Book: The Prince in Waiting
Author: John Christopher (pseudonym of author Sam Youd)
Pages: 182
Age Range: 9-12
I recently read, for what I think is the first time (though there's a chance that I read it back in the mid-70s), the first book in John Christopher's middle grade science fiction trilogy Sword of the Spirits: The Prince in Waiting (1970). I was inspired to read it after reading a review on Sam Riddleburger's blog in November, and due to my fond memories of Christopher's wonderful Tripods series.
The Prince in Waiting starts out a bit slowly. Well, not so much slow as threatening to be about things that I'm not interested in. You have a boy chatting with a dwarf. The dwarf is forging a sword, and the boy is lamenting not being chosen to participate in a Contest involving swords and jousting on horseback. No electricity or modern conveniences of any kind are in sight. It's like something out of Arthurian times, except for the presence of the dwarfs, and the polymufs, which are a race of deformed people who work as servants/slaves. Slowly, however, hints begin to appear that, in fact, this is not a society from the past, but a society from the future, after some great Disaster has overtaken the world.
And that, for me, is the hook that kept me reading (as I mentioned in my recent review of Exodus), and will have me tracking down the other two books in the trilogy. I find endlessly fascinating the notion that all memory of our society could be gone, with people left to guess at what we were like based on looking at the crumpled rubble of once-tall buildings and the occasional scrap of surviving printed material. I enjoy seeing which customs survive, and which disappear, in the author's interpretation. In this story, the Christians are a peripheral, struggling sect, looked down upon for their odd beliefs. Most people follow the guidance of "Spirits", as translated by a small cadre of "Seers". Armed battles between the cities of the land (the dregs of England) take place frequently, though certain customs of honor also endure. Our hero, Luke, is the second son of a "Captain" (basically Knights who serve the Prince who rules each city). Luke learns, however, that he has a destiny beyond that of being a Captain himself.
Contemplating the ruins of what was apparently a cathedral, Luke muses:
"They had buried their dead in its shade -- there were worn stones bearing names and dates set in the ground -- and it was said that the Christians had used it as a place of worship. That, too, was hard to believe when one thought of the Christians, a handful of wretches living mostly in the hovels by the North Gate, so warped and degraded that they accepted polymufs as members of their sect and as equals. (They would have accepted dwarfs, too, but got no chance: dwarfs had their pride.)" (Page 48)
There's so much food for though in this tiny passage. The fact that worn tombstones have survived a disaster that left the cities in ruins. The radical notion that Christianity could fall into disarray, but also the hint that Christians retain a sense of acceptance, willing to take in those that others reject. The polymufs are the lepers of their time. Christopher resists the temptation to give Luke sensibilities advanced beyond those of his peers. Though the reader may question the treatment of the polymufs, Luke does not. I respect this choice, and I think that it's typical of Christopher's respect for his readers.
As for the story itself, there are battles and betrayals, loyalties and losses, and surprises. Friendship and family play major themes. It's a bit bloodthirsty, with more than one head ending up on a pike. However, Luke is slightly removed from the violence, and nothing is described in graphic detail - I think that it's fine for younger kids. Certainly it's no worse than Harry Potter in that sense, though Christopher leaves a lot more between the lines, and open for the reader's interpretation.
All in all, I don't think that this book is for everyone (not to mention the fact that it's out of print, and may be hard to find). But for fans of stories about Dystopian, future societies, with buried artifacts from our own, this is a compelling read. It's also likely to please kids who like books about sword battles and quests. Like Christopher's other books, it will make kids think. As I mentioned, this one is the first of a trilogy, and the ending is particular intriguing. The sequels, which I will be checking out of the library soon, are Beyond the Burning Lands (1971) and The Sword of the Spirits (1972).
Publisher: Macmillan
Publication Date: 1970
Source of Book: Santa Clara City Library
Other Blog Reviews: Bookian Review Library. Sam Riddleburger did a John Christopher week in November, and discussed the Sword of the Spirits series in this post. His comments, combined with my own fond memories of Christopher's Tripods series, are what inspired me to read this book.
Author Interviews: Sam Riddleburger also interviewed Sam Youd (Christopher's real name) during John Christopher Week.
Book: Exodus
Author: Julie Bertagna (blog)
Pages: 352
Age Range: 12 and up
Originally published in Scotland, Julie Bertagna's young adult fiction title Exodus was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize, and won the Lancashire Children’s Book of the Year Award and a Friends of the Earth Eco Prize. It is being published in the U.S. by Walker Books in April of 2008. But I didn't request a copy because it was award-winning. I requested a copy because I can't resist Dystopian fiction. And this title lived up to my expectations, keeping me up reading late into the night.
Exodus is set in the year 2100, on an earth that is almost entirely overtaken by ocean after the melting of the polar ice caps. I was a bit concerned, after reading an author's introductory note about global warming, that the book would be too message-y. But I'm pleased to report that Julie Bertagna, while conveying a vivid and cautionary picture of the possible fate of the world, keeps character and story at the forefront of Exodus.
Exodus is told from the viewpoint of fifteen-year-old Mara Bell, who lives in a small community on the island of Wing, in a northern sea. Each year, the ocean encroaches further on their land. As the story begins, the villagers face the fact that their island will soon be lost to the seas. Prowling "the Weave" (the tattered remnants of the world wide web) with a computer gaming device, Mara learns of a one-time plan to build tall, study cities on piers rising out of the oceans. She finds one that she believes is located within sailing distance, and, risking everything, encourages her family and friends to set out for a new life.
Things don't go quite as expected, however, and Mara finds herself living in two very different communities, one perched precariously on the skeleton of the old world, and another that soars high above it.
The first community, one where a few people live a hand-to-mouth existence among the detritus of the old world, is called the Netherworld. Here Mara finds little touches of a past that she never knew about. I personally found this aspect of the story to be filled with hidden treasure, as I, the reader, tried to figure out what Mara was seeing with her inexperienced eyes. For example:
"At last she finds him up on the curving ruin of the building that tops the Treenesters' island. She spies his grubby face peeking out through a large red and yellow plastic sign that's lopsidedly propped upon the building's crumbling balcony; a bright yellow M, like a twin golden archway. Was this once the sign of some special, sacred place?" (Page 136, ARC)
OK, that one is a bit obvious, but it made me smile. The Netherworld portion of the book reminded me a bit of John Christopher's Tripods series, also set in a futuristic world where common items from our world have deteriorated into artifacts. It's amazing, and I'd hope improbable, how far people have falled in only 100 years, and how little they know of the world from before.
The new world city, New Mungo, by contrast, is more like something out of Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series, glossy and fast-paced and high tech. The contrast between the Netherworld and New Mungo is jarring. Bertagna has built completely different worlds into the same book, and uses Mara's transition between them to sharpen the contrast.
In addition to the cautionary message about global warming, Exodus also explores gender roles. Mara is a young feminist, wondering about the roles of men and women in history. As she talks with a female friend, one who has big dreams, but is also caring for a baby, Mara reflects:
"As Boomielaw trails off into thought, Mara remembers what bothered her as she walked through the vast halls of the university, looking at the portraits of the golden names. There were no dreamswomen. Apart from the odd mythical figure or queen, not one of the golden names had belonged to a woman. All of the great dreamers had been men.
Now Mara sees how it could have happened. The women might have dreamed just as hard - as hard as Broomielaw does now - but their dreams had become all tangled up with the knit of ordinary life, with meal-making and babycare and nest-building." (page 169, ARC)
Exodus has a lot to offer: a strong female main character, interesting settings, twisting plot, and big-picture questions. The writing style is unusual, sometimes poetic, but also filled with short sentences, and sometimes spare on articles like "an" and "the". It's as though the book was written by someone who loves stories, but who hasn't much time to spare for words, because there's important work to be done. This completely works with the story, and left me feeling like I might just possibly have actually traveled 100 years into the future while I was immersed in the book.
Overall, I was so intrigued by Exodus that I just might have to order the sequel, Zenith, from the UK. I recommend it for teens, and for anyone interested in Dystopian and futuristic fiction. Fans of the movie The Day After Tomorrow will definitely enjoy it (though Exodus offers much more in the way of plot and character). I don't recommend it for younger kids, however, unless their parents read it first. The ideas about the crumbling of our entire society are pretty overwhelming. There are also allusions (though in a very veiled manner) to sex, and there is some violence and death. I think it's a solidly YA title, and that adults will find it compelling, too.
Publisher: Walker Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: April 2008
Source of Book: ARC from the publisher. All quotes are from ARC, and may not represent the final printed title.
Other Blog Reviews: Great Books Reviewed, The Poor Player
For those of you who are interested in such things, I've posted a status update with two mini-reviews over at the Dystopian Challenge blog. I've completed two of my five targeted titles. Truth to tell, I love dystopian fiction, and it's highly unlikely that I'll stop with five. But I have enjoyed the two that I've read so far.
What are you reading?
I wrote a few days ago about my planned participation in Lisa's Dystopian Book Challenge at Books. Lists. Life. Now I have an update. Lisa has started a collaborative blog for the dystopian challenge participants, and kindly invited me to join. I decided that since my obsession with dystopian literature is long-lived and unlikely to fade any time soon, I should participate. Therefore, I'll be contributing to and participating in discussion over there, and cross-posting/linking my dystopian novel reviews. This has the potential to become a dangerously time-consuming obsession, but I think it's going to be fun. You can visit the Dystopian Challenge blog here. Happy speculative science fiction future world reading!
I learned from Becky this week about a dystopian challenge issued a few weeks back by Lisa at Books. Lists. Life. Lisa has challenged herself to do the following reading:
- "Any 5 (for me, you can read more or less) books that fall into the "Scary New World" category. Interpret this as you like, but be prepared to defend questionable choices.
- They do not have to be books you've never read, but they should be books you haven't read in a long time. For example, I read Brave New World in 10th grade (1989), but will likely choose it again for this.
- The challenge begins now and ends November 6th.(I thought Nov. 4, 2008 would be appropriate, but decided that a year and a half might be a little long for this.) You may join at any point in the challenge."
As regular readers to this site will know, I'm addicted to dystopian books, so I was unable to resist this challenge. It's a bit tough for me because I've read so many of the books in the genre. But here is what I came up with:
Among the Free by Margaret Peterson Haddix (the last book that I have to read in this series).
Z is for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien (mentioned by several people in the comments of my earlier post, and a sad omission on my part).
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (a re-read). Interesting side note about this book: they filmed parts of it at Duke, where I went for undergrad, during my senior year.
