An Exploration of "Tomorrow, When The War Began"
and its sequels, by John Marsden
This site is dedicated to the "Tomorrow" Series by John Marsden,
which follows the lives of a group of Australian Teenagers as they struggle to
respond to the surprise invasion and conquest of their country.
Set in the current day, this series (see review)
is comparised of seven books "Tomorrow,
When The War Began", "The Dead
of the Night", "The Third Day,
The Frost", "Darkness, Be
My Friend", "Burning For Revenge",
"The Night is for Hunting"
and "The Other Side of Dawn".
Together they form a modern classic and has been a runaway success. They were
written to be accessable to teenagers, but John Marsden does not talk down to
his audience and adult readers will find a lot to enjoy and appreciate here as
well.
Over a million copies of these books have been sold and "Tomorrow,
When The War Began" has been translated German (as "Morgen
War Krieg"), Spanish (as "Mañana, cuando empiece la
guerra"), Danish (as "I morgen da brod ud"), Dutch
(as "Mogen toen de oorlog begon", Italian (as "La
guerra che verrà"), Swedish (as "I morgon nar kriget
kom") and French (as "Apocalypse")
So what's so special about them? Simply put, these are the best "action/adventure"
novels that I have ever read, and I have read a quite a few. It is not so much
the action, though John Marsden writes tense action as well as anyone, but rather
the very human and believable characters. The main characters in these books are
not you typical action heroes, instead they are well drawn, perfectly ordinary
people who have been dropped into a nightmare situation. Their struggle to cope
with a world gone mad form the heart and soul of these novels. The writing sucks
you in and as the novels progress, it is hard not to imagine yourself
in their situation and wonder how you would cope.
If you have not read the series and have ended up here by accident, take a
look at the review of the series, check out the
samples of the writing, and if your fancy is
tickled, jump over to find the books, grab a copy of "Tomorrow,
When the War Began" and set off on a journey to remember. Of course,
feel free to take a wander around this website as well, just be warned that many
pages reveal significant elements of the plot. If that bothers you, look out for
the red warning messages near the top of (most) such
pages.
If you are a fan, then the whole of this site is for you. Navigation is via
the bar on the left, clicking on a heading will expand it and clicking on "Tomorrow
Home" will always being you back here.
Throughout this site, quotes are used extensively to illustrate points. In
all cases these quotes are used with permission.
If anyone wants to link to this site, or sub-pages in it, please feel free.
I suggest avoiding the quotes pages at present as they are a being consolidated,
but the other pages should not be changing address.
The site breaks down into the following sections:
Samples
of the Writing
These are picked to show visitors what they can expect to find
in the series and illustrate John Marsden's writing style, but
I have also included some that show just how far the characters
move mentally
in the space of these seven books, and a few of my favorate
quotes covering life
on the farm, the Australian
Bush and the Ellie
making a fool of herself with a wombat. |
The
Books
This link takes you to the high level review of the series,
but also opens up the navigation bar to give access to a commentary
on each individual book in the series. Most of these commentaries
do blow the plot of the relevent
book so if this bothers you, please be careful about what
you read.
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The
Characters
The heart and soul of the Tomorrow Series are the characters,
their humanity, how they react to what is happening to them,
how they develop over the course of the seven books. This
link opens up the section with character profiles and reviews
of each of the eight main characters in the Tomorrow series;
Ellie Linton, Homer Yannos,
Fi (Fiona) Maxwell, Kevin
Holmes, Robyn Mathers,
Chris Lang, Corrie
Mackenzie and, last but certainly not least, Lee.
As I wrote these profiles and searched for quotes to support
my conclusions I found quite regularly that I had to change
my opinion of the character considerably, that the quotes
simply did not support my first cut impressions. This is particularly
true of Fi, but also of Lee,
both of whom turn out to be much more interesting than I supposed
when I started on them.
This section uses quotes very extensively to support the
points it makes about the characters, so if you are curious
about why I say something, click on the appropriate link to
jump to the quotes that the statement is based on..
Of course, if you disagree with something I have to say,
I would love to hear from you. You can use the link found
at the bottom of each page (including this one) to send me
a email.
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Things
to Explore
A bit of everything, from external links to John Marsden's Biography
and the transcript of a TV program the ABC made on him in 2002,
to the explosive characteristics of jet fuel and petrol, how
much natual gas do you need to blow up a house, the problems
with mounting a full on invasion of Australia and everything
in between. |
Quibbles
For the true fan. Continuity problems in the Tomorrow Series.
Teleporting rifles, magic boots, scenes that refer to future
events. Small beer for a series that covers 2,000 pages, but
I enjoyed writing them down and maybe, someday, someone will
enjoy reading them. |
Find
the Books
John Marsden's books are often hard to find outside of Australia.
This page has some help for those in the US, the UK and France
(hopefully more to follow, if you have information, please
send it though) and provides links to each of his books that
you can use to purchase them from a internet bookstore located
in Australia.
I have no association of any kind with the stores linked
to, other than as an occassional customer. This page is provided
simply as a way of helping people get access to John Marsden's
body of work (not just the "Tomorrow" series)
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Links
There are some good sites out there on the "Tomorrow"
series and this page provides links to my favorites. If you
find (or have built) one that you think should be included,
please drop me a line. (see the link at the bottom of the page)
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About
this site
Why this site exists |
Well there you have it. Congratulations on reaching the end of this rather
long page. I hope you enjoy the rest of your stay and that this website helps
you appreciate a fine piece of work, John Marsden's "Tomorrow" Series.
Regards
Richard Simpson
Sydney, Australia
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