NY: HarperCollins, 1996.
This is the third adventure of thirteen-year-old Johnny Maxwell and it’s also the closest to a classic science fiction plot. Johnny has been working on a project for school (telling adults you’re “doing a project” will get you in almost anywhere you really ought not to be) on the bombing of his little town of Blackbury by the Germans during World War II. It was all a mistake, the Luftwaffe thought it was somewhere else, but an entire street was destroyed and all its residents killed.
Only the old people remember now, and Johnny’s friends don’t understand his interest because “it was a long time ago.” But he can’t get it out of his mind. Nineteen people dead, just like that. And before he knows it, all five of them have been yanked back through time to the War. Can Johnny save the people of Paradise Street? Especially because the grandfather of one of his buddies lived there? And then can they all get home again?
It’s a complicated plot, but time travel stories usually are, and Pratchett does a good job of explaining the nature of causality paradoxes. And the character of Mrs. Tachyon, bag-lady extraordinaire, who wanders through all three volumes, is very nicely handled. This trilogy was intended for an adolescent audience but, like all of Sir Terry’s work, it’s a highly enjoyable romp that will be of interest to any of his legions of fans.
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