Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) was the acclaimed creator of the globally revered Discworld series. In all, he authored more than fifty bestselling books, which have sold more than one hundred million copies worldwide. His novels have been widely adapted for stage and screen, and he was the winner of multiple prizes, including the Carnegie Medal. He was awarded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to literature in 2009, although he always wryly maintained that his greatest service to literature was to avoid writing any.
"A wild ride, full of Pratchett's trademark humor." -- Booklist (starred review)"Funny and thrilling." -- Daily Mail (London)"A witty and intriguingly thought-provoking adventure." -- The Guardian's Children's Fiction Prize short-list report"An impressively original book with its thrills and spills, its inventiveness, its wit, and continuous readability. A rare treat." -- Daily Telegraph (London)"The compelling premise and Pratchett's humorous touches may well attract fans to this trilogy." -- Publishers Weekly"A suspenseful and sardonically funny tale by a master of fantasy" (starred review) -- KLIATT
Gr 5-8-Johnny Maxwell, 12, thinks he's a loser. People don't seem to notice him, his parents are threatening to split up, and he's not very good at the shoot-up-the-bad-guys computer games that he and his friends are always playing. But after his hacker buddy, Wobbler, gives him an illegal copy of "Only You Can Save Mankind," strange things happen. The captain of the alien fleet that Johnny is supposed to shoot up surrenders to him-unheard of in a computer game-and soon after that all of the aliens from all copies of the game have vanished. Players looking for someone to shoot at sail through light years of empty space and return the game to the store, demanding their money back. Johnny also discovers that he is able to enter the alien ship in dreams and grows convinced that the aliens are somehow real, and are actually dying when human players shoot at them. And soon the day arrives when the humans can resume their shooting. The story is told against the backdrop of the 1991 Gulf War, in which many of the battles were fought with the help of PC screens, and the antiwar message of the story soon becomes a little too heavy-handed and obvious. Although the storytelling here is not as polished as it is in Pratchett's The Wee Free Men (HarperCollins, 2003), the humor is sharp and the story is great fun to read. This is the first in a trilogy published in England; U.S. editions of Johnny and the Dead and Johnny and the Bomb will soon follow.-Walter Minkel, New York Public Library Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
"A wild ride, full of Pratchett's trademark humor." -- Booklist (starred review)"Funny and thrilling." -- Daily Mail (London)"A witty and intriguingly thought-provoking adventure." -- The Guardian's Children's Fiction Prize short-list report"An impressively original book with its thrills and spills, its inventiveness, its wit, and continuous readability. A rare treat." -- Daily Telegraph (London)"The compelling premise and Pratchett's humorous touches may well attract fans to this trilogy." -- Publishers Weekly"A suspenseful and sardonically funny tale by a master of fantasy" (starred review) -- KLIATT
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