Tim, Defender of the Earth! [Hardcover]

Sam Enthoven (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 27, 2008

Tim, Defender of the Earth, is a rock’em, sock‘em thriller filled with smoke, spectacle, and big-time adventure. Big Ben will fall! Westminster Abbey will crumble! London will never be the same!

TIM, aka Tyrannosaurus: Improved Model, is the product of a top-secret government military experiment, and he couldn’t be more loveable. Sure, he’s an enormous monster to most, but at heart he’s just a big, awkward, thirteen-yearold who realizes he could be all that stands between the earth and total destruction. (Take that, Godzilla.)

Now TIM must form an unlikely alliance with fifteen-year-olds Chris and Anna in order to save humanity from the greatest threat it has ever known: Anna’s father, the brilliant and demented Professor Mallahide, and his growing tide of vicious, all-consuming nanobots. Will TIM prevail and save the British Isles and the world from evil? We’ll all have to hold hands, read, and believe—in TIM, Defender of the Earth!

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The author of The Black Tattoo (2006) lays waste to London in this similarly offbeat tale. This time, he offers a spin on classic low-budget monster flicks. Having at last perfected self-replicating, nearly invisible nanobots that can turn anything into anything else, Professor Mallahide feeds himself to his creations and sets out on a well-intentioned crusade to banish death and unhappiness from the world. With his new capabilities, nothing stands in his way—except his commonsensical daughter, Anna; her shallow but not completely useless classmate Chris; and Tim, a hundred-meter-tall, genetically “improved,” preadolescent tyrannosaur created in a subterranean British lab. Although Enthoven has the distracting habit of freezing the action to fret or explain, he pits Tim and his tiny human helpers against scads of thick-skulled politicians, sets up a series of rousingly destructive battles between the titanic dino and Mallahide (who turns himself into a mammoth half-human cockroach for the occasion), and closes with an ingenious twist. This is not quite up to M. T. Anderson’s Whales on Stilts! (2006) for sheer zaniness, but it should draw and amuse the same audience. Grades 5-8. --John Peters

Review

This fun, action-driven, science fiction tale will be snapped up by restless boys. -- School Library Journal

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Razorbill (March 27, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595141847
• ISBN-13: 978-1595141842
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,852,425 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Hi! My name's Sam. I live in London, England and I write fantastical action thrillers for young people.
My debut novel, THE BLACK TATTOO was published in late 2006: that one's got swordfights, monsters, vomiting bats, flying kung fu and the end of the universe. My follow-up, TIM, DEFENDER OF THE EARTH, was published in early 2008: that one's essentially a giant monster smackdown in which most of London's famous landmarks are thoroughly and gleefully flattened. As my 'sinister masterplan to conquer the universe' rolls onward [bwah-ha! BWA-HA-HA-HA! er, sorry] you can bet there'll be more where BLACK TAT and TIM came from. I love writing my books, and I hope you'll love reading them. Thank you. :)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars absolute enjoyment, June 11, 2011

By 

Narcolepticgi (Erlanger, KY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tim, Defender of the Earth! (Hardcover)

If you're looking for a stretch of the imagination, this is the book for you.
I find, in order to enjoy a fiction novel, it must be able to make me see and hear through the main characters eyes and ears. The movie maker in my mind must begin to create the scenes. Sam's book TIM did that for me.
It is an interesting story line with lots of turns and twists and ended with me wanting to go to the theater to see the movie. It would be a terrific Godzilla feature, perhaps someday it will be. One can only hope.

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it, May 3, 2009

By 

Mercedes (Colorado, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tim, Defender of the Earth! (Hardcover)

SPOILERS ALERT!

From the first page, I loved this book. An advanced dinosaur, a T-Rex, has been created. When the prime minister comes to see what all the research funding has been spent on he's very disappointed. Tim is just a big dinosaur to him. He orders him to be exterminated and moves the funding to another scientist who's creating something for the military. When Tim is being gassed he panics and breaks out of his cage underground and appears in the middle of London. He's attacked by the scared tiny people and he runs to the sea. There he meets the one and only Kraken, who is the old Defender of the Earth. He explains to Tim what his duty is; to protect the planet and the life on it.

The funding is moved to a scientist who has created a nanobot. After showing how he can change a species to another species the prime minister is not impressed. He demands to see what kind of a fighting machine the nanobots are. After being shown in a matter of seconds how quickly the test subject is destroyed he approves funding. After the prime minister leaves the scientist brings the test subject back to life and makes a terrible decision.

Chris takes a school trip to the museum and ends up with a bracelet on his wrist that can't be removed. He soon discovers he's supposed to be the strength for the defender of the earth. When the scientist's good intentions turn into a power trip Tim comes to the rescue to fight him and destroy him, however, without Chris' help Tim just can't seem to make a dent. When the United States informs Britain they are going to be destroyed because of the nanobot monster that's eating up all living things and threatens to take over the world Chris will finally step up to the plate. Tim is all but dead and comes back to life with Chris' help and the crazy nanobot/man is destroyed.

This was a page turner, keeps you interested from the get go. I think this would make a great movie. I recommend it to all.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Boy And His Dinosaur Versus The Evil Cyber Professor, July 29, 2008

By 

Mel Odom (Moore, OK USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tim, Defender of the Earth! (Hardcover)

Sam Enthoven's new book, TIM, DEFENDER OF THE EARTH, is a blend of fantasy, science fiction, and giant monsters that tends to range all over the place. Honestly, he does a pretty good job of mixing all the genres because not one of them can completely exist without the other. This is a confection aimed at young male readers and it shows, though there's a scrappy girl character that I enjoyed a lot too.

It's really hard to discuss the book without giving away some of the novel's progression, but I'll try to keep all the mysteries intact as much as I can. Enthoven braids his story together by bringing his characters together, and the story summary on the book's jacket gives away a lot.

In the beginning, there's TIM. Yep, all capital letters. It stands for Tyrannosaurus Improved Model, and that's exactly what he is. For years, scientist have labored in a laboratory seventy stories below the earth's surface to blend DNA to create a new soldier. They tried blending several different creatures, but the tyrannosaur model was the only one that became viable - for reasons they still don't understand.

Then we get introduced to Chris Pitman, a young slacker coasting through school and trying to fit into the cool crowd. He exists on the fringes of it, never quite getting into that longed-for territory. He's also the guy that gets outfitted with the bracelet that links him to TIM and to the magical power of the earth. He doesn't learn that for a while. I liked Chris a lot because he never comes across as the superhero type. He's just a guy who's stepped into a situation that's over his head.

Anna Mallahide is the daughter of Professor Mallahide, and she ends up being the strong, scrappy girl I enjoyed getting to know. Her life hasn't been easy because her dad has been working on nanotechnology even after international agreements between countries stated they would not. After TIM's funding is cut, Professor Mallahide's project is totally green-lighted. And it doesn't take long for the professor to make himself into one of the most nefarious villains I've seen in a long time.

I loved Mallahide's presence in the book because the author talks about nanotechnology and what might eventually come of it. He plays fair to both sides, building a case both for and against the advance of nanotechnology, and he does so with clear-cut examples.

But most young male readers aren't going to be there for a discussion of nanotechnology. They want to see the battle royale between TIM and Professor Mallahide. There are a couple of warm-ups to the main event, and those only build the feeling of the coming fight. The hardback edition of this book also contains a pull-out poster of TIM and Professor Mallahide as they carry on the battlefield.

The book is wildly inventive and a lot of fun, but there were a few places where the action seemed to come to a standstill. Information we'd heard was sometimes repeated. Still, if you've got a young male reader in the house, this book will probably keep him occupied.