The Johnny Maxwell Trilogy

I've never understood why the books in the Johnny Maxwell series are so hard to find. Not only are they written by one of the world's most engaging, brilliant authors, they are a rare example of truly intelligent books aimed at a young adult audience; they are loads of fun for adults, as well. It seems a little strange to journey with Terry Pratchett to a place other than the Discworld, but this little jaunt is quite enjoyable - and future echoes of Discworld begin to emerge as the series progresses. Johnny Maxwell is just a normal twelve-year old kid, or at least he tries to be. When we first meet him, he is living in Trying Times, sort of left to take care of himself while his parents argue. Trying Times moves to Being Sensible About Things, and by the second book we find Johnny living with his grandfather. He's still a normal kid - it's just that things seem to happen to him that don't happen to anyone else - aliens inside a computer game surrender to him and name him their Chosen One, dead people start talking to him, and he even manages to stumble into time travel. Like any kid, Johnny enjoys a good computer game every now and then, and his friend Wobbler supplies him with just about any pirated game he could want. He has destroyed all but the last alien ship in the game Only You Can Save Mankind when a message suddenly appears on the screen: We wish to talk. Thus begins a journey that takes him inside the game as the Chosen One, the human who will lead the alien ScreeWee race back to safety beyond The Boundary. The reptilian captain of the ScreeWee is tired of fighting; the human fighters appear out of nowhere, kill and destroy ships in her fleet, and keep coming back no matter how many times they are killed. She has seen what happened to the Space Invaders and would rather surrender than die fighting. As always with Pratchett, the characters are well-developed and quite remarkable. I really liked Wobbler, the future hacker who designed his own game called Journey to Alpha Centauri to be played in real time, meaning all the thousands of years it would take to reach Alpha Centauri is how many years the game would take you to actually finish it. Beyond the comedy present in this story, there is also a message. The backdrop of the earth-based events of the book is the Persian Gulf War, and the juxtaposition of this war that is real but seems like a game with the computer game that becomes real for Johnny Maxwell conveys a message about violence and one's attitude toward it. It is not an overbearing theme, but it is there to some degree, helping make this short novel much more than just a juvenile read intended to entertain the reader and nothing more. Johnny often takes a short cut to school through a local cemetery, and it is there that he meets the Alderman, the long dead and buried Alderman. He and the rest of the good folks residing in the cemetery are quite put out by the fact that the cemetery has been sold by the c

Don't limit yourself to the Discworld series. Terry Pratchett shines just as brightly in his other literary works. The Johnny Maxwell trilogy is one of these. So if you've ever harbored any ideas that you were special and different as a kid, you'll find great joy in Johnny's experiences.

I admit it's a guilty pleasure, finding it in the Young Adult section of the library. I'm sure they'd be interested in some of the language, in the back room at the Central Branch, but never mind -- excellent read. TP seems to falter slightly with the first novel (ONLY YOU CAN SAVE THE WORLD) but persevere! He hits his stride with JOHNNY AND THE DEAD, and is a bit too complex for his own good but resolutely enjoyable with JOHNNY AND THE BOMB. Highly recommended. Six stars, only they won't let you do that.