Almost my favourite in the series...except that I didn't want it to end, so that put a damper on things. The characters' descent into senseless (and dangerously unplanned ) violence for the sake of it was depressing but believable.Here's my review of the series as a whole....When The Wire first came out, it was hailed as the greatest TV show ever, because the writers decided to structure it like a novel, with a slow development of character and plot. The Tomorrow series is the opposite - it's literature which feels like a great TV show. Each installment is like a new season, which brings a new set of challenges, villains and tragedies, but throughout it all the characters continue to develop and move inexorably towards their eventual fates. It's a hard series to rate because although I'd give it five stars as a whole, few of the individual books rate that highly as stand-alone narratives. What's great about the series...- It's seriously unputdownable. I have been neglecting my family for the last few days while I walk around plugged into my audio book. I keep meaning to stop and listen to something else after the book I'm currently on, but then can't stop myself picking up the next in the series. It's like literary chain smoking.- The characters and their development. I'm so glad Marsden decided to write a second series about Ellie, because these characters are so vivid it's hard to imagine they don't have life off the page. It reminds me of The Great Gatsby in that respect! Their transformation from innocents, to adventure heroes, to psychologically damaged, ruthless terrorists is gripping and poignant.- Resonance. These books stay with you for a long time after you've read them. They remind me of Suzanne Collins books (The Gregor the Overlander books in particular) in that they explore the psychological trauma of war and violence in what is effectively a SFF context.- Realistic teenage romance and sex.-It's unapologetically anti-adult. Until half way through the last books, all the grown-ups are incompetent, impotent or villainous. The teenage heroes basically save Australia single handedly. Don't ask me why I find this so cool, when I'm reading it at the age of 44. It just is - like the Hunger Games.- The setting - it's about kids in rural Australia doing what they do best. My students love this book because they can identify with it so completely. I love Marsden's evocation of the bush and small town life - it's not only atmospheric but intricately detailed. How can these not be real places? I feel as if I could find my way to Hell and navigate around Wirrawee. - It makes terrorism cool. I know this sounds like it should be on the 'bad' list, but Marsden has indoctrinated me so well that I now can't think of anything more fun than blowing up a major piece of infrastructure. Massive loss of life? Hey, no problem - they invaded Australia, right? The genius of the writing is that the reader journeys with the characters as they become increasingly addicted to killing and destruction. What's not so great...- Xenophobia. The heroes hate 'the enemy'. There are a couple of brief discussions about how they can understand why the enemy invaded. They repeatedly encounter enemy soldiers who, Ellie remarks, seem remarkably like themselves, and then kill them in cold blood. This lack of empathy and remorse, and pathological obsession with revenge is, I believe, the norm in times of war, so it's not unrealistic given that it's a first-person account. It would have been great, though, to have an authorial voice or metanarrative questioning this attitude. Ordinary 'enemy' civilians are brought in to settle the country but they are never depicted in any detail. I kept waiting for the morally interesting scene where the heroes are thrown together with an 'enemy' but it never happens. - It's repetitive. Very repetitive. They hang out in Hell feeling bored. They sneak around. They almost get caught many, many times. They blow up increasingly large and important things. They kill people in cold blood, muse briefly about how they are losing their humanity and then kill a few more people. A major character dies. They feel sad, and then go and wreak more destruction to cheer themselves up. Repeat for so many books I lost count of which I was on around book four or five.
This review was originally posted on The Moonlight LibraryThe final book in the Tomorrow When the War Began series starts with a bang as the New Zealanders fly in a bomb expert to load up the kids and prepare them for D-Day. The kinds take out an enemy squadron that is moving way too close to Hell, then abandon their home in favour of the one final big push. Then Ellie is separated from her friends and lives out the last days of the war as a prisoner.I really missed Homer, Fi, Kevin, Lee and Gavin in this final instalment. Pretty early on, Ellie is separated from the others when she uses a train to attempt to escape the enemy. After a long, exhausting battle and chase that really makes you feel all of her pain, Ellie is shot in the leg and caught, beaten, and then taken to a prisoner of war camp where her real identity – and the accolades that come from being one of the teen team who blew up Cobblers Bay and the airport, among others – is almost exposed to the enemy. Through the helpfulness of her own people, and her own resourcefulness, Ellie, believing her friends are dead, makes her way to her mother, at which time to war finally over as a peace treaty is agreed to.Even though Ellie was surrounded by her own people in the war camp, I still felt alone with her. I really wanted her friends around. Instead, it’s almost as if Marsden, realising this was the last book (it would be some years before he returned to this world with the Ellie Chronicles) decided that this was the last chance to torture Ellie, and figured out what would be the worst thing in the world to happen. Step 1: Remove her friends. Step 2: She gets shot. Step 3: She’s captured and taken to a prison camp. Step 4: Her real identity is discovered. And so on. It just slowly got worse and worse.But then, while Ellie was running around the countryside, the war was called to a halt. Peace was extended, although both sides had to confirm it at first, and then negotiations splitting up land and returning Australians to their homes began. Ellie’s farm was on the border of the new nation given to the invaders. While I have a hard time suspending my disbelief over this, I also had a hard time believing that New Zealand would be Australia’s saviours – until Japan got involved, at least. The tidying up of loose endings only goes to show how war really affects people, and how different Ellie had become to the girl who started the story.I’m really looking forward to reading the continuing story of post-war Australia in The Ellie Chronicles, which I’ve not read before.
What do You think about The Other Side Of Dawn (2007)?
Plot summary: It's been over a year since Ellie and her friends left on the camping trip that would ultimately save them from captivity in the war, but throwing them into the depths of guerilla warfare. In this, the final installment, they must fight like never before. The war is drawing to a lose, and with the delivery of a quantity of plastic explosives from the New Zealand armed forces, they're out to do what damage they can. Thoughts: This is the conclusion to the series that dominated my teen years, and Marsden delivers in fine form. For much of the book, Ellie is separated from her friends, with no idea of what's happened to them, or, for that matter, what's going to happen to her. Ellie's fear is palpable for much of the book. There's one scene in particular in this book that's stuck with me for years - (view spoiler)[the scene in which Colonel Long makes it clear that he wants something in exchange for protecting Ellie (hide spoiler)]
—Kirsti (Melbourne on my mind)
(view spoiler)[Despite some initial reservations, I've grown to love this series. This finale offers the same brilliant action and heartwarming personal stories as the other novels. The seperation from the ferals was absolutely heartwrenching, and the group went out with a bang in their final contribution to the war. However, I was completely disappointed by the ending. I can see where Marsden was coming from- this was the end of a violent war, and a 'they lived happily ever after' would have been a bit unrealistic. But I think he represented Ellie as too fickle in the end. A girl that suddenly falls out of love with one friend (AGAIN!) and begins to have feelings for another (AGAIN!) (I really thought she was over that drama), and a girl that breaks a promise to a little girl... it just does not feel like the Ellie I admired throughout the series. And beyond that, the cruel splitting up of the group... I understand that their relationships would have a little tension now, but after everything they went through, it just seems bizzare. And I suppose that somewhat naively, after how independent the group acted for so long, I did not envision them becoming obedient teenagers that follow the decisions of their parents (ie. Fi's move to the city). They just seemed too grown-up for that. Anyway, this novel is as brilliant as its predecessors, and although I personally hate the ending, if I view it from a distance, I can understand and respect that Marsden's ending stays true to the cold, hard, reality. I think I just got too emotionally involved in the series.PS. I totally knew that the rest of the group was alive! I was in complete denial when Ellie thought they were dead..it would have been too cruel. (hide spoiler)]
—Rebecca
This was such a great end to a fantastic series. While I may not have liked everything about it, overall this series was absolutely amazing. The books were incredibly fast-paced, action packed and so believable. (view spoiler)[ The end of the war is getting closer and Ellie and her friends are going to help out by doing what they can. But somewhere along the way, Ellie gets separated from her friends and captured. Most of this book was all about Ellie, and while her story was still interesting, I would have liked more of the other main characters in this book. It isn't until the very end when they are finally all reunited. (hide spoiler)]
—Jen Book Nook
