from: Chivers Audio Books
Type of bind: Audio Cassette
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780754050247
Format: Audiobook, Unabridged
ISBN number: 0754050246
Label: Chivers Audio Books
Manufacturer: Chivers Audio Books
Quantity: 4
Printing Date: 1998-07
Publishing house: Chivers Audio Books
Sale Popularity Level: 2953644
Studio: Chivers Audio Books
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Product Description:
Twelve-year-old Johnny Maxwell has a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This has never been more true than when he finds himself in his hometown on May 21, 1941, over forty years before his birth!
An accidental time traveler, Johnny knows his history. He knows England is at war, and he knows that on this day German bombs will fall on the town. It happened. It's history. And as Johnny and his friends quickly discover, tampering with history can have unpredictable—and drastic—effects on the future.
But letting history take its course means letting people die. What if Johnny warns someone and changes history? What will happen to the future? If Johnny uses his knowledge to save innocent lives by being in the right place at the right time, is he doing the right thing?
Mixing nail-biting suspense with outrageous humor, Terry Pratchett explores a classic time-travel paradox in Johnny Maxwell's third adventure.
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Rated by buyers 
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Terry Pratchett's Johnny Maxwell trilogy is a fun and light-weight series of books. Okay, some of the slang and references the kids use can be a bit cringe-worthy, having been written by someone who has left childhood behind a long time before, but there's an undeniable charm that keeps you going despite the occasional groan.
The series reaches it high point here with Johnny and his friends journeying back to WWII, trying to put right on their second trip what they accidentally put wrong on their first. Pratchett avoids a lot of the pitfalls of the time-travel genre with his "pants trousers of time" theory, which allows them a great deal of freedom in their journey (since every outcome leads to possible futures, none of which are essentially bad), but brings a level of suspense to the proceedings that was absent in the early efforts. Their mission isn't to keep the Germans from winning the war or anything so melodramatic, but to reunite all the friends in the present. While failure will mean... free burgers for life.
A fitting and enjoyable conclusion to a enjoyable trilogy of books.
Rated by buyers -
Johnny and the Bomb (The Johnny Maxwell Trilogy) is a great book for kids as well as adult fans of Terry Pratchett.
Rated by buyers -
In Blackbury, England twelve-year-old Johnny Maxwell and his pal Bigmac find local bag lady Mrs. Tachyon badly hurt in an alley off High Street. He quickly dials 911 to get her help, and stores her shopping cart loaded with grey garbage bags in his family garage until he can return them and her cat to her.
However, Johnny and his buddies (Yo-less, Bigmac, Wobbler, and Kirsty) make a startling discovery about Mrs. Tachyon's bags. If they touch a bag they go back in time to whatever era that particular bag takes them to. Johnny sees a chance to change history; over four decades ago on May 21, 1941, a German air raid killed several people on High Street. He and his pals decide to go back in time to save the lives of those who died on that fatal day. However they will soon learn the paradox of altering the past when Wobbler fails to return with them so the remaining time travelers try again and again as they have all the time in the world or at least until Mrs. Tachyon claims her bags.
The third Johnny and the gang science fiction thriller (see ONLY YOU CAN SAVE MANKIND and JOHNNY AND THE DEAD) is the best of an excellent trilogy as the hero's cohorts seem so much more developed. The story line uses humour and not so subtle puns to provide the risks of fooling with tachyon particles to change history as the consequence can alter the present one pants leg at a time. Although Terry Pratchett targets young adult fans with this series, fans of all ages will enjoy JOHNNY AND THE BOMB as he and his teammates learn complex lessons about getting "lost in the trousers of time".
Harriet Klausner
Rated by buyers 
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Johnny and the Bomb (Johnny Maxwell Trilogy, 3.) While I am a devoted fan of Terry Prachett's Discworld, I also enjoy his young teen fiction. (Why is that the kids get all of the great, fun and funny adventures?) I bought this book to complete my collection of his fiction.
Johnny Maxwell is an interesting 12 year-old boy around whom events swirl. In this, the third of the Johnny Maxwell books, he and his friends are transported back to 1941's version of their home town. Can he prevent or change the effects of a bombing he knows occurred? And what is happening with his friend, Wobbler? The book explores the ideas of time travel, personal responsibility,and experiencing the consequences of your actions.
10 year-olds and above will enjoy the Johnny Maxwell series. This entertaining, humorous adventure story emphasizes all of the varieties of people there are in the world and is affectionately amused by their antics. The children are realistically drawn and the story engaging.
Rated by buyers -
Johnny Maxwell worries about many things, such as money, AIDS and his father (who has left the family), but that doesn't explain the dreams he has --- day and night --- of war planes and bombs. Fortunately, he can vent all he wants to his four buddies: Yo-less, Bigmac, Wobbler and Kirsty.
If only he had a time machine like the one they just saw at the movie theater, then all of his problems would be solved. He could set his life up to be perfect. On the way home from the time-travel film, they find a shopping cart belonging to homeless, crazy Mrs. Tachyon, who is passed out beside it. After the ambulance hauls the woman off, he puts her cart in his grandfather's garage for safekeeping.
Johnny doesn't look through the cart, though he can't help but notice some weird things in it, like fish and chips wrapped in newspaper, which no one does anymore. Even stranger, the paper looks new but is dated from World War II. Kirsty believes that the cart is a time machine. Johnny disagrees --- until he is hurtled back in time for a few moments.
Back in the present, an ominous grey car chases Johnny and his friends. They time-travel, landing in their very own British hometown, on May 21, 1941. Johnny knows that the town was bombed on that day, killing many innocent people. Can Johnny and the gang do anything to change that fact without destroying the future? In the meantime, his pals are accused of being war spies --- and one is in danger of actually being erased by their trip into the past.
JOHNNY AND THE BOMB touches on heavy topics, including war, the nature of time, history (Can it be changed? And can change be a good thing?), gender and racial prejudice, and more --- in a frequently side-splitting and thrilling yet deeply thought-provoking manner. It also continues the Johnny Maxwell tradition of portraying distant "others" (such as people from the depths of history books) as alive and real.
In short, this book is amazing. And highly recommended. (By the way, if you haven't read the very first two books in this trilogy, ONLY YOU CAN SAVE MANKIND and JOHNNY AND THE DEAD, you're missing out on some fantastic reading.)
--- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon
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