Chaos Walking 2 In 1 Omnibus

Chaos Walking #1-2

by Patrick Ness

Contains The Knife of Never Letting Go and The Ask and the Answer

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Young Adult, Dystopia

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Patrick Ness, an award-winning novelist, has written for Radio 4 and The Sunday Telegraph and is a literary critic for The Guardian. He has written many books, including the Chaos Walking Trilogy, The Crash of Hennington, Topics About Which I Know Nothing, and A Monster Calls.

He has won numerous awards, including the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, the Booktrust Teenage Prize, and the Costa Children’s Book Award. Born in Virginia, he currently lives in London.

Reviews

[Marisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. Just...wow.

This is supposedly a young adult book, but I'm not so sure about that. The main characters may be children, but I think it's a pretty challenging book for anyone. Gritty, dark, powerful, this left me wrung out in the best way. Chaos Walking is a collection of the first two books in a trilogy: The Knife of Never Letting Go and The Ask and the Answer; I'm glad it was packaged this way. The end of the first book is so...hmm...powerful...that if I hadn't had the second book readily at hand I might have been a little distraught.

I've heard people complain about the dialect and presentation of the story, but I think they're fine; it's very readable, and the way it's written drew me in and kept me engaged. Some of the ways that the plot unfolded were a bit predictable, but there were still plenty of surprises, and the end of the first book shocked me so much that I gasped out loud. The second book didn't have quite the same shock, but it didn't disappoint. I'm looking forward to the third book.

[Siobhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

In all honesty, this series surprised me more than I expected it to. I went in not expecting much only to find I enjoyed it much more than a lot of other young adult trilogies I have read.

To begin with I feared the worst, the writing style being rather off-putting. After a much shorter period of time than I had expected, I was soon overlooking the writing style as I found the story truly gripping. As soon as I finished one book I was picking up the next, then working my way through the short stories as I wanted to find out more.

Overall, one of the better young adult trilogies out there.

[Magdelanye · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this world of numbness and information overload, the ability to feel...is a rare gift indeed. p652

Patrick Ness could be describing our world today. Very cleverly, he has given us another world, to which colonists from Earth have fled to create a better life for themselves. Only it didn't quite work out that way. First there were the hostile natives and the virus that manifested as Noise coming from the men and killing off the women. At least that's one version of the way things came to be so grim. The ethics and the technology the colonists brought with them were not enough to offset the anxiety, competition and deception that hardship cultivated.

People don't really want freedom, no matter how much they might bleat on about it....p644

The allegory may be thin but the writing is swift and sure, the design is rich and the character development engaging. The twists and turns of the plot are never predictable, and if I grew somewhat irritated with the heroes impotent threats (if you lay a finger on her!!!) and could have done without the genocide and torture, the army for sure, I realize that these things are part of our story, thrown into sharp focus here.

Noise is...what's true and whats believed and what's imagined...and it says one thing and a completely opposite thing at the same time and even if the truth is definitely in there... how can you tell what's true and what's not when you're getting everything p35
Too much informayshun becomes just Noise. And it never, never stops. p271

Men learn to cover up their Noise with more Noise, but they never learn to get along without the threat of violence. PN explores the subtext of our lives, the process of subversion and the value of integrity and community.

War makes monsters of men, p408

This is a review of the first two books of the series. With such a cliffhanger I will having to get to the next volume ASAP.

[Bryten M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is about a guy and his talking dog. They end up finding a girl. I would recommend this to my grandma because she likes books like this. She also likes to read.

[Sydney Prematta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought it had alot of action in it. It had a lot of emotin in it too. If you like action and a little bit if of romance than this is the book for you except that you have to read the first one. The first one is call The Knife Of Never Letting Go.

[Stargazer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good trilogy, if 'Hunger Games' was no1, 'Maze Runner' no 2 then this trilogy would rate as no3.

[Cindy Ritter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ordered it and waiting for arrival. I have never read any of this authors work before but it sounded appealing and I am anxious to get started.