Boltzmon! [Hardcover]

William Sleator (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

With a devious older sister who wishes he hadn't been born, eleven-year-old Chris needs some heavenly intervention. But when that help arrives in the form of a boltzmon--the all-knowing, shape-shifting remnant of a black hole--Chris is in even bigger trouble.

In this clever sci-fi twist on the genie tales of folklore, a young boy suddenly has access to more power than he can handle. The highly unstable boltzmon flips Chris at random to different worlds, including one of his own imagining. It is in Arteria, a country he has mapped out on his computer, that Chris has the chance to confront his sister, Lulu, and end their rivalry before it has deadly consequences.

A villainous older sister, a quantum physics genie with a weird sense of humor, and a sharp young hero--this Bermuda triangle of characters is at the center of a funny, frightening novel in the spirit of William Sleator's masterwork, Interstellar Pig.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As in his recent Rewind, Sleator's mildly comic time-travel adventure is the story of a boy who prevents his own death by healing family relationships. Computer geek Chris is in perpetual conflict with Lulu, his stereotyped 13-year-old blonde cheerleader sister. She spreads rumors about him at school to increase her popularity, causing Chris to lose his few friends. Then a shape-changing entity called the boltzmon appears, a genielike "remnant of a giant black hole." It tells the 11-year-old that the imaginary country he has been creating on his computer actually exists on a parallel earth 40 years in the future. Chris will die very soon in an accident caused by Lulu's conniving behavior unless he goes to this alternate universe and visits some magical Time Temples. Sequences in the primitive and dangerous country contain several exciting escapades (a cannibal kidnapping, a rickety bridge across a chasm), but readers who are sticklers for coherence and logic in their fantasy worlds will be frustrated by the boltzmon's erratic powers and unexplained motivation. "Here to help you?" it cries when Chris asks it for directions to the temples. "Why should I help you? I'm just here to have fun!" This jolly yet moralizing tangle of a tale is best reserved for hard-core Sleator fans. Ages 10-14. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Grade 5-8-A "boltzmon" is a theoretical subatomic particle that holds all the information in the galaxy. Here, one of them plays a bizarre role in the sibling rivalry between Chris, 11, and his older sister, Lulu. The boltzmon appears to Chris in the form of a floating eyeball and lets the boy know of its virtually limitless powers. It transports him into an alternate universe where he must complete a dangerous quest in order to prevent his own imminent death back home. Chris also meets an unpleasant adult version of his sister, whose presence is crucial to his journey. By quest's end, the boy has shown toughness and courage that he previously lacked, and he and Lulu resolve their differences. The therapeutic reconciliation of the siblings makes for a rather anticlimactic conclusion, given the bizarre adventures that lead up to it. The boltzmon premise is intriguing, but not totally satisfying. The particle insists that it has no reason to help Chris and acts only on whim, but ends up manipulating events to test and challenge the protagonist just enough to allow him to succeed. Its very human vanity and impatience seem out of place coming from such an unfathomable bit of matter, but these qualities do add humor to the story, especially when the particle appears in human guise. Though not perfect, Sleator's novel has enough imaginative plotting to keep readers turning the pages.
Steven Engelfried, Deschutes County Library, Bend, OR
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Juvenile; 1st edition (September 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525461310
• ISBN-13: 978-0525461319
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,366,128 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Boltzmon!, June 15, 2001

By 

Sick Man (Vermont) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Boltzmon! (Hardcover)

Eleven year old Chris is a normal and very creative 6th Grade boy. He lives in the deep of a large city, and he often dreams of unknown countries with vast rich grasslands and clean flowing rivers. He is so creative that he decides to design and map a computer version of his own country. This fantasyland he names Arteria. His life was once full of happiness and fun, that is, until his snobby older sister starts getting all the attention. Chris's 8th grade sister, Lulu has everything going for her, she's a popular blonde cheerleader and also a big student council member. She gets all his parents attention and even his former friends. Suddenly, he is nothing. Chris supposes she would be an okay sister except for another thing, like most siblings she's mean to Chris. Not just mean, but sneer, snobby, unfair and she seems like she just wants to make her younger brother miserable. Chris always tries as hard as he can to ignore Lulu's attempts to madden him or make him jealous, yet he just can't help but hate her. He knows that deep down inside, Chris holds that brotherly love for Lulu, but she is definitely not helping the hateful feelings between the two. One lonely night, while Lulu is holding one of her loud cheerleader parties, Chris encounters something that will from then on, change his life forever. Something strange, yet amazingly cool. This is the Boltzmon, the sacred remnant of a black hole who can change its form or shape whenever it wants and knows all, even the future. The Boltzmon is easily perturbed and when it becomes angry enough it often flips it self into a different world. The Boltzmon drags Chris through space an time and into new worlds and strange countries, including the messed up land of Arteria. Sure enough, when Chris maddens the Boltzmon with his slow thinking, it flips out and everything turns black, when things appear again, the two are in another world, although one thing is different, a tall woman who greatly resembles Lulu is with them. It is not truly Lulu, but possibly a future version of her. You will have to find out! A creative, smart young hero, a snobby, villainous older sister and a subatomic particle with a weird sense of humor and too much power to deal with. Together, the trio, along with many more interesting characters, make this short book an exciting, funny and somewhat frightening novel. I think this was a great, enthusiastic story with quite a sense of high-tech fantasy. Definitely a top Sleator book, and a must reader for any easy book readers and fiction lovers.

4.0 out of 5 stars must read, March 3, 2004

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Boltzmon! (Hardcover)

In my Language Arts class we had to do a book report. I read The book Boltzmon. In the book I found out that Boltzmon was the last name of this boy's friend. I like this book because the brother and sister fight at the beginnig but at the end they don't. I recommend this book for other readers becouse I like this author and he is good at writing books. I think this is a nice book.

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Sleator's best., April 30, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Boltzmon! (Hardcover)

I have read a number of Sleator's books and have enjoyed most of them. This one seemed to hang on a flimsier thread than most. Apparently he took an incident from his own life (a ride in a Thai wagon) and some material he had read concerning black holes, and from those unrelated elements tried to build an interesting story. The payoff was just never there as far as I'm concerned.