A Killing Frost

In John Marsden's third book of his Tomorrow series, The Third Day the Frost, Ellie and her friend's fates are tempted many times through out the book. They come across many obstacles along their way. The foreign army which has invaded their country is after them for all of the damage they have and done, also for all the soldiers lives they have taken through out the war. They plan one big attack in which Ellie and Homer must sneak into Cobbler's Bay and blow up a ship. Ellie is sidetracked by a solider; when she finally manages to get to the meeting area her friends are in a tight space surrounded by soldiers. Ellie manages to come through the fear and save her friends lives by killing the soldiers. Ellie and her friends also manage to escape from Stratton prison which had been taken under control by the enemy army and Major Harvey, but as they are almost in their getaway car Major Harvey steps in and delays them threatening to kill Robyn. In order to save her friends Robyn sacrifices herself. In my opinion this was the most exciting book so far in the series. John Marsden is an excellent writer. He knows exactly how to capture a teenager's attention and how to express the feelings and actions of his characters. This book shows determination, courage, fear, anxiety, exhaustion, confusion, and just about every emotion you can feel. Once you start you reading you do not want to put this book down. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the books in the Tomorrow series.

Tom Braden, in his book Eight Is Enough, suggests that the worst thing you can do if you have good books you want your children to read is to put these books on a shelf and then suggest to your children that they read them. Rather, what you're supposed to do is forbid the reading of the books or put them on the highest shelf and then say to your children that the books are very private and you hope they will not read them. I'm not sure this is a comment on the waywardeness of children as much as it's a comment on the wisdom of children in wanting to preserve the element of discovery that's part of finding a really good book. In any case, I came across John Marsden's "invaded Australia" series by accident. I'd picked up a copy of A Killing Frost, the cover caught me, and I found I was reading the third book in a series. This book is still the one in the series I would choose as best. I find this is often the case: that I like to discover I'm entering a series in the middle and that the book I enter a series with turns out to be what I would choose as best. This was certainly the case with C. J. Cherryh's Invader and Nevernever by Will Shetterly. With his "invaded Australia" series, I think Mr. Marsden meant to quit after three books but then sacrificed excellence to a demand for more. Like Sherwood Smith with Crown Duel. What a wonderful book that could have been. It pays to know when to quit. John Marsden's "invaded Australia" series is way to old and violent and explicit for you. I forbid your reading of these book. Absolutely not. Don't read them...

A Killer Frost is definitely one of the best books i have read and is the most exciting, suspenseful survival story i have ever read. The respect Marsden gives to these teenagers is amazing! This is definitely the best book in the series that i have read.

This series is phenomenal up to and including the third book. I'm in Australia (where it is called "The third day, the frost") and have read the two books that follow "Frost" as well: "Darkness, be my friend" and "Burning for revenge". Numbers 1-3 really get the adrenaline pumping. You'll be addicted as soon as you pick one up. I remember walking around the house carrying my copy, finishing it at 4 am, my homework ignored. And at the end of number three... Oh man. I howled!!!! To this day the ending brings tears to my eyes. But I'm not going to tell you what happens - read it yourself, but Be Warned, you'll spend the next few weeks in mourning. 1-3 are an emotional rollercoaster, but I have to say that if you're in America and anxiously waiting for the next episode you may be disappointed. Seems to me that either "Darkness" is a spin-off of the first three, (i.e an attempt by Marsden to capitalise on his earlier success) or his publisher has been on his case to get out the next books in a hurry. At the end, the characters are left in pretty much the same situation as when this book began. None of their attempts at sabotage have any effect this time around and I was left feeling unsatisfied and cheated. Overall, boring, and fairly pathetic when compared to the earlier 3. Number 5 was slightly better, but these two have merged into one in my head. I forget what happened in which book. Yawn!!

I would just like to say, you've got one thing wrong, the fourth book in the Tommorow When The War Began series is not called 'The Killing Frost' it is in actual fact called, 'The Third Day, The Frost'. Why have has it been changed in the US? I think the original title is much better and it is how John Marsden would like it to be called. John Marsden is the most brilliant author to come out of Australia in years. His books, especially this series, are amazing. The characters become part of you, and they make you laugh and cry. It is must for every teenager around the world to read these books, it's a necessity. The only down side is that you never want them to finish, and when they do, you just want more and more. So a big thank you to John Marsden, of whom i have been lucky enough to meet on several occasions, and keep up the brilliant writing.