Only You Can Save Mankind

Terry Pratchett

Average Rating 8/10 (1 Review)

As the mighty alien fleet from the very latest computer game thunders across the computer screen, Johnny prepares to blow them into the usual million pieces.

And they send him a message:

We surrender.

They're not supposed to do that! They're supposed to die. And computer joysticks don't have 'Don't Fire' buttons...

It's hard enough, trying to save Mankind from the Galactic Hordes. It's even harder trying to save the Galactic Hordes from Mankind. But it's only a game, isn't it.

Isn't it?

A hugely entertaining and thought-provoking new adventure from the master of comic fantasy, Terry Pratchett, author of the bestselling Truckers trilogy.

'An impressively original book with its thrills and spills, its inventiveness, its wit and continuous readability. A rare treat - a top-quality gripping tale genuinely rooted in contemporary culture.'

Review by Chrissi (010602) Rating (8/10)

Review by Chrissi
Rating 8/10
I can remember Space Invaders, and the delight at being able to play with a Vectrex machine in the local video rental shop where we grew up. I was never that good, the only way that I could stay alive was to blast through one of my buildings and fire from the safety of my hideout.

Johnny is much better at it all than me, so good, in fact, that the ScreeWee ask him to protect them from the other humans in the game. The problem for the ScreeWee is that they are not aware that it is a game, and when they die, they die for real, no 'Play Again?' comes up on their screen.

Johnny is living in trying times, his parents are having problems and he hangs out with his friends, playing on video games and eating fast food in the local shopping centre. His friends are a strange assortment, with a skinhead, a fat kid who would love to be a nerd and a terminally uncool boy called Yo-less, because he never says "Yo".

After being asked not to fire on the ships, Johnny finds himself having strange dreams, helping the ScreeWee to escape from the humans attacking them, but there is one human who is rather more determined than the others and Johnny has to fight this other person to save the ScreeWee.

I think that of the many characters drawn for us by TP, Johnny and his friends are probably some of the most special. Like the children in Good Omens, he has written these so that you know these kids or you can recognise yourself in one of them.
Chrissi (1st June 2002)