Juvenile Fiction
Harper Collins
2008-09-30
ebook and audiobook
384
Oyster and owned
2009 Michael L Printz Honor Book
The sea has taken everything. Mau is the only one left after a giant wave sweeps his island village away. But when much is taken, something is returned, and somewhere in the jungle Daphne—a girl from the other side of the globe—is the sole survivor of a ship destroyed by the same wave. Together the two confront the aftermath of catastrophe. Drawn by the smoke of Mau and Daphne's sheltering fire, other refugees slowly arrive: children without parents, mothers without babies, husbands without wives—all of them hungry and all of them frightened. As Mau and Daphne struggle to keep the small band safe and fed, they defy ancestral spirits, challenge death himself, and uncover a long-hidden secret that literally turns the world upside down. . . . Internationally revered storyteller Terry Pratchett presents a breathtaking adventure of survival and discovery, and of the courage required to forge new beliefs.
This was a reread for me — I had listened to the audiobook version read by Stephen Briggs in 2013. I started listening to the audiobook again, but then decided to switch to the ebook. Pratchett is an author that I find I enjoy best when I listen to someone read it to me — I can’t skim, and have to listen to every word, which, with Pratchett is important. (When I switched to reading it, I did try to be conscious of slowing down my normal pace…)
It’s a little hard for me to separate what I think of this specific book from my feelings about Pratchett’s work as a whole — he’s one of my favorite authors, so he has to really mess up for me to be disappointed. This book did not disappoint. I hope the fact that this one is categorized as “YA” or “teen” doesn’t leave it off of adult’s reading lists, because it would be foolish to dismiss it for that reason. (To be honest, dismissing a book because it’s marketed as YA is just plain dumb, no matter the book, but that’s a different argument.)
I really love this story and what it has to say about death and civilization and friendship and science and magic.
I love Pratchett’s humor and wordplay. I have a few of his books that I haven’t read yet, and I’m not in any hurry to read them, because when I finish reading the final book, there won’t be anymore Pratchett books.
