The New World: Prequel to the Chaos Walking Trilogy

This is an excellent beginning to the first book of the Chaos Walking trilogy and it gives us a deeper look into Viola before her arrival to New World. While not required to enjoy the first book it is a really nice addition to it, before or after.

I ordered the free prequel to The New World to see if it was one that my 13 year old granddaughter might enjoy. She read The Hunger Games series seven times, so I know that thrillers are her favorite genre. I read The Hunger Games series to see what she found so wonderful about the books, and I came away feeling like there was some value to the books but that there needed to be some guidance for a young person as they read them. I don't get to be with my granddaughter enough to have lots of meaningful conversations with her, but I did find that no one had discussed the values found in the series. I subsequently had just enough time to point out a few things to give her some things to think about, but we never really had that deep discussion I felt was necessary.I decided that the best way I could direct her thirst for adventurous books would be to find something in Christian literature. I found The New World among Christian writers for young people, and I wanted to find a book for her that would be exciting and adventurous so she could see the value of such books. The New World prequel was free and only 25 pages long, but when I completed the reading, I knew that she would more than likely love the series. She is a highly intelligent 13 year old and has been reading above her level from the beginning.The premise of a 13 year old girl born and raised on a space ship crash landing on the surface of the new planet and ending up alone with the death of both of her parents seemed a bit extreme at first, but then I thought about the adventures that she faced as she left the space capsule and sat alone in the dark of the night with the night sounds in the dark all around her made me feel that here was a novel that would match The Hunger Games as a thriller. My granddaughter is up to the task, and I know that she will want to share it with me when we find time together.She hasn't read the book yet. I find that she usually doesn't move on to a new series until she completes the one she is engrossed in, and I gave her a book for her birthday that she has just read and announced to me that she loved and was going on to the rest of the series. If she hasn't read the first book in The New World by Christmas, I plan to purchase it for her as a gift. I may just have to read it first myself!

The New World is a fantastic gem. I have never read the Chaos Walking Trilogy, and so am coming to this prequel with no preconceived notions. I read it as a stand-alone short story, and found it to be one so profound the reader may feel as though she has finished an epic when it’s done. The setting is some distant time in the future, the story is a work of science fiction, but the message is so primal the reader will think it’s set in the beginning of time when man first walked the earth.A nod to Shakespeare’s Viola no doubt, Patrick Ness has christened his protagonist with the same name. She is only thirteen when she sets out on a voyage with her parents to explore a new world, but she is formidable and more brave than we are led to believe at the outset. Viola is loved, admired and respected by her parents, and they give her the most precious gift two people can ever give their child: hope.“’Take my hope, Viola,’ she says. ‘Take your father’s too. I’m giving it to you, okay? I’m giving you my hope.’”Ness makes it a point to remind us Hope is what keeps us alive when we have lost everything else, and “’life is so much more terrifying without it.’”But Ness has not just tapped into the most sacred of feelings, he has also drawn upon that ancient myth separating man from beast. Man’s ability to make fire—to see in the darkness, to gain warmth in the cold—is what makes him likened to a god. In Greek mythology, Prometheus defies the gods by stealing fire and giving it to humanity. He has become the figure for human striving, for scientific knowledge and risky overreaching. The legend of Prometheus makes an apt appearance in The New World, which cannot help but ask that oldest of questions. Have we crossed boundaries into places we should not tread?I look forward to reading the Chaos Walking Trilogy to find out.

This is a short science fiction story that amazon offers for free to kindle users. A convoy of people who escaped from some planet years ago are searching for a new planet, a new home. A thirteen year old girl, her mother who is a pilot and her father who is an engineer, are chosen as a scouting party to land in a new planet to see if the others can live there. She is well-trained for the job and is quite intelligent, but she exhibits the traits of a teen-ager, reluctance to leave the place she thinks of as home, her friends, her school. As she is about to leave, one of her professors gives her a gift that she should open when she arrives at the potential new home. All of the people on the convoy, including her parents, continue to use the word "hope." They hope that the new planet will be suitable for them. They hope that the previously-sent scouting party survived and they will find them. They hope that this new scouting party will arrive safely. Her father told her that hope is a terrifying thing, but life is so much more terrifying without it. What is the gift that the professor gave her? How will it help her? Is hope something that people should have? What is hope? How should people use it?

I've not previously read anything by Patrick Ness; having read this short story, I may well seek out some more of his work. This is a story set in the indeterminate future; the action takes place on a colony ship about to arrive at a new planetary home.The book is just a very short novella, but the storyline is very clearly set out, both for the actual story and for the books that are to follow. The text is sparing but still detailed enough to make it complete in its own right. There is a human side to the story and it's sufficient to indicate that there is much more to come.This is a free download for the Kindle; perhaps this is the way that books will be marketed in future?

I love Patrick Ness so I’ll take any extra scraps of story he’s willing to throw our way, and this was a very welcome addition to the series. It was great to get a bit more from Viola’s point of view and see more of what led her to where she ended up on New World. Definitely worth it if you read and liked the Chaos Walking trilogy.

Absolutely cannot wait to start reading this series. I didn't actually know this prequel existed until recently and I'm not sure whether to be glad or not that I found it. After reading other reviews it seems this book is better read after finishing the trilogy as you get more from it. I'm definitely looking forward to re-visiting it !The first few pages didn't catch me but when this short story really got started, I couldn't finish it quick enough!

I downloaded this for the Kindle and read it in one sitting (after finishing the Chaos Walking trilogy). The New World is told from Viola's POV in the months preceding her and her parents' landing on New World.Nothing is given away about the trilogy so it wouldn't spoil anything to read it first.A quick, enjoyable but non-essential addition to Chaos Walking.

A review from my daughter. - I have read all of the chaos walking trilogy by Patrick Ness and I loved this short story he has created. The first book starts with Todd's life and introduces a girl called Viola. This story is Viola's beginning, her start. It was an exciting, brilliant and emotional story and I loved it. It was great value for money and would highly recommend this book to people of all ages.