The Green Futures of Tycho

Eleven-year-old Tycho does not have an easy life. His three older brothers and sister are all gifted: Ludwig is a music prodigy, Tamara a talented classical dancer, and Leonardo a budding artist and inventor. Tycho, on the other hand, has changing interests and no particular gift for anything, so his parents and siblings are disappointed in him. One day, while digging to plant a vegetable garden, he finds an egg-shaped object in the ground. Accidentally, he discovers that it is a time travel device. He begins to use it intentionally to avenge himself of his siblings in the past, but mostly, he is interested in traveling to the future to know what will become of him and his family. However, the futures he travels to become darker and show more scarier every time, and things have changed in the present every time he gets back. As he comes to know more and more about his grown-up self, he makes the decision to prevent the horrible future he sees from happening. Will he succeed?

This is a well-written and quite thrilling science fiction book. The reader’s mind gets sucked into the different futures that Tycho visits, trying to make sense of it all at the same time as Tycho. Some of the bleak futures he visits send chills down the spine, and I found myself hoping that Tycho would succeed in the mission he set for himself, as if it would actually have an effect on real life. I guess that means Tycho and what he goes through are very believable. This is a definite page-turner with an intriguing and dark quality to it.

I believe that this book, because of some of the darker subjects it tackles, is best for more mature readers. Ages 10 and up. show less

Great for kids just discovering Time Travel stories, and great fun for me, too. Sleator can be counted on, in every story, to come up with twisted perspectives that I've never seen considered before. Highly recommended to all but the most cynical and snooty speculative fiction readers.

I enjoyed reading this story as a kid. It's a time-traveling yarn published in the early 80's when the concept was still novel. I remember browsing the library and being drawn to the book's title and the ominous cover art.

The Green Futures of Tycho is a short 130 pages with haunting imagery and a number of time-traveling plot holes that are never reconciled. I say this is excusable because the overall tension still works. The climax has punch but getting there is too rushed given the careful setup.

** Read again on February 19th, 2012

Nuori Tyko löytää kotipihaltaan oudon esineen, joka osoittautuu aikakoneeksi. Jokainen aikamatka tulevaisuuteen vain tuntuu muuttavan Tykon tulevaisuuden aina vain pahemmaksi. Pystyyko Tyko korjaamaan tilanteen?