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valhecka's review against another edition
5.0
THE TROUSERS OF TIME
MILLENNIUM HAND AND SHRIMP
EVIL THREE-AND-A-HALF-LEGGED CAT
And Kirsty. I love Kirsty.
And Johnny - oh my god, he's my favorite.
This one was amazing in ways far beyond the first two - sweeter, more dangerous, more at stake, several really good a-HA moments. Hit every note perfectly. And Pterry's one of those authors where he can be writing this scene that is horribly fraught with tension and the entire world is about to collapse and he throws in just one little stupid phrase that makes you laugh, and nearly every other author who tries it knocks you out of the mood, but Pterry gets it beautifully and you go on without a second thought. It's wonderful.
MILLENNIUM HAND AND SHRIMP
EVIL THREE-AND-A-HALF-LEGGED CAT
And Kirsty. I love Kirsty.
And Johnny - oh my god, he's my favorite.
This one was amazing in ways far beyond the first two - sweeter, more dangerous, more at stake, several really good a-HA moments. Hit every note perfectly. And Pterry's one of those authors where he can be writing this scene that is horribly fraught with tension and the entire world is about to collapse and he throws in just one little stupid phrase that makes you laugh, and nearly every other author who tries it knocks you out of the mood, but Pterry gets it beautifully and you go on without a second thought. It's wonderful.
jennyormrod's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
shiprim's review against another edition
5.0
Her şey orada bekliyor, diye düşündü Johnny. Zamanın özelliği bu. Zaman makinesi yapmanın ne kadar uzun süreceği önemli değil. Hepimiz ölebiliriz ve evrim, köstebeklerle falan, yeniden başlar. Hatta milyonlarca sene sürebilir. Ama eninde sonunda biri onu yapacak. Bir... makine bile olmayabilir. Belki de yalnızca, zamanın ne olduğunu anlama meselesidir; tıpkı eskiden herkesin yıldırımdan korkması gibi ve sonra bir gün birinin çıkıp, “Bakın, onu küçük şişelerde biriktirebilirsiniz,” demesi gibi. Yıldırımın yalnızca elektrik olduğu öyle anlaşılmıştı... Ama aslında o bile fark etmez, çünkü onu nasıl kullanabildiğini çözdüğün anda, her şey orada olacak. Biri, evrenin tüm tarihi içinde BİR gün, zamanda yolculuk etmenin yolunu bulursa eğer... O zaman bugün, burada olabilirler...
Muhteşem serinin bu son halkasında Johnny ve şaşkoloz arkadaşları, geçmişe gidip kasabalarının kaderini değiştirme çabasında. Zaman yolculuğuna dair ne kadar tema varsa, hem de en sağlamlarından, tabii ki de işte bu kitapta (evet, Kassandra Kompleksi de dâhil).
Muhteşem serinin bu son halkasında Johnny ve şaşkoloz arkadaşları, geçmişe gidip kasabalarının kaderini değiştirme çabasında. Zaman yolculuğuna dair ne kadar tema varsa, hem de en sağlamlarından, tabii ki de işte bu kitapta (evet, Kassandra Kompleksi de dâhil).
molokov's review against another edition
4.0
This volume of the Johnny Maxwell trilogy edges out being the best, if only because Johnny's friends get to be part of the action this time around, whereas they were more on the periphery before. The time travel element is well done (and explained), although it's not really what this book is about - which is more about ordinary people coping with the horrors of war. Hopefully it was instrumental in getting 90's kids to understand a little about what their grandparents went through in World War II.
backonthealex's review against another edition
5.0
Today I am revisiting my very first blogs posts here and on my other blog Randomly Reading. It isn't because I haven't been reading, I have actually read lots of blogable books lately. I just thought it would be fun to see this again. And I still love it as much now as I did on all subsequent readings of it.
So here's what I wrote on June 11, 2010:
Life isn’t terribly exciting in Blackbury, England in 1996 until 21 May 1941, the night of the Blackberry Blitz and the destruction of Paradise Street, where 19 residents are killed. It all begins when 13 year old Johnny Maxwell and his friends find the local bag lady, Mrs. Tachyon, lying in an alley near her overturned shopping cart and her black plastic bags strewn about, blown from the past to the present by an unexploded bomb or UXB.
Johnny does the right thing and calls an ambulance to take her to the hospital. And because he is a good kid, he takes her shopping cart, her bags and her demon cat Guilty home to store in his garage until Mrs. Tachyon can reclaim them. This incident begins Johnny’s foray in time travel, accompanied by his friends Yo-less, Bigmac, Wobbler and Kristy. As Mrs. Tachyon explains to Johnny when he visits her in the hospital “Them’s bags of time, mister man. Mind me bike! Where your mind goes, the rest of you’s bound to follow. Here today and gone tomorrow! Doing it’s the trick! eh?” (page 49) And because Johnny’s mind has been on his school project about the Blackbury Blitz that is exactly where Mrs. Tachyon’s bags of time take him and his friends.
Travelling back in time, Johnny is not only faced with the dilemma of knowing what the result of the Blackury Blitz will be, but also with the possibility of changing its grim outcome. It is a classic fork in the road dilemma given a new twist, or as the mysterious Sir John, burger magnet and richest man in the world, presents it to his chauffeur in 1996 “Did you know that when you change time, you get two futures heading off side by side?...Like a pair of trousers.” (page 55-56)
In 1941, Bigmac, a skinhead who finds cars with keys in the ignition irresistible, is arrested for stealing one and then accused of being a German spy. He manages to get away from the police by stealing one of their bicycles. Thanks to Bigmac, the group is forced to return to 1996 to escape. Unfortunately, when they get there, they discover that they have left Wobbler behind. Do they go back and return Wobbler to the present time? What leg of the trousers does history follow if they leave him in 1941? What leg of the trousers does history follow is they go back for Wobbler? And who is the mysterious Sir John and what does he have to do with everything?
Johnny and the Bomb presents a number of interesting conundrums for the reader. Every fan of time travel stories knows the cardinal rule that if you manage to find a way to time travel, you must not change anything or you change the future. But doesn’t the very fact of your presence in a time you have traveled to constitute a change? So, can you change something and still have the same future result – more or less?
Johnny and the Bomb was a well done, thoroughly enjoyable novel. It is the third book in the Johnny Maxwell Trilogy. The first two books are Only You Can Save Mankind (1992) and Johnny and the Dead. It was made into a movie by BBC in 2006 in the UK, but can be viewed in 10 minute increments on YouTube. Though a little different from the book, I still found it to be entertaining. Mrs. Tachyon was played by Zoë Wanamaker, who, as fans of the movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone will remember, was Madame Hooch, the flying instructor (among her other numerous excellent roles.)
Speaking of the time traveling Mrs. Tachyon, there is an interesting concept in Physics called a tachyon. Essentially, a tachyon is an imaginary particle of ordinary matter that can travel faster than the speed of light, which means it can travel back in time.
It seemed appropriate to begin this blog about World War II-themed books for young readers with a time travel novel, even if the focus is not directly about the war. Historical fiction is, after all, similar to Mrs. Tachyon’s bags of time, and the novels become a portal that can transport and return me to the time period under consideration.
This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book was purchased for my personal library
So here's what I wrote on June 11, 2010:
Life isn’t terribly exciting in Blackbury, England in 1996 until 21 May 1941, the night of the Blackberry Blitz and the destruction of Paradise Street, where 19 residents are killed. It all begins when 13 year old Johnny Maxwell and his friends find the local bag lady, Mrs. Tachyon, lying in an alley near her overturned shopping cart and her black plastic bags strewn about, blown from the past to the present by an unexploded bomb or UXB.
Johnny does the right thing and calls an ambulance to take her to the hospital. And because he is a good kid, he takes her shopping cart, her bags and her demon cat Guilty home to store in his garage until Mrs. Tachyon can reclaim them. This incident begins Johnny’s foray in time travel, accompanied by his friends Yo-less, Bigmac, Wobbler and Kristy. As Mrs. Tachyon explains to Johnny when he visits her in the hospital “Them’s bags of time, mister man. Mind me bike! Where your mind goes, the rest of you’s bound to follow. Here today and gone tomorrow! Doing it’s the trick! eh?” (page 49) And because Johnny’s mind has been on his school project about the Blackbury Blitz that is exactly where Mrs. Tachyon’s bags of time take him and his friends.
Travelling back in time, Johnny is not only faced with the dilemma of knowing what the result of the Blackury Blitz will be, but also with the possibility of changing its grim outcome. It is a classic fork in the road dilemma given a new twist, or as the mysterious Sir John, burger magnet and richest man in the world, presents it to his chauffeur in 1996 “Did you know that when you change time, you get two futures heading off side by side?...Like a pair of trousers.” (page 55-56)
In 1941, Bigmac, a skinhead who finds cars with keys in the ignition irresistible, is arrested for stealing one and then accused of being a German spy. He manages to get away from the police by stealing one of their bicycles. Thanks to Bigmac, the group is forced to return to 1996 to escape. Unfortunately, when they get there, they discover that they have left Wobbler behind. Do they go back and return Wobbler to the present time? What leg of the trousers does history follow if they leave him in 1941? What leg of the trousers does history follow is they go back for Wobbler? And who is the mysterious Sir John and what does he have to do with everything?
Johnny and the Bomb presents a number of interesting conundrums for the reader. Every fan of time travel stories knows the cardinal rule that if you manage to find a way to time travel, you must not change anything or you change the future. But doesn’t the very fact of your presence in a time you have traveled to constitute a change? So, can you change something and still have the same future result – more or less?
Johnny and the Bomb was a well done, thoroughly enjoyable novel. It is the third book in the Johnny Maxwell Trilogy. The first two books are Only You Can Save Mankind (1992) and Johnny and the Dead. It was made into a movie by BBC in 2006 in the UK, but can be viewed in 10 minute increments on YouTube. Though a little different from the book, I still found it to be entertaining. Mrs. Tachyon was played by Zoë Wanamaker, who, as fans of the movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone will remember, was Madame Hooch, the flying instructor (among her other numerous excellent roles.)
Speaking of the time traveling Mrs. Tachyon, there is an interesting concept in Physics called a tachyon. Essentially, a tachyon is an imaginary particle of ordinary matter that can travel faster than the speed of light, which means it can travel back in time.
It seemed appropriate to begin this blog about World War II-themed books for young readers with a time travel novel, even if the focus is not directly about the war. Historical fiction is, after all, similar to Mrs. Tachyon’s bags of time, and the novels become a portal that can transport and return me to the time period under consideration.
This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book was purchased for my personal library
kayo32's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
mackle13's review against another edition
3.0
2.5
Pratchett has covered a lot of ground in this trilogy: aliens and war, ghosts and our connections to our past, and time-travel and, um, war again.
Perhaps it's because, as I said in my review for [b:Johnny and the Dead|34528|Johnny and the Dead (Johnny Maxwell, #2)|Terry Pratchett|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1168566215s/34528.jpg|34499]. I would pick ghosts over aliens - or time-travel - or perhaps that story just resonated more for me for some other reason, but it as definitely my favorite of the lot. I think this one would come in second.
It didn't quite have the same level of humor or pathos has the second book, but a bit more than the first.
But, aside from all that, I think my biggest issue with this book was the introduction of Kirsty. For one thing, it never really says where she came from. She's not in the previous books, not even in passing - at least not as far as I recall - but, in this one, she seems closer to Johnny than any of his other friends who were in the last two books.
Speaking of which, I didn't feel like they were as present in this story. They were certainly relevant at times, but they felt more developed in the last book.
Anyway - Kirsty. Kirsty is a very dominant presence, to the point where she sort of overshadows Johnny, who is rather passive. Next to Kirsty, Johnny seems even more passive than in the previous books.
More to the point, though, she just never really clicked with me. She felt forced. I think she was meant to be - and she was, at times, especially when they went back in the past and she had to deal the casual sexism of the time, and also when, in conflict with Yo-less, she drops her own bit of casual racism and he has to drive the point home that she's just as bad with him and the other guys are with her... and we all learned a valuable lesson.
(And I say that only half in jest, because it is a valuable lesson, but just felt a bit heavy-handed for Pratchett, who's usually better at digging the knife in a bit more subtley. Or, at least, amusingly.)
Anyway -
It was a decent read and I liked it well enough. It had it's moments - some really funny lines, some nice moments, some cool head-warping time-travel paradoxy things - but, overall, not my favorite of his works.
ETA: I think that if I'd read this earlier, closer to its original publication date, or when I was younger, I would've been a bit more impressed with the head-bending stuff. As it is, it's something I've encountered enough times to be fairly familiar with it but, at the time of the writing, it was probably a bit fresher.
Pratchett has covered a lot of ground in this trilogy: aliens and war, ghosts and our connections to our past, and time-travel and, um, war again.
Perhaps it's because, as I said in my review for [b:Johnny and the Dead|34528|Johnny and the Dead (Johnny Maxwell, #2)|Terry Pratchett|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1168566215s/34528.jpg|34499]. I would pick ghosts over aliens - or time-travel - or perhaps that story just resonated more for me for some other reason, but it as definitely my favorite of the lot. I think this one would come in second.
It didn't quite have the same level of humor or pathos has the second book, but a bit more than the first.
But, aside from all that, I think my biggest issue with this book was the introduction of Kirsty. For one thing, it never really says where she came from. She's not in the previous books, not even in passing - at least not as far as I recall - but, in this one, she seems closer to Johnny than any of his other friends who were in the last two books.
Speaking of which, I didn't feel like they were as present in this story. They were certainly relevant at times, but they felt more developed in the last book.
Anyway - Kirsty. Kirsty is a very dominant presence, to the point where she sort of overshadows Johnny, who is rather passive. Next to Kirsty, Johnny seems even more passive than in the previous books.
More to the point, though, she just never really clicked with me. She felt forced. I think she was meant to be - and she was, at times, especially when they went back in the past and she had to deal the casual sexism of the time, and also when, in conflict with Yo-less, she drops her own bit of casual racism and he has to drive the point home that she's just as bad with him and the other guys are with her... and we all learned a valuable lesson.
(And I say that only half in jest, because it is a valuable lesson, but just felt a bit heavy-handed for Pratchett, who's usually better at digging the knife in a bit more subtley. Or, at least, amusingly.)
Anyway -
It was a decent read and I liked it well enough. It had it's moments - some really funny lines, some nice moments, some cool head-warping time-travel paradoxy things - but, overall, not my favorite of his works.
ETA: I think that if I'd read this earlier, closer to its original publication date, or when I was younger, I would've been a bit more impressed with the head-bending stuff. As it is, it's something I've encountered enough times to be fairly familiar with it but, at the time of the writing, it was probably a bit fresher.
thelochok's review against another edition
3.0
Again, not TPs best work - but probably my favourite in the Johnny Maxwell trilogy. I liked the hints that other adventures happened that weren't in the books. The character development of the 'supporting cast' was a lot better than the previous books too.
ianbanks's review
5.0
Pretty much perfect, really. Johnny and his friends discover a way to travel in time and make a mistake that changes their present. In trying to fix it, they... well, that would be telling, wouldn't it? This is a great story that shows what's changed in our world and what remains the same. Hilarious and also a little uncomfortable in places, but probably significant for being the last non-Discworld novel for more than a decade. A shame, because Johnny has quite a lot of life in him.