The
Night is For Hunting
Book 6 in "The Tomorrow Series" by John
Marsden
WARNING: Blows
the plot of this novel
Please don't read on if this concerns you
Quite a change of pace and not a novel to pick up as your intro
to the series. It starts with intense action, it ends with intense
action but in between ? Well, recovery, reconciliation, growth;
some of what Ellie was talking about in "The Dead of the
Night" when she was saying that if the war took away their
ability to grow, then they had lost.
The team is no longer suicidal, as they were at the start of "Burning
for Revenge", but they have certainly changed. Ellie has
to try to deal with how badly she has been damaged by the war, has
to try and come to terms with what Lee has done, has to learn to
be responsible for others who can't be responsible for themselves.
There is a lot of growing up in "The Night is For Hunting"
as the team take several more steps into adulthood.
Homer discovers patience and the joys of children; Fi struggles
to help Ellie; Lee fights his own internal battle with shame, eventually
finding the strength to regain Ellie's trust; Kevin recovers and
regains some respect from the others as a teacher; even Colonel
Finley is rehabilitied by his joy at what they achieved in "Burning
for Revenge" and his willingness to help.
Quite a contemplative book, intermingled with four sections of
great tension, but overall contemplative. Sometimes you can just
hear the cicadas calling, the leaves rustling, the quiet sounds
of the Australian bush. You feel the aching sorrow of Ellie as she
sits with the dead child all alone on the old logging track. You
experience her relief and the spreading calm as Lee apologises.
You feel her sense of well being as they banish the war for a few
days.
Slowly, the group is woven back together. None of them will fail
again. Instead they will go into the terrible events of "The
Other Side of Dawn" as a team, they will support, encourage
and care for each other in that, the final book, as they advance
into the disaster that awaits.
See
also Declan Stylofone's comments
and of course Tim
Chmielewski's
Go to the commentary on "The
Other Side of Dawn"
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