funny and adventursome
I read a few Pratchett's during high school, and liked them, but never really got into the Discworld series whole-hog. Then I came across this hardback trilogy in a used book store, and decided to take a chance on Pratchett in a different genre. I was glad I did.
Johnny Maxwell and his gang of friends are relatively average, working class kids. Kinda like the Outsiders, but English and urban. They talk about popular TV shows (with "Cobbers" standing in for "EastEnders"), hang out, fight aliens, talk to the dead, time travel .... Pratchett takes a few tried-and-true story arcs, adds satirical social commentary, mixes in some zany fight and flight, and ends up with a pretty entertaining product. These three stories see Johnny through some interesting adventures, and he comes out a different kid at the end of them. Pratchett's humorous world-view adds miles and miles to what otherwise might be a tired re-tread of "The Last Starfighter," and other such campy nonsense (which has it's place, don't get me wrong).
And a side note for non-Brits (me included): when the author says something is written in "biro" he means ink, like from a Bic pen. I had to look that one up, since my foreign language skills kept insisting he was talking about a joke ....
