Gone by Michael Grant, a Review
I posted a few weeks ago about the upcoming book Gone by author Michael Grant. The premise of his book which is set for release on June 24th is that everyone over the age of 14 vanishes in the blink of an eye. Suddenly children are left to fend for themselves.
A notion like that does tend to invite comparison with The Lord of the Flies and no one is likely to come of well compared directly to that classic. However, while there are some similarities, Gone is telling a slightly different story.
For a start these children aren’t just left alone, their trapped in behind some sort of barrier which cuts them off from the rest of the world. And that’s just the first of several science fiction concepts that pepper the novel. The action and sci-fi elements ramp up over the course of the novel along with the tension.
Full credit to Michael Grant, even though this is a YA targetted novel, he doesn’t duck the unpleasant consequences of all the adults going missing. Without dwelling on the gory details, he addresses death, injury and all the other effects that the lack of adult supervision have on these kids.
Grant’s protagonists are convincing as young teenagers without being stereotypes and groups rapidly form and then reform as the situation changes around them. Even when he does employ cliches (the big bully and his weedy friend for example), the convention is turned on its head before the story ends.
It’s worth noting that this novel is the first part of a series and while it does have a definite ending, a lot is left unresolved for future novels to address. In fact the most interesting questions that the book poses are all left unanswered, which can be a little unsatisfying. But I’m certainly looking forward to reading the next book.
In the interests of full disclosure, this review was based on an advance reviewers copy so I didn’t have to pay for it. I suppose that may have colored my opinions slightly. But I would be willing to buy the next book in the series to find out what happens.
This book may have been labled as a YA novel, but it certainly holds up to the standards of the SF genre as a whole and in many cases exceeds them. The writing is never less than workmanlike and at times the handling of character is remarkably deft.
As busy as I am, I rarely finish books quickly (too many distractions), but I finished Gone over the course of three days and I stayed up late to do it. In the end that probably says it all.
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One Comment, Comment or Ping
michael grant
Thanks for the great review. I really appreciate it.
I hope I’ll justify your interest in the next one — I’m just finishing a rewrite at the moment. If by “just finishing” one means “stalling and delaying until the editors pull their hair out.”
Jun 20th, 2008
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