A New World/Kindle Review

A New World

-          Patrick Ness

Kindle Version

This review is split in two – a review of the story itself and a second review of reading with a kindle.

In this dramatic prequel to the award-winning Chaos Walking Trilogy, author Patrick Ness gives us the story of Viola's journey to the New World.

A New World is a short prequel story to the Chaos Walking trilogy (excellent books - so much more than a children’s story – so many shades of grey – please check them out starting with The Knife of Never-Letting Go).  It covers the events leading up to Viola’s crash landing and entry into Todd’s world. While it doesn’t add much that isn’t mentioned during the course of the trilogy, it does add more to Viola’s motivations throughout the novels especially regarding her determination to never give up hope. I’m not sure how much it would mean to anyone who hasn’t re ad the trilogy – at best it’s a great teaser trailer for books and if you’ve already read the trilogy then you really need no encouragement to pick this up – especially as it’s free either on the Amazon kindle site or on Patrick Ness’s website. It’s not a long story but I enjoyed a brief revisit to that world and it had me thinking about re-reading the trilogy, even though I only finished it a few months ago.

This was the first thing I read on the kindle (other than the user guide!) and i have to say I’m really impressed. At first I was a little worried that the kindle is so light I would be throwing it around, but after a while I got used to the lack of weight and loved the fact I could hold it in one hand – especially useful for reading while eating! All the hype surrounding the non-glare is true – it looks and feels like paper rather than an i-phone or DS and there is no backlight which means you can’t read it in the dark, just like paper. I showed it to a few people and they all immediately tried to scroll through the pages using the screen – until I pointed out that it’s not a touch screen. (It’s amazing how quickly everyone has got used to touch screens like the i-phone so quickly!) The kindle was easy to set up and it wasn’t long before I was able to download books – the hard thing is remembering that these books cost money just like paper books! My favourite thing about reading with the kindle is how once you settle in, you forget you’re even reading and are transported to the world you’re reading about.  

So now I’m all digital, am I going to forget about the old-fashioned paper books? Short answer is no. I still have nearly 80 books on my TBR-pile to get through and I still have all my favourites in hardcopy. What the kindle will do is help me save space – especially as my new flat hasn’t got that library room (one day!). I think with the series I’m already reading I’ll continue to purchase hardcopies so I can have the full series in one format. But all new series and one-offs I will try to get in digital format – especially as most of them seem to be cheaper at the moment (or at the least the books I’m interested in!).

Recommend A New World for fans of the Chaos Walking trilogy and people who want a taste of one of the best children’s trilogies since Philip Pullman’s Dark Materials. 7 out of 10

Recommend a kindle so all those who enjoy reading but are fed up of carrying bricks around with you. 10 out of 10