Cheshire Recommends: The Chaos Walking series

Hello all, and welcome to the first "Cheshire Recommends", something I mentioned I might do, wherein I recommend books, games, movies and music and make it sound like I know what I'm doing.

This week on my amateur chopping block is a personal favourite book series of mine, Patrick Ness' "Chaos Walking".

Now, for those of you who know nothing about the series, fear not. I'll try not to spoil anything major, but keep in mind that the story is a series of twists and turns which culminates into an ending which leaves me wanting more.

Now, the series is split into three books; Knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask and The Answer and finally, Monsters of Men.

The series follows protagonists Todd and Viola as they journey across their planet to a city by the name of Haven and their subsequent dealings with the town and the planet's local inhabitants, the Spackle.

The story opens with Todd, about to become a man in the eyes of "Prentisstown", a town run by and containing only men. As far as Todd is aware at the opening of the series, all the women died in a war between the natives and the remains of the interplanetary settlers of which Todd is a part. Now, here's the hook, people on this planet are affected by a "Noise" virus, an airborne toxin which causes the thoughts, emotions and imaginings of men and animals to be continuously projected into the world around them with no control, rhyme or reason, hence the name "Noise". Todd's world is shattered however, when he comes across a crashed ship containing only a sole survivor. A girl who isn't affected by the Noise virus and who by all rights according to Todd's understanding of his world, shouldn't exist. They eventually decide to attempt to escape the clutches of Prentisstown, and make their way to the city of Haven, where answers about their world might be found.

Now, I love this series. From the characters to the world, everything about this series is excellent and I strongly urge you all to take a look, if only at the first book.

So that concludes the first recommend. If you have anything you'd like to say, go ahead. These will be sporadic at best, and the quality will increase the more I do.

Enjoy the reading material,
Cheshire out.