The Named

by Marianne Curley

Overview

Imagine if you were able to change history. By altering one tiny thing you could start a chain of catastrophic events. Ethan is one of the Named, fated to stop this ever happening, although the forces of chaos have other ideas and Ethan is finding it more and more difficult to stay one step ahead. He is also a normal schoolboy, whose life is rapidly becoming far too confusing. So when Isabel arrives on the scene she is only going to make matters worse . . . or is she? This is history in the making - literally.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780648263616
Publisher:	Mtc Services Pty Limited
Publication date:	10/01/2002
Series:	Guardians of Time , #1
Pages:	354
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.99(h) x 0.79(d)
Age Range:	13 - 17 Years

About the Author

Marianne Curley has three teenage children, whose conversations and experiences inspire her writing. She lives in England.

www.mariannecurley.com

Editorial Reviews

Magic blooms in Angel Falls, the setting of this promising launch to Curley's (Old Magic) time travel trilogy. At the edge of a national forest, where two worlds co-exist, 16-year-old Ethan Roberts guards time or, more specifically, history ("My job is to make sure it all happens the way it's supposed to, the way it already did"). As one of the Named, a Guardian of Time, he has been doing this since age four, not long after his 10-year-old sister, Sera, was killed. Her murderer, an evil half-faced monster, Marduke, is an Order of Chaos minion who wishes to alter the past in order to change the future-and to avenge his own losses. As the novel opens, Ethan is given an Apprentice to train, 15-year-old Isabel Becket, younger sister of his ex-best friend. With the help of Arkarian, a 600-year-old Guardian who lives deep inside the mountain, Isabel quickly takes to the apprenticeship, and her power to heal strengthens. But the forces of good and evil are headed for a Final Conflict foreseen by the Prophecy found in Veridian, the ancient city hidden deep under Angel Falls. No machine is required for time travel here; a strange "sleep" is the conduit between worlds past and present. Told in convincing alternating chapters by Isabel and Ethan, the novel reveals a mystery, the clues to which unfold via the duo's trip back in time to John of Gaunt (during the reign of Richard II) and details of Sera's death. Readers will likely be swept up by the ever-growing complications and want to return for the series' next installments. Ages 10-up. (Oct.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Gr 7-10-Ethan, 16, belongs to the Guard, a secret group of humans who use paranormal powers to protect the Earth against the Order of Chaos. While Chaos tries to change the course of history, the Guards travel back in time to thwart their schemes. Isabel's healing powers bring her to the Guard's attention, and Ethan is assigned to be her trainer. The two engage in some dangerous time-traveling assignments, which lead to an ultimate battle between the two opposing forces. The plot ends up involving many others from Ethan's town, including his teacher, his father, his best friend, and his long-dead sister. The narrative alternates between Ethan and Isabel, and his earnest and sometimes-arrogant manner is balanced by her more casual style. This is all fairly lively, with a premise that's easy to follow and some involving action scenes and character dynamics. The time-travel adventures lack a true sense of immediacy, though, especially when compared to the more gripping scenes involving Marduke, the horrible soldier of Chaos. The identity of a mysterious masked female will be easy for readers to guess. Despite a few slow spots, however, the author keeps things moving smoothly toward the climax. While the anticipated battle involving Ethan's father and Marduke settles the main conflict in a satisfying way, some unresolved plot threads set the stage for a sequel.-Steven Engelfried, Beaverton City Library, OR Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

Swashbuckling time-travel plus soap-opera relationships make for a page-turning start to a promised trilogy. The mysterious death of Ethan's older sister when he was only four left his family a wreck: his mother hospitalized with depression, his father an emotional automaton, and Ethan subject to horrific nightmares. But for Ethan, his real life for the past 12 years has been with the Guardians of Time, in their eternal battle to prevent the Order of Chaos from disrupting the proper workings of history. After he's assigned to train his schoolmate, Isabel, as his first Apprentice, an ancient prophecy gives the pair only a few short weeks to thwart Chaos's top general in his assaults against the past, before the unfolding of an even more terrifying destiny. Protecting the time stream is hardly an innovative concept in fantastic fiction, but Curley pulls it off with panache. While the various historical periods are only perfunctorily limned, the ritualistic panoply of the Guard itself begs for further exploration. Cocky, loyal Ethan and self-confident Isabel are likable enough, but the real hook for teen readers will be their romantic entanglements. Isabel hides her lifelong crush on Ethan, as her older brother, once his best friend, seethes over Ethan's attraction to his girlfriend; meanwhile, an unlikely character recognizes in the oblivious Isabel his own destined soulmate. Anguished heartbreak and suppressed longing are bound to continue to spice up the history-hopping sword-and-sorcery, making the sequels an ongoing guilty pleasure. (Fantasy. 12+)

Kirkus Reviews