The Johnny Maxwell Trilogy

by Terry Pratchett

THE JOHNNY MAXWELL TRILOGY is a YA series by Terry Pratchett. They are urban fantasy and are just fun reads. The three books are ONLY YOU CAN SAVE MANKIND, JOHNNY AND THE DEAD, and JOHNNY AND THE BOMB. These books follow a group of friends Bigmac, Yo-less, Wobbler, and Kirsty and some of their adventures in the town of Blackbury, England. They are the kids that don’t fit in at school and have formed their own group.

In ONLY YOU CAN SAVE MANKIND, Johnny is playing a video game about aliens, only the aliens surrender. He accepts their surrender and suddenly there are no more aliens. It isn’t just in his copy of the game but every copy of the game is missing the aliens. He starts having odd dreams about the aliens and he realizes he has to do something about it, only he doesn’t know what to do. This book reminds me a lot of the movie LAST STARFIGHTER.

JOHNNY AND THE DEAD involves the same group of kids, only this one is more about the town. Johnny not only has the strange ability to talk to aliens in video games, but he can see ghosts as well. The city council is planning on building over the cemetery and the ghosts ask Johnny and his friends to help make their voices heard. I like this one because it shows how his friends are willing to trust him even though they can’t see and hear everything he does.

JOHNNY AND THE BOMB is my favorite of the three. I felt like this kids showed more development than in the other ones. There is a bag lady that walks around town. The kids find a newspaper that had been wrapped around some fish and chips only it is from their grandparents’ time. They soon learn how to time travel. In this one Johnny learns about his grandfather and I think it is a really cute story about what makes a hero.

These books are a little harder to find but they are well worth it. They are a great coming of age story with a little of the snarky-ness that is true Pratchett style. They are science fiction and fantasy but they aren’t as heavy in the science fiction/fantasy as even the nome books are. The characters are likeable and relateable. The storytelling is engaging and it is a fun read for the whole family.