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wyrmbergmalcolm 's review for:
Only You Can Save Mankind
by Terry Pratchett
For a children’s book, there is far more in here than I remember or previously realised. This story deals with issues such as divorcing parents, fitting in, friends narrowly avoiding disaster involving joyriding, stepping up and maturity (amongst others). The car incident was particularly poignant in that up to that point this was a fun fantasy involving ‘Game Space’ and what really happened to the Space Invaders, suddenly there’s real life and death implications totally removed from the main plot. The interactions between Johnny and his friends as well as other conversations are so natural and honest and work so well to identify and personify the characters. The plot almost takes second place to the observations of society and people. The humour ranges for a subtle (to not so subtle) satire through to laugh out loud silly comments or situations. My son certainly responded well to certain lines with a gleeful shriek. The only negative I can think of is the logic of the story, which does fall down completely if you think about it for any length of time. My advice is that you don’t think about the logic.