 Cover of the 1st book in the trilogy, The Knife of Never Letting Go | |
The Knife of Never Letting Go The Ask and the Answer Monsters of Men | |
| Author | Patrick Ness |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Lynne Condellon (design) John Picacio (painting) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Young adult science fiction, dystopian adventure |
| Publisher | Walker Books |
| Published | 2008–2010 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback), e-book, audiobook |
| No. of books | 3 |
Chaos Walking is a young adult science fiction series written by American-British novelist Patrick Ness. It is set in a dystopian world where all living creatures can hear each other's thoughts in a stream of images, words, and sounds called Noise. The series is named after a line in the first book: "The Noise is a man unfiltered, and without a filter, a man is just chaos walking." The series consists of a trilogy of novels and three short stories.[1]
The three novels feature two adolescents, Todd Hewitt and Viola Eade, who encounter various moral issues and high stakes as the planet around them erupts into war. The Knife of Never Letting Go (2008) begins with Todd being forced to flee his town after discovering a patch of silence, free of Noise. In the second book, The Ask and the Answer (2009), tensions rise as a civil war between two opposing factions forms, and in the final book, Monsters of Men (2010), the indigenous species of New World rebels against the humans just as a ship full of new settlers is set to arrive on the planet. The first novel is narrated entirely by Todd, the second is told through the viewpoints of both Todd and Viola, and the third book is narrated by Todd, Viola and The Return.
The series has won almost every major children's fiction award in the UK, including the 2008 Guardian award, the James Tiptree, Jr. Award, and the Costa Children's Book Award. Monsters of Men won the Carnegie Medal in 2011. It has been praised for its handling of themes such as gender politics, redemption, the meaning of war, and the unclear distinction between good and evil, all threaded through its complex, fast-paced narrative.[2][3]
- ^ "Chaos Walking Short Stories". Retrieved 4 September 2013.
- ^ Bick, Ilsa J. "THE ASK AND THE ANSWER by Patrick Ness | Kirkus Book Reviews". Kirkusreviews.com. Archived from the original on 17 March 2016. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
- ^ "Q & A with Patrick Ness". Publishersweekly.com. Retrieved 14 July 2012.