Tomorrow's Guardian [Paperback]

Reviewed by my son Will, aged 11, of the original hardback version of the book.

"I loved reading Tomorrow's Guardian, it was very easy to read and didn't take me long to finish it. The storyline is amazing and very interesting. I only put the book down when I had to because it was really late or I got told off at school! The characters were definitely believable and really interesting. I learned a lot from the historical parts and it's even helped me at school.
I can't wait for the next book to come out.
In conclusion I thought it was one of the best books I've read."

I have to agree with Will - it is a very good read, with a strong, imaginitive story, good dialogue and realistic characterisation. It is the type of book that both young and old people can enjoy equally. I've also read another of Richard's books - The Amber Treasure - and that is also well written and worth reading.

I suspect this book is aimed at a much younger age-group than mine ( 63 ) but I loved it all the same. I loved Harry Potter too, but I also like grown-up books so I am not entirely mad.

My first thoughts when I was offered this book for review was Time Travel = Dr Who. I was wrong. Tom, the main character does not need a Tardis to travel in time. Hey, come on ... this is `real' time travel we're talking about!

We first meet Tom Oakley on the morning of his 11th Birthday as he awakens from a nightmare. He's a clever lad for his age, but not to the point of becoming unrealistic or obnoxious. I loved that he was quick witted and caught on to what was going on and was soon making life changing decisions, but sensibly and his reasons were sound. He's a really great character and as the mother of a young boy myself, I have to admit that I felt my heart racing and was quite protective towards him as the book progressed and he was put in mortal danger more than once.

Not far into the book we meet Septimus Mason. I'm sure at some point early on Tom tries to pinpoint Septimus' accent and decides he must be Welsh. Anyway, whenever I read his lines, I read them with a Welsh accent. He came across at first as a nice guy. Then suddenly I wasn't so sure...

There are quite a few other characters in the book - Mary, Edward and Charlie to name but a few, but I don't want to go into too much detail about them and spoil the book for you. Lets just say that they're not all from the 21st century and it was really interesting to learn their stories and see them adapt to their new lives.

The plot in Tomorrow's Guardian is very fast paced. There are wars, fires, sinking submarines, other realities running alongside our own, bad men, good men, some I couldn't decide on and a wealth of history. I wasn't bored for even a minute whilst reading it. Sometimes I felt like I could even hear the characters sigh a little and say `good grief man, give us a few minutes to recover!' LOL.

I loved that Denning brought history back to life and from more than one era too. It really was a thrilling, heart stopping, but also fun and fast paced read. Tomorrow's Guardian is aimed at middle grade/teens, 10+ years, and although it's written more with boys in mind, I guarantee girls will love it too. I would have loved to have read this myself at that age, heck I loved it now as a female adult! Tomorrow's Guardian is the first book in the Hourglass Institute series and book two, Yesterday's Treasures is due out in the Spring.

Would I recommend this book? Oh yes! To adult and children alike.