close into the story and appreciating the diversions of where the poetry moved along in sync with the journey we were undertaking with Pi. Then, of course, the events I mentioned on a book spotlight happened and I expanded what was going on personally in my life on The Sunday Post. To put it simply, I lost my footing with my final reads of #SciFiMonth and had to redivert my attention into reading by selecting some #cloakanddaggerchristmas reads (such as Prison Break Hostage) instead as well as some INSPY Contemporary Romances (such as The Doctor’s Christmas Dilemma) to put me back on track!

By the time I *finally!* realigned into the novel, it was a breath of fresh air as I truly loved the uniqueness of how its told and the style in which it was written. Thereby, I truly apologise to the author for taking a heap longer to read this novel than originally intended. I can honestly say, the times I’ve spent inside the story were wicked brilliant and I definitely look forward to seeing more stories by Henke now that I firmly have a grasp on her artfulness of storycrafting!

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A #SciFiMonth Inner Space Odyssey Book Review | “The Heart of the Uni-verse” by S.D. HenkeThe Heart of the Uni-verse
by S.D. Henke
Source: Direct from Author

PI confronts the everyday trials of an eleven-year-old grappling with the complexities of life, family, and friends, and the prospects of losing it all in a heartbeat as he faces his third and final round of open-heart surgery for a congenital defect. Struggling with the family dynamics of his exhausted mother, his deployed military father, and his declining grandfather, BIG PAW, Pi feels as if his life is spiraling out of control.

When it’s announced that his school will host the 3M contest an idea to alter his misfortunes springs into action. Pi sees this as his chance to change the course of his life. There’s just one problem, only eligible 6th-grade students are allowed to enter, and although he should be in 6th grade based on his age, he was held back a year due to his health condition. Crushed by the news that his dream could be foiled by the limits of space and time, he and his friends concoct a plan that can take them to the stage of the national science contest. 

Other things are changing for him as well as he navigates a budding new friendship with a sixth-grade girl, CEYLAN who has offered to enter the contest for him. With the added moral support of his best friend JAMAL, and the solace he’s found in science, Pi sees his own cosmic connection with the power of positive thinking as a path to help heal the hole in his heart.

Pi and his friends enter the contest and work together to bring ‘Mind Matters’ into the scientific spotlight. The evidence rests in the countdown toward Pi’s impending surgery. On top of that, the changes in Pi’s grandfather are taking a turn for the worse as Pi watches him drift away in direct conflict with what he is working to achieve.

Meanwhile, his own timer is up with his deployed father’s scheduled homecoming and the surgery moving ahead as planned. Pi is out of time and out of hope and failure seems to be allied with his everyday reality. Just when he thinks he has no other option than to give up, his own efforts to promote the positive has left an impact and his friends and his grandfather step up to show him that “Mind Matters” really do matter.

Genres: Children's Literature, Middle Grade, Poetry & Drama, Science Fiction



Places to find the book:

Add to LibraryThing

ISBN: 9781738125401

Published by Self Published

on 10th April, 2023

Format: Paperback Edition

Pages: 241

Published By: SDH Publishing / Self Published

Available Formats: Trade paperback and Ebook

Converse via: #SciFiMonth

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the poetry inside this novel tells their own story:

The poetry which is inclusive of the story tells their own story as the poetry itself acts as a chronicle of Pi’s inner space odyssey as he processes life, his thoughts, his moods and his experiences. They are both introspectively responsive to Pi’s reactions and are creatively fused to his emotions. I was truly captured by the care and attention Henke gave to the poetry and to the synchroneity of the poems themselves. Of how their tempo and pacing held a wicked rhythm of their own and spoke such humbled truths which felt like they originated directly from Pi and not from someone trying to sort out how Pi might communicate those thoughts himself. It felt like a chronicling of conscience thoughts from a young boy coming to terms with himself and the world around him in a very creative format of delivery.

The poem which speaks to the title is called Singularity and it was wickedly poignant if short in length, but it conveyed the message and explained why the novel is titled the way it is as well which was brilliant.

my review of the heart of the uni-verse:

Pi is a very uniquely smart young child who is dealing with a very difficult medical issue for his young years. Similar to Sheldon Cooper in one respect, he has a mind for Science and has a unique interest in chasing after the topics he wants to explore more through his own research and understanding of them. His Big Paw (ie. grandfather) humours listening to his explanations even though he has the tendency to dismiss a bit of what Pi tells him out of hand. I think in this instance; he might be attempting to get Pi not to focus so much on the heavier side of life and the universe but to draw closer into his experiences in the here and now and let the contemplation of Science wait for another day.

Pi might be advanced in understanding Science but when it comes to interacting with his peers, he’s definitely on target for his age group as he has all the insecurities you might expect of a boy his age. Including being able to acknowledge and interact with a girl he is smitten with but didn’t realise liked him in return. He’s keenly observant and has a humbled voice through the poetry which accompanies his story. The poetry itself is a lifeline to his internal thoughts and how he processes his world and the ways in which he lives it. Even the font changes to empathise a certain point he is making or a particular observation. It is a wonderful addition to Pi’s personality, but it is also so keenly insightful into how someone even at his age perceives his world and how he interacts within it.

As an aside, I recently was reading about how organs hold memories and how memory isn’t simply held within our minds. Which is why when Pi mentioned thermonuclear knowledge – I knew he was onto something! The way he synthesizes knowledge is both unique and uplifting. Where someone might seem something quite ordinary, Pi sees the extraordinary. He has an astute sense of self and his environments, too.

Pi’s friend Jamal keeps things real – he’s the kind of friend who tells you what you need to hear, what you’d rather not hear and all the in-between stuff a good friend will share with you too. The two were quite inseparable and it makes sense as navigating school in any grade is hard enough solo. Jamal of course also sees things through a different lens of insight than Pi; such as knowing the different stages of growing up and what that includes whereas Pi tends to look at life as it is lived in front of him and doesn’t plan on variables about the future. Even the immediate and short-time future which would be natural to do at his age. I credit that to his medical condition and the fact he has a lot weighing on his mind. Whilst at the same time, I think his whole attention is truly on Science and the contest which has him smitten to enter despite the fact he’s in the wrong grade and doesn’t see that as an obstacle he can’t overcome. A credit to him but also a complication to resolve.

Big Paw plays a big role in the story and he’s definitely one of my favourites alongside Pi, of course! He has keen wisdom he tries to impart on his grandson but it’s the phrases he uses and the ways in which he treats Pi as the young man he’s becoming which won me over! Pi’s Mom on the other hand tends to dismiss his ideas and doesn’t allow an open mind to hearing out what he has to say. In her defense, I can recognise her fears and understand her protective instincts when it comes to Pi but it was Big Paw’s reaction that I felt was a better approach and it allowed everyone to feel as if they had an active role in Pi’s medical health rather than only having the adults have a say in it.

The beauty of the story is how it is told. Henke tapped into something quite unique and special by her merger of narrative grace and the poetic insightfulness of poems. The ways in which she chose to tell Pi’s story through a fusion of his living hours and the introspective nature of his thoughts as they were cast into poems – intermingles the ways in which story and words can transform the reality of his life for the reader. I truly appreciated the more intimate ways in which Henke told his story but also, how the story informs the reader about the larger message of this story, too. The ways in which interconnectedness and the realities of our mind and heart can become the fusion of ideas and mediative healing. In that respect, it is a very wickedly insightful novel and one that everyone should read and embrace.

As we undertook the journey with Pi and his friends beside him (ie. Jamal and Cylan) we saw how a young boy needed to find anchour out of the chaotic uncertainty of his heart condition whilst finding that the greatest gift he had was to give everyone an anchour of hope for their own lives, too. It is a lovely story about how one person can affect change in others and how the change that is encouraged to be shared with everyone is the kind of change that is needed to continue to have positivity in the world at large. I cannot speak highly enough about how wonderful it was to read this story and for the joy it was to read the conclusion as Henke left a few surprises for us in the end. It doesn’t resolve all the things that came up in Pi’s young life but there was a hopefulness to the ending – where even if everything can’t turn out as we’d all hope they could, there is the hope for tomorrow that can sustain us. As sometimes Hope has a greater force and purpose in our lives than we realise.

On the unique writerly styling of s.d. henke

As soon as I began reading The Heart of the Uni-verse – I knew it was going to be a special kind of novel to read because of how the voice of Pi resonates so deeply through the poetry Henke shares at the beginning of the story. It is almost as though Pi, himself has fused his internal voice into the poetry and that allows us a more interpersonal connection right at the start of where this story begins to involve us in his life. It has a unique tone and cadence of presence, too, as the poetry is almost a walking conversation with Pi – about his thoughts, his feelings and where he is in his young life in respect to understanding himself as he moves through childhood. Henke made a smart choice in using poetry in this setting and allowing us to peer into her lead character in such a clever way as if to find a new way to anchour us into the heart of a character altogether.

loved how Henke equated a direct line about black holes in the galaxy with holes in the heart – such as the medical heart condition Pi has himself. He chooses to talk about his medical history in his poetry and through the poetry, his soul speaks his truth and the truths about how he observes things in this world. It was one of the more interesting revelations he shared – whilst he was introspective about it as well. Hence the earlier nods towards this novel being an ‘Inner Space’ story.

Henke’s style of narrative is a joy to behold – as she tucks us close to the emotional and psychological layers of her characters – giving us a closely personal narrative and a story which reverberates innate truths and states of conscience thought. I loved how she crafted the story to set round Pi and his science project and then enlarged the scope of the story as everything unfolded from there. She kept the story very real and relatable too – touching on real life by how Pi’s father was a deployed parent who couldn’t return home more than once a year if he could return then and how his grandfather (Big Paw) was experiencing early stages of Dementia and how that was affecting the family. The story is grounded and honest and gives a wicked good presentation of how despite the challenges we are facing in our lives – it is the attitude of our mind and our heart which bespeak how we will transition through the challenges themselves. Especially as of all the things we can’t control – we do have a say in how we approach life as it is lived. The fact she used mediation as a guiding force in the novel was one of the more enlightening ways, I felt she’d inspire the younger readers for whom the story was initially intended as an audience. And, yet, it is also a good reminder of how best to live our lives for older readers who might feel bogged down by the trials of life and need a kind nudge of encouragement towards seeking a better mindset to face their own challenges, too.

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This book review is courtesy of:

About S.D. Henke

S.D. Henke

Born and raised in the foothills of the Colorado Rocky Mountains, Sheala Dawn Henke is a veteran educator, with over 25 years in public education. Published poet and author of the honored title for the ‘What’s New in Young Adult Literature, 2018 Colorado Edition’ with her YA Climate Fiction series, IDEA33 and other works of Literary, YA and MG fiction including Story Bends: Water Walker, Painting Half the Sky, One Moon: The Legend of Snow White and Black Spot (#1 Favorite Read for 2022 at the NAGC Conference), The Heart of the Uni-Verse, and her most recent work of serial speculative fiction through Kindle Vella, Five on the Vine. Sheala and her family live in Fort Collins, Colorado.

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This book review is part of my contribution for:

#SciFiMonth banner for 2024 created by Imryil and is used with permission. Artwork by https://www.123rf.com/profile_artcuboy.

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This review responds to the prompt: Inner Space Odyssey

I might have interpreted this prompt a bit differently than intended as I hadn’t realised there was another definition for ‘inner space’ outside of the one I took it for and why I selected this novel to be read for it. This speaks to how language and words can be viewed and processed differently by different people, and it clearly represents the wider net that language plays in our own understanding of words and how those words can be fused to our interpretations of their definitions. However, for me, I took it on as an odyssey of the mind and of an internal journey of the ‘inner space’ which is left private to the world unless a person shares a bit of insight into that journey they’ve undertaken with others. It also felt like the kind of internal journey you can have betwixt and between the spaces of conscience thought and the imagination as well as where we visit in our unconscious realms too.

Mostly though – I felt it would relate to introspective novels and stories which parlay into a different realm of interest within the sphere of Science Fiction and have elements of Science Fiction contained within the story itself. 

I would love to receive recommendations for more stories which feature Inner Space Odysseys and to find out more about this section of Science Fiction as I don’t oft stumble across stories or authors who are writing these kinds of stories.

Visit the rest of my #SciFiMonth posts!

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{SOURCES: Cover art of “The Heart of the Uni-verse” and the book synopsis as well as the author’s biography and photo were provided by the author S.D. Henke and are used with permission. #SciFiMonth banner for 2024 created by Imryil and is used with permission. (Artwork by https://www.123rf.com/profile_artcuboy) Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: Sci Fi Month Book Review badge and the Comment Box Banner.}

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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

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About jorielov

I am self-educated through local libraries and alternative education opportunities. I am a writer by trade and I cured a ten-year writer’s block by the discovery of Nanowrimo in November 2008. The event changed my life by re-establishing my muse and solidifying my path. Five years later whilst exploring the bookish blogosphere I decided to become a book blogger. I am a champion of wordsmiths who evoke a visceral experience in narrative. I write comprehensive book showcases electing to get into the heart of my reading observations. I dance through genres seeking literary enlightenment and enchantment. Starting in Autumn 2013 I became a blog book tour hostess featuring books and authors. I joined The Classics Club in January 2014 to seek out appreciators of the timeless works of literature whose breadth of scope and voice resonate with us all.

"I write my heart out and own my writing after it has spilt out of the pen." - self quote (Jorie of Jorie Loves A Story)

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Posted Monday, 13 January, 2025 by jorielov in 21st Century, Blogosphere Events & Happenings, Book Review (non-blog tour), Children's Literature, Indie Author, Juvenile Fiction, Literature for Boys, Middle Grade Novel, Modern Day, Post-911 (11th September 2001), Reading Challenges, School Life & Situations, Sci-Fi November, Science Fiction




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