This is the first book of the Changes trilogy - although it's chronologically the last - which inspired the well-remembered mid-'70s TV series. I can well believe that, despite never having seen it. The close focus on the two child leads and the constant forward momentum almost make the book feel like a treatment for a 1970s Disney adventure film - yes, you guessed it, not at all unlike Escape to Witch Mountain.

Some of the superficial similarities to Escape to Witch Mountain (particularly the slightly darker original novel) just can't be ignored, and to be honest, a lot of kids' books like this came out in the late '60s through the mid-'70s: low-fantasy stories set either in an unfriendly modern context or a slightly dystopian future, with a boy and a girl - always siblings, sometimes twins - who have minimally supernatural powers on the run from aggressors/the government/big business/a cult. When I was a kid, checking books like these out of the library in the early '90s, I called them "Tomorrow People" books; I bet you can guess why. H.M. Hoover's Children of Morrow was another clear candidate.

Like those other novels, The Weathermonger is quite slight - my paperback doesn't reach 175 pages - and very much driven by plot. Characters come and go and some of them don't even get proper names. The two main kids, Jeff and Sally, could be any boy of 16 and girl of 12. The requisite supernatural element is here - Jeff is one of a rare breed who can control the weather - and humanity has fallen apart, with hangings and stonings for anyone who uses a machine or runs electricity. So far, so good - a "Tomorrow People" book, for sure, and an interesting premise.

What's unusual about this one is Dickinson's seeming disinterest in the standard tenets of drama. This is the rare book with an almost totally flat affect; it's almost as if Dickinson keeps the reader at arm's distance. Stranger still is his decision to centralize the book so firmly on Jeff, yet he never gives us Jeff's viewpoint; the narrative stays in third person. This results in several awkward sequences where characters recite huge passages of exposition to Jeff - including, in fact, all the audience's knowledge of how humanity came to this place. It's a strange set of choices, and I sometimes felt as if it kept me from ever getting "close" to anyone or anything in the text.

Fortunately, the book gets weirder as it goes on; it never gets boring, despite a truly strange denouement. Dickinson also starts to introduce some little currents of dark comedy about halfway through, which help give it a little texture. In the end, though, The Weathermonger feels like a great premise but a so-so book. I bet it makes great TV. ( )

last of changes trilogy- disappointing, seemed to run out of steam

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I haven't finished a book in almost two weeks. It feels unnatural, and The Weathermonger is not to blame, but not a single book could keep my attention over the last 10 days. I miss the rest I can usually get from reading.

Anyway, I read this was actually written and published first, with the other books being prequels, and I kind of would have liked to see it that way. There are some things that are being explained in the Weathermonger which make that the other books make more sense. However, I also sort of see why the publisher would switch the order, because some part of the excitement will be spoiled this way.

There are once again two new main characters who are forced to flee to France, only to be immediately sent back to England in order to spy and search for what has been causing the changes. What they will uncover is some much sought after explanation for what has been going on in the other two books. I liked this one best, it felt slightly less cut and closed as the previous two books and the start especially I found gripping.

I think I would recommend starting with this one.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! ( )

A brother and sister barely escape a dystopian England to France after their fellow villagers try to drown them for tinkering with machinery. Something's happened across the entire country so that people have abandoned technology out of fear and have reverted to a Dark Age mentality. The French authorities send the kids back to England to try to discover what has caused such a change, and equips them as best they can for the quest. It helps that Jeff, the brother, has the power to change the weather, which also seems to have come to him (and others in England) as a result of The Changes. They need to make a dangerous cross-country journey to find the source of the change and try to stop it themselves. A fun, not-too-intense dystopian novel (the third in a trilogy, but can easily stand alone), and a neat, Arthurian ending. ( )

The Apocalyse! Now! With.... well, telling really would be a spoiler.

Let's just say that this book establishes that this trilogy belongs firmly in the genre of books that are about The Matter of Britain.

The book begins dramatically, as the curtain rises on two young people forced out into the water to drown as witches. The boy, Jeff, is suffering amnesia due to a recent knock on the head, but the girl, Sally, informs him that she's his sister and that he has the ability to control the weather.

He summons a fog, and the two manage to make their way to a boat that Jeff has kept in running order (part of the reason for the witchcraft charge - weather magic is accepted, but anything reeking of technology is suspect), and they escape across the Channel to France.

However, as soon as the two arrive in the French immigration office, they're (bafflingly quickly) sent back to England to spy on the situation and try to find out where the Changes which have caused so much upheaval are emanating from.

The plan is to grab a 1909 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost from a private collection (since simpler technology might be less troublesome) and make their way to Wales, where there have been rumors of a mysterious wood that's sprung up overnight, inhabited by a Necromancer.

A Quest is underway...

OK, this one in the trilogy is maintaining its remembered 4-star status. I really enjoyed it.
(Although, I didn't recall how much focus, for a good part of the book, is placed on the car... probably because when I read it I was young enough that I had no idea what the car looked like, so it didn't create a visual memory.
)
There is a LOT of love for this car in the book. (Though a lot of hate comes its way.)

Having now finished my re-read of the 'trilogy' I can say unequivocally that re-arranging the order in the omnibus from publication order to chronological order was a mistake. This one should be read first, and the other two should be regarded as ancillary works, only to be read afterward. It just makes more sense in the original publication order, and eliminates some of the issues I had with the other two books.

(Some of the issues - not all of them. There are still inconsistencies. For example, why, in this book, are animals as well as humans driven into a rage by technology, when in the other books animals seem to behave as usual?) Why are some people affected and not others? We still don't know.

The book is also not without its flaws. For example, Geoffrey's amnesia is nothing more than a plot device which gives Sally an excuse to explain the situation to her brother, and thus, the reader. Other than this, it's not really dealt with at all, and Jeff having lost 5 years of his life barely seems to upset him or his sister. This seems like a bit of authorial laziness. I also felt like the weather-magic aspect of the book was hyped-up enough that it's a bit of a let-down when it doesn't end up figuring more prominently in the plot.

I very much enjoyed the final reveal and denouement, however. From a dramatic perspective, it worked really well, even if the post-hoc scientific theorizing about explanations of great mysteries was a bit out-of-date (no one, at this point seriously thinks that there are large areas of the brain lying unused).

The final paragraphs of the book, as well as a few earlier lines, nicely encapsulate Dickinson's rather conflicted attitude toward the events of this book (and the other two).

BIG HUGE SPOILER DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU'VE READ THE BOOK OR DO NOT INTEND TO. The revelation in this book is that the Changes have been brought about by a pharmacist (chemist) discovering Merlin sleeping in his tomb, and using 'unnatural means' (injections) to try and rouse him from slumber. Half-conscious, Merlin's power has tried to bring the world around him back to that which he knew. (The Dark Ages.) In Merlin's opinion, "machines were just toys for clever apes, and not proper for man - they prevent him from finding his own nature." Regarding the chaos he had thrown England into and the deaths he'd caused "it was just unlucky for some of them, but they didn't matter much." (A Great Power is not concerned with petty morality?) Nevertheless, it is considered by both Merlin (and, we believe, the author) that it is correct and proper that Merlin is allowed to go back to his repose, and that civilization resumes its course. However, the book ends on a nostalgic note, when Jeff realizes that with Merlin back under the hill, magic is gone, and: "Nothing that he could do would alter the steady march of weeping clouds, or call down perfect summers, or summon snow for Christmas. Not ever again.
And the English air would soon be reeking with petrol fumes."

Recommended. And remember, read this one first! ( )