Whirlwind

by David Klass

Overview

In Firestorm, the first book of the Caretaker Trilogy, seventeen-year-old Jack Danielson saved the world's oceans, but at great personal cost -- his parents were killed and everything he knew and believed in was turned upside down.
Now Jack has come home to see P.J., his girlfriend and sole remaining touchstone. But she's missing, and blame falls on Jack. On the run with Gisco, his crafty canine sidekick, Jack is literally caught up in a whirlwind as he travels to the heart of darkness to rescue P.J. -- a journey that will bring him face-to-face with the father of his old nemesis, the colonel, aka the Dark Lord from the future. Jack's quest becomes all the more complicated as he discovers that the only person who can stop the Dark Lord is another time traveler, the wizard Kidah, who has disappeared in the present.
Book 2 of the Caretaker Trilogy mixes heart-racing adventure with an urgent ecological warning about the fragility of the world's rain forests and the importance of respect for indigenous peoples. Readers will be drawn into the vortex of the quest -- whether or not they're familiar with Book 1.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781466806092
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	06/25/2025
Series:	Caretaker Trilogy Series , #2
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	309
Lexile:	770L (what's this?)
File size:	450 KB
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

David Klass is the author of many young adult novels, including You Don't Know Me, Losers Take All, and Grandmaster. He is also a Hollywood screenwriter, having written more than twenty-five action screenplays, including Kiss the Girls, starring Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd; Walking Tall, starring The Rock; and Desperate Measures, starring Michael Keaton and Andy Garcia.

Read an Excerpt

Whirlwind
1April Fool's Day in Hadley-by-Hudson. Spring chill cutting sharp as a blade. Dusk descending. Musty smell of nearby river clotting my throat. Had enough sentence fragments? My English teacher said they were a weakness of mine. But that was nearly six months ago, when I was a senior at Hadley High School, leading a normal life. My biggest concerns then were chicks, flicks, and fast cars, roughly in that order.Nothing normal about me now.Parents gone. Friends lost. Old life vanished. Sense of security evaporated. Belief in the sanity of day-to-day existence drowned in the deep Atlantic.But I still like sentence fragments. They generate pace. You want pace? Stick around.Main street of Hadley. Six in the evening. People I know, or at least used to know, climbing in and out of cars. Buying groceries in the co-op. Picking up dry cleaning. Heading home to eat dinner with their families.They pass me. Rub shoulders. None of them give me a second look. Don't you remember me? Jack Danielson? Straw-colored hair, piercing blue eyes, and above-average brain power, except when I do something really stupid. Once gained three hundred and forty yards in a school football game.No, they don't remember.Can't blame them. So much has changed.Swore I'd never come back here. Too many memories. There's the Rec Center where I played hoops. The liquor store where weused to get Dan's older brother to buy us six-packs. The ice cream shop where P.J. and I would split double-chocolate cones with sprinkles.P.J. Her house is three blocks from here. Do I dare? Yes, that's why I'm here. I tried my best to run away from this moment. Tried to pretend I could make a new life. Realize there's no explanation I can give that will satisfy her. She'll be furious at me for disappearing. Maybe we can never repair it. Never regain what we had.Trust gone. Foundation of relationship caved in.Doesn't matter. Have to try. Because I still love her. That's why I came back. Pure selfishness. Clinging to last possession. My love for P.J. is all I've got left.Pass Mrs. Hayes. My third-grade teacher. Her eyes flick over me. And then away.Not completely her fault she didn't recognize me. I've taken a few precautions. Wearing a cap, tilted low. Dark scarf, wound high. Grown a scraggly mustache, my first. Hair hasn't been cut in three months. It falls to my shoulders in straw-colored mop.But I can't hide my eyes. Supposedly the windows to the soul. That's what Mrs. Hayes didn't recognize as she walked by me holding a sack with toilet paper and cat food peeking out the top.New windows? Or is it a whole new soul? Did what happened to me change me to the point where I'm no longer myself? Or is this still me, walking away from the center of town, heading slowly up Elm Street?No doubt my Firestorm adventure and the long journey home transformed me. I've been so lonely. Spent so many sleepless nights staring up at the stars, trying to figure things out. Why was I chosen? If there's a God, why did he or she let things get so messed up? Is our Earth really so fragile? If this is the Turning Point, can we save it? Do our lives have meaning, or is it all for nothing?Many questions. No answers. But when you agonize longenough, it doesn't matter if you come up with answers. The questions and the pain change you.I know I'm very different from the guy who drove P.J. home from the Hudson River make-out spot six months ago, his mind on sex and football. But is he still recognizably part of me? Is there any Jack Danielson left in me?Only one way to find out. Last remaining touchstone. The ultimate litmus test. P.J.Here's a sad but true definition of home: it's where you go to find out if you're still you, or if you've become somebody else.Less than two blocks from P.J.'s house. I slow down. Scared out of my mind. This was a bad idea. Should have tried to make a go of it in England, where I landed after my Firestorm adventure. Or joined the crew of the tramp steamer that brought me back across the Atlantic to America. Could have stayed in Maine, in the small port city where it never stopped snowing. Might have hung longer in Boston, where I got a job stacking crates. Guy in the warehouse needed a roommate.But I had to come home. A soft voice kept calling to me. Whispering across the months and the miles. "I'm still waiting for you. Come home, Bozo."P.J.'s nickname for me. Not very respectful.Less than one block from her house. I can see the outline of her roof against the evening sky. The walls. My God, she's inside there! She's been there for the last six months without me. Doing her homework. Eating cereal for breakfast. Talking to her friends. Dreaming her dreams.Half a block. Her window. No light on. Maybe she's studying at the library. I should go check there first.No, don't leave. If I chicken out now, I'll never come back. Better to be a man and tell her what happened.Sure, just tell her the truth.Hi, honey. Sorry. I didn't mean to disappear. But members of something called the Dark Army came one night and killed bothmy parents. It turns out they weren't my parents after all. They were just sheltering me.I'm from a thousand years in the future, when things are pretty bleak. I was sent back to find something called Firestorm and save the oceans, thereby improving living conditions centuries hence. A telepathic dog and a beautiful shape-changing woman helped me. I did what they asked. I found Firestorm and I destroyed a giant trawler fleet. But then the dog and the woman blinked out, leaving me alone. And now I'm back. Sorry I didn't write or call. And how have you been the last six months, P.J.? Did you have a good Christmas? And how's the French Club?I stop in my tracks. What the heck am I doing here? I can't tell her the truth. And I won't tell her a lie. So I can't tell her anything. I know in my heart I can't come back here. Don't belong anymore. Been away too long. Caused too much grief. Passed the point of no return.I turn slowly, and take a half step away. Then a hand grips my arm. "Jack? Is that you?" 
 
Copyright © 2008 by David Klass

Interviews

An Interview with David Klass

Q: In Whirlwind, the second book of the Caretaker Trilogy, the Amazonian rainforest serves as the main setting for the latest environmental battles. The descriptions of the rain forest are vivid and feral: What process did you pursue to so evocatively render the ecosystem?

A: I read everything I could find on the Amazon -- travel books and scientific accounts -- and I looked at thousands of pictures. I also talked to a number of scientists who have spent time in the Amazon, and asked them about specific situations that occur in my novel. For example, I asked pilots what it was like to fly over the rain forest, and I asked environmentalists what the forest looks and sounds like when it's burning.

Q: Artificial Intelligence makes a riveting appearance in Whirlwind. What piqued your interest in this topic? For example, Jack Danielson, the book's hero, has an unusual cognitive connection with a vehicle possessing A.I. in the opening pages. The machine even "acts" heroically in the end.

A: My father, an anthropologist, was very interested in the definition and limits of consciousness. I have read a great deal of sci-fi, and I tried to use my father's ideas as a jumping-off point in imagining what the relationship between humans and machines might be in the far future. I deeply regret that my dad is not around to critique Jack's relationship with the dinghy.

Q: You expand upon your treatment of time travel from your work in Firestorm. Here, several theorists of time travel are mentioned, such as Hugh Everett and Igor Novikov. Are these actual historical figures? If so, what were the particular challenges and rewards in tackling this material?

A: Hugh Everett and Igor Novikov are indeed real figures -- brilliant scientists who changed the way we think about the cosmos. While researching this part of the novel I read books detailing cutting-edge theories of space and time, and bumped up against my own limitations to comprehend theoretical physics. It's particularly dangerous for a writer to write a trilogy involving time travel, because "cosmic laws" you set up in the opening book may paint you into a corner when it comes time to resolve things in book three.

Q: With former vice president Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in raising awareness about global warming, and shows such as CNN's Planet in Peril with Anderson Cooper, environmental concerns seem to be reaching a tipping point. What is your opinion on this?

A: Yes, I think at this late hour we're finally realizing as a species that we're all in this together, and we must act quickly. I don't think it's overstating things to say that there's a global battle going on to save the earth, and the fate of our species is hanging in the balance. I'm very grateful to Greenpeace for the help they've given me in researching this trilogy. One thing I've learned from them is that every contribution to this global battle is important. I hope that by writing the Caretaker Trilogy I've helped a little bit.

Q: There is also a great deal of sympathy for indigenous peoples in Whirlwind. What do you hope readers will learn about understanding other cultures and environments?

A: I had great fun creating the People of the Forest tribe. Jack initially thinks that they are primitive, because they eat grubs, walk around without clothes, and lack technology. As he lives with them, he slowly realizes that their lifestyle, values, and social structure make a great deal more sense than our own.

Q: Some people might not know about your multifaceted writing career. In addition to the Caretaker Trilogy, you've written over a dozen coming-of-age stories for young adults and 30-plus movie scripts, including Kiss the Girls, starring Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd; Desperate Measures, starring Michael Keaton and Andy Garcia; Walking Tall, starring The Rock; and Gothika, with Halle Berry. Did you find your Hollywood experience informed your writing of Whirlwind?

A: I've written dozens of action screenplays for all the different Hollywood studios. In this trilogy I tried to use what I've learned from the movie business about generating pace and suspense. Also, screenwriters have to learn to think visually, and Whirlwind gave me an unparalleled chance to use that skill. Jack's trip to the Amazon was a wonderful canvas on which to sketch out a colorful adventure. From crash-landing in the Andes to swimming with pink dolphins, from trying to outrace a forest fire to riding a canoe down a massive waterfall, I had one great scenic opportunity after another.

Q: The first book in the Caretaker Trilogy, Firestorm, was optioned by Warner Bros. Just for fun: If you were casting this film, who would be your dream cast?

A: I'm not much good at casting, but I'd love for Woody Allen to play The Mysterious Kidah.

Editorial Reviews

Frenetic pacing enlivens environmental preaching in this eco-thriller follow-up to Firestorm (2006). Meet Jack Danielson, high-school hero. Likes sentence fragments. Sent back in time from an apocalyptic future and saved the world. Now he just wants to see P.J., his high-school sweetheart. Uh-oh! She's been kidnapped! The future's in peril again! It's up to Jack, telepathic pooch Gisco and "Ninjababe" Eko to save the rainforests from the fiendish depredations of a spidery super-villain! Except they don't really do anything. Everything comes down to some mystic-wizard-ex-machina, actually named "the Mysterious Kidah." We keep hearing how brave and smart P.J. is, but mostly she gets tied up and screams "Ja-a-ack! Help!" Oh, and trades catty comments with Eko over who's going to end up with Jack. But hey, look! Unspoiled nature-wise indigenous tribes! Evil drug smugglers! Hot-air balloons! Scary gross Amazonian critters! Ninety-two chapters. Ninety-two cliffhangers. Guys looking for nonstop action with a heavy dose of political correctness will eat this up. Anyone looking for careful writing, character development or a thoughtful exploration of important issues will throw it against the wall. (Science fiction. YA)

Kirkus Reviews