The Navigator [Library Binding]

Eoin McNamee (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

Owen turned to Cat but she was staring into the woods, her face a mast of fear. Far off, but moving closer, were two figures, both white, both faceless, seeming to glide between the trees. "The Harsh" whispered Cati."They're here."

One day the world around Owen shifts oddly: Time flows backwards, and the world and family he knew disappear. Time can only be set right when the Resisters vanquish their ancient enemies, the Harsh. Unless they are stopped, everything Owen knows will vanish as if it has never been...And Owen discovers he has a terrifying role to play in this battle: he is the Navigator.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5–8—This fantasy by Irish author McNamee introduces Owen, whose father has died mysteriously, and whose mother has sunk into a depression. Out in his wilderness hideaway, he catapults into a time vortex where he meets a girl named Cati and her fellow Wakeful. Their eternal task is to fight the Harsh, a powerful ice people who upend time, running it backward so that humans no longer exist. Owen, Cati, and other Wakeful set out to find the Puissance, the place where it is foretold that the Navigator, a legendary figure, can defeat the Harsh and restore proper time. Readers who head for D. J. MacHale's "Pendragon" (S & S) and Garth Nix's "The Keys to the Kingdom" (Scholastic) series may like this one as well, but it sometimes strains credibility. The idea that time is moving backward (from modern to medieval times by novel's end), but that all humanity immediately disappears (even though there were humans back then) is hard to accept. And while Owen and Cati are plucky adventurers, the descriptions sometimes fall flat, and the transitions are occasionally abrupt. Consider this title an additional purchase; acquire where Kenneth Oppel's Airborn (HarperCollins, 2004) and similar titles are popular.—Caitlin Augusta, The Darien Library, CT
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Owen often escapes his widowed mother's house for his den, a cozy hideout along the banks of the river. One day he spots a strange man in a faded uniform staring across the river. As Owen creeps up on him, the world plunges into total darkness. When the darkness lifts, the man tells Owen, "It has begun." It appears that Owen has an important role to play in an eons-long battle between the Resistors and a group of villains called the Harsh, who freeze everything they touch. The struggle is at a crisis point; the Harsh have managed to start the Great Time Machine running backward. The concept is somewhat sketchy, but McNamee, who wrote the adult book Resurrection Man (1994), keeps the action vivid and exciting, giving readers little time to worry about details. An editor's note indicates that the interesting cast of characters will return for more adventures. Lynn Rutan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Library Binding: 352 pages
• Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books (January 9, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375939105
• ISBN-13: 978-0375939105
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,690,552 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I love Irish Storytellers!, May 9, 2007

By 

Camille "at the BookMoot!" (Texas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Navigator (Hardcover)

This is a book I HAD to finish reading before I could go to bed last night.

Owen is different. He doesn't fit in at school and his mother is suffering from a mysterious mental disorder. Owen's father commited suicide and he hears people in town say, "Like father, like son," "He'll go the same way." Owen does suffer a crippling phobia of water. The sight of the harbor or a river makes him tremble.

He finds refuge in his "den," a small clearing in the woods where he has built a fort with odds and ends of furniture and items he scavenged from the town junk yard. He is in his den one afternoon when the light in the sky changes and in a flash, Owen's world disappears.

He encounters a person calling himself Sub-Commandant who is part of the Resisters and who has called the Sleepers to wake up because The Harsh have caused Time to start moving backward and are getting ready to attack. Wha-huh?

Well, think how Owen feels!

This was a terrific adventure story. There is a missing artifact, an epic journey and the hope that "The Navigator" will appear to restore the flow of Time and get the world back on track. Three young ones and a world to save--great stuff.

The fantastical apparatus of this world such as the power source "Magno," the brass observation tower "Skyward," the "Q-Car," and goggled bad guys operating dragonfly-styled flying machines put me in mind of Flash Gordon serials. Illustrator, Jon Goodell has done a lovely service illustrating some of these technological wonders.

There was still an unresolved mystery in my mind about a minor character in the beginning of the book. I think this means more stories are coming.

I love Irish storytellers.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I navigated my way through this book in one day!, January 31, 2007

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The Navigator (The Navigator Trilogy) (Audio CD)

The Navigator is a very good book. I really enjoyed listening to it; I listened to it in one day. The descriptions are very good and I feel like I'm living it.

The Navigator is about a boy named Owen who meets these people called the resistors who are resisting against the Harsh who are trying to take the world back to before their where people at all.

Overall it was a very good book and I can't wait for the next one in the series!

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put it down, August 24, 2011

By 

Mary (Vancouver) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Navigator (Navigator Trilogy) (Paperback)

I am writing this review for my 8 yr old ds. He loved the book and couldn't put it down. He found that the adventure was great. Other reviewers have given more details about the book its self. I just wanted to voice ds's opinion that he thought that it was a good book.