Featured Company:

Nation

Today's shopping tips: "Be wise in purchasing ..... find best value one"

---

Manufacturer: HarperCollins
List Price: $16.99
Our Price: $9.78
You Save: $ 7.21 ( 42% )
(prices subject to change)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

Average Ratings:

The sea has taken everything.

Mau is the only one left after a giant wave sweeps his island village away. But when much is taken, something is returned, and somewhere in the jungle Daphne—a girl from the other side of the globe—is the sole survivor of a ship destroyed by the same wave.

Together the two confront the aftermath of catastrophe. Drawn by the smoke of Mau and Daphne's sheltering fire, other refugees slowly arrive: children without parents, mothers without babies, husbands without wives—all of them hungry and all of them frightened. As Mau and Daphne struggle to keep the small band safe and fed, they defy ancestral spirits, challenge death himself, and uncover a long-hidden secret that literally turns the world upside down. . . .

Internationally revered storyteller Terry Pratchett presents a breathtaking adventure of survival and discovery, and of the courage required to forge new beliefs.

DESCRIPTION:

Binding: Roughcut
EAN: 9780061433016
ISBN: 0061433012
Label: HarperCollins
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 384
Publication Date: 2008-10-01
Publisher: HarperCollins
Reading Level: Young Adult
Release Date: 2008-09-30
Studio: HarperCollins


SIMILAR ITEMS:

• The Graveyard Book
• Hogfather
• Making Money (Discworld Novels)
• The Hunger Games
• Wintersmith (Discworld)


CUSTOMER REVIEWS:

Customer Rating:
Summary: One reading isn't enough
Comment: I have just finished listening to an audio publication of Nation and am completely blown away! It is a truly wonderful story for young adults, but also has a great deal to offer those of us who are, well, older. As always, Mr. Pratchett deals with huge and important topics with humor and sensitivity. This is a story about two young people on a tropical island at the end of the world, who have lost everything and together create meaning out of the void left behind... it is about overcoming fear... about the part religion and belief play in people's lives and so very much more. The characters are real and compelling, stepping off the pages to speak directly to the reader. It is an amazing story and I highly recommend it to adults of any age.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Finally a Terry Pratchett book that leaves me with a heavy heart (in a good way, I think)
Comment: How should I start my review after racing through the pages in one night and finally falling asleep profoundly disturbed?

First, I must confess that this review is about first impressions, and I fully intend to re-read the book again for further insights. Having been a fan of Terry Pratchett and his novels, Discworld or otherwise, for some years now, I am at the same time surprised, appalled and in awe when reading this.

After the initial pages, I was surprised at the subdued tone of the writing, a departure from the exuberant and irreverant style unique to his Discworld novels. Granted the subject matter - two youngsters stranded on an island after a catastrophe that wiped out all surrounding peoples, is not to be taken lightly, I was increasingly appalled. The touches of "fantasy" (SPOILER ALERT!) when Mau and Daphne communicated with the ancestral spirits and gods (SPOILER END!) did nothing to hide the brutal, honest realism. Did it shock me? Yes. Did I feel taken in by a cheap writer's trick? Emphatically, no. Nothing in this book is there just for its shock value. Instead, I feel a strong storyteller-reader relationship with Terry Pratchett; crazily or not, I feel like he's telling me this important story in the gentlest, kindest way possible. He has always entertained me with the madcap world that is Discworld, but now he has an important message for me, and he's not gonna shy away from it or dress it up with glibly told jokes. That was when the awe kicked in. As if I did not respect him as an author enough, this sealed the deal.

My first read left me contemplative with a heavy heart, but grateful for all that I have in my unconsequential life. Do not be led to believe from my review that Nation is a depressing book! It's an uplifting book of massive courage and heart as our beloved protagonists, defying their youth and inexperience, forged......well, a Nation......because it gave them a purpose to live instead of give in to despair (and death), and because it was the right thing to do by the refugees who have came to depend on them. Truly the last reviewer was right, there's a lot to think about. And to feel about.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Nation = Perfection
Comment: I am a Discworld fan. I bought this book on the strength of the Pratchett name. I loved it. Maybe I just love everything the man writes but he brought me in and surrounded me with his world. I would love to live on the Disc (maybe in Lancre or on the Chalck) but I think the Nation is 2009's place to be. (At least until Unseen Academicals comes out :-).

Customer Rating:
Summary: Incredible story that will challenge your view of God
Comment: Utterly fantastic. Pratchett asks life's most fundamental questions while telling an incredible story of coming into one's indentity. Highly recommended for anyone 13 and up.

Also, the audio book is incredible too, wonderful performance!

Customer Rating:
Summary: Deep fiction with a light touch
Comment: When much is taken, something is returned. That is the theme of Nation, a stunningly beautiful, thought-provoking and at times heart-breaking new novel by Terry Pratchett. This is not a Discworld novel. It is the tale of Mau, a boy just about to undergo his coming of age ritual on a small island in the Great Pelagic Ocean when a tidal wave destroys everything and everyone around him. But when so much is taken, something is given in return and, in this case, the tidal wave also strands the Sweet Judy, a ship of the British Empire, and its one surviving occupant, a young woman who answers to the name of Daphne.

As Mau and Daphne struggle to rebuild some semblance of a life and a community and understanding between two very different cultures, Pratchett has the opportunity to explore the meaning of family, cultural belonging, responsibility, what it means to be civilized, and the role of religion in explaining and coping with tragedy. It is with the interplay between the civilized scientific Daphne, and the heathen superstitious Mau that Pratchett manages to create the most tension. He does this without ever coming across as pedantic or dogmatic, but instead allows the questions that are left when your entire framework for understanding is shattered to drive the plot forward. Since this is a Pratchett novel, it's done with humor and a light touch. Minor characters include a foul-mouthed evangelical parrot, a tree-climbing octopus, cannibals with a very strict code of conduct, a ship's cook who built his own coffin in the galley, and the toothless Mrs. Gurgle, of whom it is wise to always be upwind.

Nation is an alternative history set in a Victorian time period (on a different set of South Pacific islands than would be found on our maps). Pratchett is toying with the idea of quantum universes -- the idea that every choice creates two different universes, one where the first option is chosen, and another in which a different course may have occurred.

Nation is appropriate for YA readers, but would appeal to all readers who like thoughtful fantasy. It must be said that this is not traditional fantasy. There are no elves, magic, or vampires. Rather, it's a fantastical novel, where the gods are real and communicate with humans. (Or maybe they don't, and we just think they do.)

Terry Pratchett writes with a deft grace that somehow manages to create real, breathing characters who you feel for as they struggle to deal with the tragedy that has completely destroyed their world. In a few lines of prose he manages to make people spring full-fledged from the page like Athena from the forehead of Zeus. He perfectly balances characterization and world building, creating a rich, fully imagined world that resonates with color and sound. The ending was bittersweet perfection, not shying away from the issues that Pratchett had been dealing with, but instead realistically balancing the demands of the heart with the demands of personal responsibility. I cannot recommend Nation highly enough.

---

NOTE: All online transactions are processed at Amazon.com's secure server, using the latest technology on internet's secure transactions.
| Children's Books | Children Education | Parenting |