11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
An Upsetting Disappointment, January 20, 2009
This review is from: The Ellie Chronicles #1: While I Live (Mass Market Paperback)
I grew up reading John Marsden's books. I was well and truly within the target age range when the Tomorrow series first started in the early Nineties. And recently I reread that series and found I enjoyed it even more as an adult. However, then I came to The Ellie Chronicles.
My advice? Avoid it at all costs.
Now, I know John Marsden lives on a farm, and so no doubt much of what he writes is based on personal experience. To that end, I am sure there is a very small portion of society who enjoys reading hundreds of pages of minute detail about how to be a successful cattle farmer. I am just not one of them.
Where was the amazing story I was expecting to dive back into? Why has it been replaced with a book full of information about birthing cattle and renting paddocks?
And then the book well and truly `jumped the shark' for me on page one hundred and fourteen, where Marsden hit rock bottom with his nasty and just plain stupid comments about blonde women.
I was always a little annoyed that the Tomorrow series was drawn out. And out. And out. When an author insists on writing so many books for one story it is bound to lose it, but then I was pleasantly surprised that for the most part the seven books maintained their high standard.
However, towards the end of the series Marsden forced a group of children on us, and our heroes and heroines became little more than babysitters. There was never a more annoying plot point than the introduction of a little boy named Gavin. Yeah, Mr Marsden, I get it. Gavin signifies Ellie's transformation into and adult and a mother figure.
The problem is that I don't enjoy it.
There's that rule in television - don't make your main characters parents because being tied down with children does not make good entertainment.
Unfortunately Marsden seems to have forgotten his target audience in The Ellie Chronicles, and Gavin becomes just about the only person in Ellie's life. For my part, I couldn't care less whether Ellie does a good job of raising a child. I just want the old gang back (and yes, that even means poor Kevin, who Marsden has had a serious bias against since day one).
This book just went on and on, and for the first time in my life I realised reading John Marsden's writing was hard work. He went off on tangents in the middle of dramatic scenes. He started quoting poetry. And yes, there was far too much detail about building fences and rescuing cows.
I'm sorry Mr Marsden, but this book was a disaster.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Satisfying new series., September 6, 2007
John Marsden's WHILE I LIVE creates 'The Ellie Chronicles', continuing the story of a girl who has spent years fighting invaders in her home country, and who is back on her family's farm trying to rebuild her life after years of war. The only problem is - the war isn't really over yet, and when tragedy hits she again finds herself struggling to survive. The same fierce independent spirit displayed in Marsden's 'Tomorrow' series revolving around Ellie and her courageous band of friends continues in this satisfying new series.
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