Eye to Eye Pb [Paperback]

Catherine Jinks (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 29, 1998

While scavenging alone in the desert wilderness, Jansi stumbles across the remains of a damaged star ship which contains a computer capable of thought, expression, and friendship.

Editorial Reviews

From AudioFile

What if a primitive young nomad met a superintelligent computer in the middle of nowhere? That's what happens to Jansi, a scavenger who runs across a damaged Stelcorp starship in the desert and slowly forms a mutually advantageous friendship with the ship's computer, PIM. Simon Oats uses mechanical enhancement to voice PIM and gives Jansi's wild and fearful side full play as he brings this oddest of odd couples to life. The story tackles themes like the nature of communication in such a believable way, it's no wonder it won Australia's Children's Book Council Book of the Year for Older Readers Award in 1998. M.C. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 156 pages
• Publisher: Puffin (January 29, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140384448
• ISBN-13: 978-0140384444
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,717,088 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

CATHERINE JINKS was born in Brisbane, Australia in 1963. She grew up in Papua New Guinea and later spent four years studying medieval history at the University of Sydney. After working for several years in a bank, she married a Canadian journalist and lived for a short time in Nova Scotia, Canada. She is now a full-time writer, residing in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales with her husband Peter and their daughter Hannah.Catherine is a three-time winner of the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year award, and has also won a Victorian Premier's Literature Award, the Ena Noel Award for Children's Literature, and an Aurealis Award for Science Fiction. In 2001 she was presented with a Centenary Medal for her contribution to Australian Children's Literature.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars An engrossing "science fantasy" novel, June 28, 2005

By 

Laraine A. Barker "Laraine A Barker" (New Zealand) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eye to Eye Pb (Paperback)

Jansi, scavenging in the desert, stumbles across a Stelcorp star ship embedded in the sand. The ship's nickname is PIM and it needs Jansi's help to repair itself. But Jansi has never encountered a star ship before, much less one capable of thinking and talking, and he takes the voice for that of Shaklat, the god of his people, and the star ship for Shaklat's temple. PIM and Jansi forge an unlikely friendship and when PIM is threatened with destruction by Stelcorp they need all their cunning to stop this happening.

Some people might consider this book to be science fiction (because it features space ships) but it's probably more accurate to describe it as science fantasy because it's definitely in the realms of fantasy that humans will ever create a sentient machine of any type, never mind a machine as complex as a space ship.

Catherine Jinks abandons the stark spareness of the writing style used in the Pagan books, which abound with incomplete sentences, while still writing succinctly. I love the way each scene is revealed to the reader first through Jansi's eyes and then through PIM's. Jinks is the first writer to use present tense without unsettling me. It worked beautifully in the Pagan books and it works just as well here.

I couldn't put this book down and was reading well after I should have switched off the light and gone to sleep.