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3.63 AVERAGE
3.63 AVERAGE
Terry Pratchett's Only You Can Save Mankind is an exciting junior adventure full of space action, quirky characters, and a surprising amount of personality depth. Pratchett wastes no time in plunging the reader into action and putting them in the pilot's seat. It captivates you immediately. I also enjoyed the vivid descriptions of the ScreeWee race and the ships; it painted a fairly realistic picture in my head and made the ScreeWee appear just as terrifying as they are fascinating.
The characters are very quirky and weird in their interactions with each other, which both helps define them and sets a tad uneven of a tone for the sections with dialogue. However, I really appreciate how Pratchett adds depth to the characters. Johnny's going through "Trying Times" with his parents splitting up and working all the time, Wobbler's dreaming of becoming an I.T. genius, Bigmac's struggling with living in a rough-and-tumble neighborhood, and Sigourney's in a power struggle to be the best at everything. Each character has depth that one can read into beyond the main story line.
My only issues with the book are with how the transitions between the dream world and real world are introduced. The tone shifts almost unexpectedly at times, which both helps and hurts. It helps the action and excitement but hurts the pacing of the book, as it throws you off every time. Also, they never really explain HOW the dream aspect worked. Is there some sort of untold alien magic bringing them into space? Does this race only exist in the dream world? Are all of the characters collectively losing their minds? The reader may never know.
It's a good read overall if you like action, space battles, video games, quirky dialogue, and character depth, but could use some fleshing out.
The characters are very quirky and weird in their interactions with each other, which both helps define them and sets a tad uneven of a tone for the sections with dialogue. However, I really appreciate how Pratchett adds depth to the characters. Johnny's going through "Trying Times" with his parents splitting up and working all the time, Wobbler's dreaming of becoming an I.T. genius, Bigmac's struggling with living in a rough-and-tumble neighborhood, and Sigourney's in a power struggle to be the best at everything. Each character has depth that one can read into beyond the main story line.
My only issues with the book are with how the transitions between the dream world and real world are introduced. The tone shifts almost unexpectedly at times, which both helps and hurts. It helps the action and excitement but hurts the pacing of the book, as it throws you off every time. Also, they never really explain HOW the dream aspect worked. Is there some sort of untold alien magic bringing them into space? Does this race only exist in the dream world? Are all of the characters collectively losing their minds? The reader may never know.
It's a good read overall if you like action, space battles, video games, quirky dialogue, and character depth, but could use some fleshing out.
adventurous
medium-paced
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
First of all, this is marketed as a YA book, but I think that is only because in the early 90's there wasn't much marketing distinction between YA and MG. This is NOT a YA book, it IS a MG. book. (The main character is only 12-years-old.)
The plot itself is pretty straightforward: kid is playing an alien shooter video game, the aliens surrender, and then the kid has to figure out how to get the alien fleet safely home while other players continue fighting. And it's got a lot of good points in there, with a lot of very pointed looks at real war (the Gulf War, aka Operation Desert Storm). It's short, and fun, and Johnny is a very relatable main character.
However. This was the early 1990s, and focused on young boys, and well. I spent as much time wincing as I did laughing. (Or more. Probably more.) Expect token diversity and fat jokes. The gender-based humor was Not Good. The "girls think they can play video games but can't" mentality might have been what boys thought at the time but I had thought Sir PTerry was above that. (I know the boys felt that way, though; I took great pleasure out of beating the guys in school at a game level they claimed was too hard.)
In my opinion, there's some fun stuff in here, but it really only needs to be read by Pratchett completionists.
The plot itself is pretty straightforward: kid is playing an alien shooter video game, the aliens surrender, and then the kid has to figure out how to get the alien fleet safely home while other players continue fighting. And it's got a lot of good points in there, with a lot of very pointed looks at real war (the Gulf War, aka Operation Desert Storm). It's short, and fun, and Johnny is a very relatable main character.
However. This was the early 1990s, and focused on young boys, and well. I spent as much time wincing as I did laughing. (Or more. Probably more.) Expect token diversity and fat jokes. The gender-based humor was Not Good. The "girls think they can play video games but can't" mentality might have been what boys thought at the time but I had thought Sir PTerry was above that. (I know the boys felt that way, though; I took great pleasure out of beating the guys in school at a game level they claimed was too hard.)
In my opinion, there's some fun stuff in here, but it really only needs to be read by Pratchett completionists.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Misogyny, War
Not the best thing I've ever read by Pratchett... but that's still better than a lot of books out in the world! It was an enjoyable story that was only a little dated (tough not to be when you are talking about computer games) but still good.
adventurous
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
It took me a little while to warm up to this book, but I really appreciate what it has to say about what happens when war is treated like a video game (like the Gulf War) and a video game gains the high-level stakes of a war.
Johnny is a great character with his head screwed on straight, even if he doesn't think so. Seeing him in action warmed my heart.
Johnny is a great character with his head screwed on straight, even if he doesn't think so. Seeing him in action warmed my heart.
Johnny Maxwell is delighted to get his hands on the new computer game Only You Can Save Mankind. Just as he's about to set a new high score a message from the aliens flashes up, 'we surrender'. That isn't supposed to happen is it?
Despite classing Terry Pratchett as one of my favourite authors, I actually still have quite a few of his earlier works to read. This is one of those.
The social and political commentary that Pratchett is so well known for is more than evident throughout this book, focusing on the morality of war. The comparison between computer game war and real life war makes a great vehicle for raising the topic for discussion, especially with younger readers which seems to be the target audience for the book. It's a little more heavy handed than the style Pratchett eventually honed, but still raises an important topic for perusal.
There's plenty of humour in this, and if you take it at face value the story is a lot of fun too. Johnny and his friends are entertaining characters, and I love the idea of being able to dream myself into a computer game!
Whilst I enjoyed the read and could certainly see a lot of the traits I love about Pratchett's writing in this one, it was also clear it was one of his earlier books. Ultimately it wasn't my favourite TP book, but I'm glad I read it.
Despite classing Terry Pratchett as one of my favourite authors, I actually still have quite a few of his earlier works to read. This is one of those.
The social and political commentary that Pratchett is so well known for is more than evident throughout this book, focusing on the morality of war. The comparison between computer game war and real life war makes a great vehicle for raising the topic for discussion, especially with younger readers which seems to be the target audience for the book. It's a little more heavy handed than the style Pratchett eventually honed, but still raises an important topic for perusal.
There's plenty of humour in this, and if you take it at face value the story is a lot of fun too. Johnny and his friends are entertaining characters, and I love the idea of being able to dream myself into a computer game!
Whilst I enjoyed the read and could certainly see a lot of the traits I love about Pratchett's writing in this one, it was also clear it was one of his earlier books. Ultimately it wasn't my favourite TP book, but I'm glad I read it.
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Interesting little book, kind of weird. I need to checkout more from Terry Pratchett.