Let's read The Knife of Never Letting Go.

[Sunken Valley]

For those of you in the know, the Knife of Never Letting Go is a popular "young adult" book written by Patrick Ness. Wikipedia link is here although it does spoil a lot of the plot. Most of you have never heard of it but I plan to do a "Let's read" of it. It is a truly excellent book. It is part of a trilogy. Updates will be erratic but I'm sure you'll be okay with that. Please post here to voice your support of my venture.

[Mx.Silver]

It is a truly excellent book.

Well, it can't be any worse than its title

[Sunken Valley]

Well, it can't be any worse than its title

How is the title bad? There are many other titles which hide good quality. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Order of the Stick, Dr Horrible's incredible singalong blog. Plus some stuff like Da vinci code and Twilight have awesome titles but they have a reputation for sucking. Does this mean that the other two books in the Chaos Walking trilogy "The Ask and the Answer" and "Monsters of Men" also have bad titles. These books have won so many awards and yet they are unknown by the web other than some detailed summaries on wikipedia. They don't even have a TV Tropes page!

Regardless I hope that yourself and others are willing to give support.

Also the link to wikipedia was broken before. It's not now.

[Mx.Silver]

How is the title bad?

Because it's clunky, awkward and gives the impression that the author doesn't know the word 'tenacious' exists. 'Knife of Tenacity' would still sound kind of stupid, mind you, but at least it would be a little more snappy

[Sunken Valley]

Because it's clunky, awkward and gives the impression that the author doesn't know the word 'tenacious' exists. 'Knife of Tenacity' would still sound kind of stupid, mind you, but at least it would be a little more snappy

Oh Patrick Ness knows the word tenacity. But for character related reasons that word could not be used to describe the book. Besides "tenacity" might not be what he's angling for. Regardless, the knife isn't a artifact or McGuffin. This is sci-fi not fantasy. It is however, an important plot point in the first book.

If this is let's read is to be a reality, I'll need more people interested than Mr Silver. If you are interested in the book, regardless of whether you've read it or not, if you like Sunken Valley's style of writing as previously seen in the Doctor Who thread (although I'll be more positive here) or Battle Royale (not that I have to do much writing, that's a mathematical task) or both, come here and tell your friends.

[Lord Loss]

I love this series. I haven't actually got around to finding the second one, but I was amazed by the first one and really should get around to reading the rest. What book are they on, now?

[Mindartis]

This series was quite amazing. I loved them from the begining. Rather original, and had some really good twists and cliffhangers. I support the Let's read.

What book are they on, now?

It was a trilogy. It's finished now.

[maximus25]

I only read the first one but it was awesome.

[Sunken Valley]

Thank you for your support! If this thing goes on for long enough, you may eventually get a let's read of the other two books. They are just as awesome.

For the purposes of the write up, I'll pretend I haven't read it yet. This does not mean you have too. Unless someone walks in here who doesn't want to know. In which case, never mind.

And now to deliver the goods, Here is the first chapter of The Knife of Never Letting Go!
Chapter one: The Hole in the Noise

Spoiler

Show

The first line of the book is "The first thing you find out when yer dog starts talking is that your dog don't have nothing much to say." Instantly this alerts the reader to so many things. Why is the dog talking? Why does it have nothing much to say? Why is this treated with such regularity? And why such apalling grammer? This makes me read on. The Dog wants a poo. The owner tells it to shut it. The names of the two are revealed. The dog is Manchee and his master is Todd, who according to the back of the book is the protagonist. He's walking in the fields towards the swamp, because "Ben" told him too pick some swamp apples and take Manchee with him. The story is in first person, by the way. Todd then reveals that Manchee was a present from "Cillian" for his birthday, who bought it to stay on the Mayor's good side. Todd had wanted the fissionbike (sci-fi alert) fixed so he didn't have to walk. Todd is also responsible for caring Manchee. And now we know why, Manchee talks, a talking germ is making him do so.

As Manchee is pooping, Todd reveals that Ben could have just bought the apples from the store and that, if he were a man, he would not be picking apples as men aren't lazy. Todd is twelve years and twelve months old (what? that makes no sense). When he is thirteen in 1 month, he'll be a man. Big celebration apparently. 13 months is a year in this world as well. We're in Sci-fi people. But he knows he likes the swamp because it's quiet and he gets away from men and all of their noise which they spill out. Now we're at the weird stuff. Whilst this could be a metaphor, it makes it sound like noise is actually spilling out from people's thoughts in an involuntary mind reading and telepathy. Through this entire monologue, Todd makes tons of grammar errors. Makes sense now, as he's young and from a rough background. Manchee then chases a squirrell. Todd goes to get Manchee who is unable to catch the squirrel who is up a tree and taunting him. Then the Squirrel taunts Todd. The Squirrels speech is bigger than normal text, bolded, and the font makes the speech look crude. Plus the squirrel "thinked" at him. So animals are telepathic. Todd tells the Squirrel to eff off, and then is all of a sudden punched in the mouth.

He is punched by someone called Aaron. Todd hears Aaron's noise. This is also like the squirrel's speech although the font looks more stylised and sophisticated. Aaron's noise is fragments like "Language, young Todd" "the saint chooses his path" and "God hears". Seems he's a preacher as his noise is rehearsing his sermon. Furthermore, it is unnatural for anyone other than Todd and Manchee to leave the town. Aaron then tells Todd off for his language and then repeats what Todd tells us is his catchphrase "if one of us falls, we all fall". He then leaves and says that Noise reveals us all. All of this speech is normal. So Noise is involuntary telepathy. Todd continues walking through the swamp, there are crocs in the swamp. They don't bother Todd. Then Todd starts mentioning Spacks (what?). He says that Spacks use to be buried by being thrown into the swamp whereas men were buried underground. This meant that back in the day the swamp was filled with Spacks as they rotted and decayed because so many died. So the Spacks were some other group of people who all died. Plus, the way Todd talks about them makes it sound like Spacks were hostile. This all happened when Todd was a baby. His mother and father died (of sickness) and he was raised by Ben and Cillian. Ben says his Mother was the last of the women. So there are no women in the town, which is namedropped as “Prentisstown”. Wait, wasn’t the mayor called Prentiss? He was. Talk about ego, unless Prentiss is a line. And now Todd is the youngest of the townspeople. And the only one who’s not a man. All of the men have private meetings away from Todd and he feels alone. Except for the Dog he doesn’t want. Todd says he doesn’t want a dog for his 13th Birthday. He wants... Namedrop! A Knife like Ben’s one. Monlogue ends now.

Todd has finished his monologue and then picks his apples. He walks past some abandoned Spack huts. So the Spacks were intelligent enough to have dwellings. He comments about how the swamp has an atmosphere of noise. All the noise and communication of the snakes, toads, squirrels, ravens, birds, foxs and one time a cassor, although Ben told Todd they were extinct. Then Manchee alerts Todd to something. Todd listens and he hears...nothing. There is a hole in the backdrop of the noise where nothing can be heard. This is wrong. Todd says that the noise has been omnipresent since the Spacks released it. The noise is a virus that made all the animals talk and killed half the men and all the women. The Men left were plagued with the maddening noise and massacared the Spackle (ah, full name). Todd goes back and checks the spackle huts. They are still empty. Todd worries that the Spackle have returned. The emptiness of the noise makes Todd tear up and cry. Todd asks Manchee if he’s alright. Todd aims for a kick at Manchee but misses. On purpose.

Thoughts: Impressive introduction. No real characters but it showed us the general history. The grammer was annoying though, but that goes through the book. It’s a rather high concept, like the daemons in Dark Materials. Let’s see how it continues.

I leave critique in your hands.

Edit: spacing corrections

[Sunken Valley]

I have corrected the spacing now.

[Mindartis]

The grammer was annoying though, but that goes through the book

Even if it was a bit annoying, I really liked it. It added more personality to the characters, because they wrote how they talked, something that most books don't do nowadays.

[Sunken Valley]

Second chapter up tomorrow! In the mean time, please keep commenting

[Sunken Valley]

If a day is 72 hours long, then it's up in one day.

Chapter 2: Prentisstown

Spoiler

Show

Previously on Knife of Never Letting Go: Todd went to the swamp and we got a bunch of hints.

Todd and Manchee have left the swamp, Todd is still thinking (wangsting?) about the silence. He says there is no such thing as silence, because the noise is everywhere. Which in a sense is true in city environments. The noise is an allegory for city? Todd then calms himself with a mantra. “I am Todd Hewitt. I am twelve years and twelve months old. I will be a man in one months time exactly.” Ben taught him it, apparently. Todd then walks past the school. It’s now abandoned. Before Todd was born, men were taught at home by their mothers. Then when the women died, they were educated by learning modules until the mayor destroyed them for being detrimental. “Mayor Prentiss, you see, has a point of view.” I CALL DYSTOPIA! So then for half a year, all the boys were put in the school, which was separated from the main noise of the town. This was still impossible as the noise made teaching impossible and exams impossible because everyone can cheat. Then one day Mayor Prentiss burned all the books and the teacher committed suicide and that was that. Most of Todd’s learning comes from Ben. This was learning how to work on the farm and also survival skills like hunting and calming your noise. So maxed out Survival and Profession (farmer) then. Ben tried to teach Todd to read, but Todd’s noise revealed this to the mayor and the mayor locked up Ben for a week and Todd is illiterate. Why do so many writers try and teach us that reading is good for you? Seriously, it’s the most common Aesop in literature. Must be advertising themselves. And now Todd is looking at Prentisstown. It has one pub, one shop, one clinic, one jail, one petrol station (station is spelt stayshun, Todd is illiterate after all) one police station, the Mayor’s house and the Church. Which is Capitalised. Prentisstown population: 147. There used to be other settlements on New Earth (it is an alien planet) where the ships (spaceships?) landed ten years before Todd was born. Soon, they got into the war with the spackle. The germ was released which killed the other settlements. Prentisstown only survived because of Mayor Prentiss’s army skills (insert comment about any dictator here). The population is also decreasing. Because people are disappearing from time to time. Either they kill themselves like Todd’s teacher, or they disappear like Todd’s neighbour. People are disappearing because they cannot cope anymore. Next we get a sample of Prentisstown life and...whoa! We get this massive blast of noise which fills the page. All these fragmented sentences filling the entire page with no spacing. If this is noise this is hell. Apparently, it’s also possible to hide noise under louder pieces of noise. Makes sense. The Noise also has pictures. Todd has never seen a women or spackle, but he always sees them in men’s noise. But the Spacks are bigger and meaner in the noise and the women have bigger chests and less clothes. There you have it. In a world full of men, it smells like a gym room. Todd has to walk through the town to go back home. He passes Mr Phelp’s store. Mr Phelp’s is always depressed. Todd blocks out his knowledge of the hole in the noise. Todd passes the petrol station (which is defunct) where he meets Mr Hammar. Mr Hammar aims his threatening noise at Todd. He reminds him about what will happen in one month and pictures Todd alone. Todd moves along. He then passes the pub. The pub is horrible because it uses loud music to drown out noise. But it doesn’t drown it out so you get music and drunk noise. So just like a nightclub then. Then he passes the jail. The jail is run by Mr Prentiss junior, the Mayor’s son and Todd’s senior by only two years. He is the Sherriff. Then there is the Church. We find out that the church is the reason they are in New World, because Old World (earth?) was sinful. Pilgrims...in space. Aaron is preaching his sermon. Then all of a sudden Aaron’s noise mentions Todd. Todd moves along. Man, Aaron is a creep. Then there is Mayor Prentiss noise. His noise is clear, and indeed it is a clearer font then other noise we have seen. He believes order can be brought into noise. So he and his men sit in his home chanting thought exercises. “I am the circle and the circle is me”. This scares Todd and he quickly moves away. Now he has moved away from the surge of Noise and away from Prentisstown. Todd thinks that the hole in the noise would be tiny, swept under the wave of Prentisstown noise.

Thoughts: We have a dystopia, people! Seems to be Handmaids Tale with no women and a flavoring of 1984. Certainly a good lesson into the impact of noise. Please comment about this dystopia and the originallity (or not) of noise. Also comment on the quality of my reviews. I'm no Nostalgia Critic but I want to improve. Good night everyone.

[Sunken Valley]

one week and nobody commented. Is anyone reading this?