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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best young adult science fiction novel...ever!, 21 Nov 2001
By A Customer
I grew up with this book and after reading it half a dozen times at least I love it still. Obvious inspiration from classic science fiction make it all the better to read, and even study - it stood up to the critically acclaimed wieght of Orwell's '1984' and Bradbury's 'Farenheit 451' - books at the very top of their Genre, when I wrote on all three in my last year of secondary school. Kit, the brillliant, volatile and dashing main character, has more depth than your average SF hero, possibly because this book is aimed at teenagers and we aren't really satisfied with just good ideas and concepts. That said, the good ideas and concepts are there in droves, some of them very original. Whole cities being turned into squalid ghettos for the poorer classes, the separation of the very rich from the very poor becoming even more pronounced than it already is today - these ideas may not be entirley new. But Scott-Astbury and his mysterious plans for the north which dominate Kit's quest...I can't possibly reveal. But they are certainly original. Original and barbaric and morally wrong and sick and-...just go thee hither and read! Like so many books by Westall, it should be a classic of our time, but instead has been out of print for years. Take this opportunity to get it before it disappears again!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A near-future anti-utopia - for all ages!, 5 Feb 2001
By A Customer
I first read this book when I was about 13 or so, and did not really understand it (not all at least). Now, ten years later, I read it for the third time, and I can say it's excellent reading. A touch of 1984, a bit of Brave New World... The UK is ruled by a totalitarian system, shutting of the big cities from the rest of the country, controlling them with an effective mixture of supervision and anarchy, and preventing the Unnems from disturbing the privileged Est caste. If you do not conform, you are lobotomized, end of story. The Tech caste keeps everything going, while the Paramils dispose of anyone unruly. Protagonist Henry Kitson stands between the lines: he would be an Est (which means high life without serious work), but achieved 100% in the final exam, which resulted in him being recruited by the Tech. Although he gains control over the most powerful computer - Laura - he flees to the Unnem territory, seeking to fulfill the dying wish of his mentor Idris, to kill an ominous person called Scott-Astbury. Needless to say, this gets him in lots of trouble... The book carries a latent humour (quote "his idea of fitness training seemed to be smoking a cigarette as fast as possible") as well as a more than disturbing view of the near future (at one point Bob Dylan is mentioned to be still alive, you do the math). Definitely worth reading twice, thrice, at any age, the more often you read it the more you understand.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Highly recommended!, 25 Aug 2003
This is a wonderful book. I first read it when I was a kid and have read it almost every year since.I won't go into details about the plot, but I will say that this book is both intelligent and engaging. It is well-paced, disturbingly believable and contains characters whom you will genuinely care about. It is one of my all-time favourite reads and I would recommend it to anybody who appreciates good fiction.
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by Robert Westall
by Robert Westall
by Robert Westall
by Robert Westall
by Robert Westall
