In the final volume of Hamilton's thoughtful but disappointing "Justice" trilogy, the four psychic children once more form the "first unit" and travel through the Crossover to the desolate future Dustland. There they help some of Dustland's inhabitants, who have been exiled by the dread presence Mal, to escape back to a domed city in "domity," run by creatures who are part human, part machine. Among those who escape from Dustland are the humanlike three-legged Slakers and the doglike Miacus, both met before, and a new group of primitive, wandering young humans who travel in a "packen" of 15, divided into five "trips," each containing a leader, Duster, a "leggen," Siv, and a "smooth-keep," Glass. (The "youngens" in the other four trips are mere duplicates of the lead group.) As the children in the Unit "trace" to communicate, those in Dustland and domity "tone," and Justice now enters the master machine Colossus to absorb knowledge of the post-disaster society and its history. She learns too the Unit's role in the Grand Design: as Levy and Thomas are "twinned," so too is Justice. The mission of the Unit is to leave the Watcher in Justice behind; and as it splits from her the four children return to the present, to stay safe and normal until their power once more wells up and finds a mission. By the end of the third volume, then, Hamilton has established a future world as the children find it, complete with a range of mutant and created creatures, philosophical challenges, and the alternative revolutionary and social arrangements so dear to future fantasy creators. But that is where we might expect to be at the end of volume one, and we arrive there through expository conversation. We never see the four childrens' powers satisfactorily fulfilled, or see the time their formation as the "first unit" foretold. We never actually see any crisis or confrontation in the tightly controlled domity; and we never actually see the questions raised by the society's Master Plan played out in action.
Pub Date: April 6, 1981
ISBN: 059036216X
Page Count: 214
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1981
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The greening of Dr. Seuss, in an ecology fable with an obvious message but a savingly silly style. In the desolate land of the Lifted Lorax, an aged creature called the Once-ler tells a young visitor how he arrived long ago in the then glorious country and began manufacturing anomalous objects called Thneeds from "the bright-colored tufts of the Truffula Trees." Despite protests from the Lorax, a native "who speaks for the trees," he continues to chop down Truffulas until he drives away the Brown Bar-ba-loots who had fed on the Tuffula fruit, the Swomee-Swans who can't sing a note for the smogulous smoke, and the Humming-Fish who had hummed in the pond now glumped up with Gluppity-Glupp. As for the Once-let, "1 went right on biggering, selling more Thneeds./ And I biggered my money, which everyone needs" — until the last Truffula falls. But one seed is left, and the Once-let hands it to his listener, with a message from the Lorax: "UNLESS someone like you/ cares a whole awful lot,/ nothing is going to get better./ It's not." The spontaneous madness of the old Dr. Seuss is absent here, but so is the boredom he often induced (in parents, anyway) with one ridiculous invention after another. And if the Once-let doesn't match the Grinch for sheer irresistible cussedness, he is stealing a lot more than Christmas and his story just might induce a generation of six-year-olds to care a whole lot.
Pub Date: Aug. 12, 1971
ISBN: 0394823370
Page Count: 72
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1971
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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