Status
Available
Call number
Series
Genres
Collection
Publication
New York : Daw Books, 1974, c1968.
Description
People of the future recreate the Middle Ages by destroying Machines and by subjecting anyone found with a machine or a knowledge of mechanics to severe punishment or death.
User reviews
LibraryThing member isabelx
Having picked up all three of these children's books at a BookCrossing meeting, I decided to read them in the order they were published, rather than in chronological order of the events in the stories. The Changes is what the inhabitants of England, Scotland and Wales call the sudden aversion to
"The Weathermonger" is set about five years after the Changes began and is the story of how the source of the Changes is discovered, and things return to normal. All three stories are very exciting, with inventive protagonists between the ages of twelve and sixteen who by their own determination and ingenuity manage to overcome any obstacles in their way.
Recommended !
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all machines which has lead to millions of refugees fleeing abroad, the emptying of the cities, and reversion to a mediaeval way of life. Anything mechanical or modern is shunned, and anyone who uses them or even shows any interest in anything forbidden is likely to be accused of witchcraft and stoned to death. "The Weathermonger" is set about five years after the Changes began and is the story of how the source of the Changes is discovered, and things return to normal. All three stories are very exciting, with inventive protagonists between the ages of twelve and sixteen who by their own determination and ingenuity manage to overcome any obstacles in their way.
Recommended !
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LibraryThing member john257hopper
This is the final part of The Changes trilogy, though it was written first. Again we have an entirely new set of characters. After a dramatic and quite horrific start, the action moves briefly to France and it begins to look as though this might be a good conclusion to the trilogy. However, the
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denouement is ridiculous and its fantasy feel jars with the style of the early part of the book. A weak ending and I was relieved to finish it after skimming the last part. I would like to see the original 1970s TV series released on DVD though. Show Less
LibraryThing member electrascaife
A brother and sister barely escape a dystopian England to France after their fellow villagers try to drown them for tinkering with machinery. Something's happened across the entire country so that people have abandoned technology out of fear and have reverted to a Dark Age mentality. The French
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authorities send the kids back to England to try to discover what has caused such a change, and equips them as best they can for the quest. It helps that Jeff, the brother, has the power to change the weather, which also seems to have come to him (and others in England) as a result of The Changes. They need to make a dangerous cross-country journey to find the source of the change and try to stop it themselves. A fun, not-too-intense dystopian novel (the third in a trilogy, but can easily stand alone), and a neat, Arthurian ending. Show Less
LibraryThing member saroz
This is the first book of the Changes trilogy - although it's chronologically the last - which inspired the well-remembered mid-'70s TV series. I can well believe that, despite never having seen it. The close focus on the two child leads and the constant forward momentum almost make the book feel
Some of the superficial similarities to Escape to Witch Mountain (particularly the slightly darker original novel) just can't be ignored, and to be honest, a lot of kids' books like this came out in the late '60s through the mid-'70s: low-fantasy stories set either in an unfriendly modern context or a slightly dystopian future, with a boy and a girl - always siblings, sometimes twins - who have minimally supernatural powers on the run from aggressors/the government/big business/a cult. When I was a kid, checking books like these out of the library in the early '90s, I called them "Tomorrow People" books; I bet you can guess why. H.M. Hoover's Children of Morrow was another clear candidate.
Like those other novels, The Weathermonger is quite slight - my paperback doesn't reach 175 pages - and very much driven by plot. Characters come and go and some of them don't even get proper names. The two main kids, Jeff and Sally, could be any boy of 16 and girl of 12. The requisite supernatural element is here - Jeff is one of a rare breed who can control the weather - and humanity has fallen apart, with hangings and stonings for anyone who uses a machine or runs electricity. So far, so good - a "Tomorrow People" book, for sure, and an interesting premise.
What's unusual about this one is Dickinson's seeming disinterest in the standard tenets of drama. This is the rare book with an almost totally flat affect; it's almost as if Dickinson keeps the reader at arm's distance. Stranger still is his decision to centralize the book so firmly on Jeff, yet he never gives us Jeff's viewpoint; the narrative stays in third person. This results in several awkward sequences where characters recite huge passages of exposition to Jeff - including, in fact, all the audience's knowledge of how humanity came to this place. It's a strange set of choices, and I sometimes felt as if it kept me from ever getting "close" to anyone or anything in the text.
Fortunately, the book gets weirder as it goes on; it never gets boring, despite a truly strange denouement. Dickinson also starts to introduce some little currents of dark comedy about halfway through, which help give it a little texture. In the end, though, The Weathermonger feels like a great premise but a so-so book. I bet it makes great TV.
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like a treatment for a 1970s Disney adventure film - yes, you guessed it, not at all unlike Escape to Witch Mountain.Some of the superficial similarities to Escape to Witch Mountain (particularly the slightly darker original novel) just can't be ignored, and to be honest, a lot of kids' books like this came out in the late '60s through the mid-'70s: low-fantasy stories set either in an unfriendly modern context or a slightly dystopian future, with a boy and a girl - always siblings, sometimes twins - who have minimally supernatural powers on the run from aggressors/the government/big business/a cult. When I was a kid, checking books like these out of the library in the early '90s, I called them "Tomorrow People" books; I bet you can guess why. H.M. Hoover's Children of Morrow was another clear candidate.
Like those other novels, The Weathermonger is quite slight - my paperback doesn't reach 175 pages - and very much driven by plot. Characters come and go and some of them don't even get proper names. The two main kids, Jeff and Sally, could be any boy of 16 and girl of 12. The requisite supernatural element is here - Jeff is one of a rare breed who can control the weather - and humanity has fallen apart, with hangings and stonings for anyone who uses a machine or runs electricity. So far, so good - a "Tomorrow People" book, for sure, and an interesting premise.
What's unusual about this one is Dickinson's seeming disinterest in the standard tenets of drama. This is the rare book with an almost totally flat affect; it's almost as if Dickinson keeps the reader at arm's distance. Stranger still is his decision to centralize the book so firmly on Jeff, yet he never gives us Jeff's viewpoint; the narrative stays in third person. This results in several awkward sequences where characters recite huge passages of exposition to Jeff - including, in fact, all the audience's knowledge of how humanity came to this place. It's a strange set of choices, and I sometimes felt as if it kept me from ever getting "close" to anyone or anything in the text.
Fortunately, the book gets weirder as it goes on; it never gets boring, despite a truly strange denouement. Dickinson also starts to introduce some little currents of dark comedy about halfway through, which help give it a little texture. In the end, though, The Weathermonger feels like a great premise but a so-so book. I bet it makes great TV.
Show Less
Awards
Mark Twain Readers Award (Nominee)
Language
Original publication date
1968
Physical description
158 p.; 18 cm
Local notes
Changes, 1
DDC/MDS
| Fic SF Dickinson |