Prequel to the Chaos Walking Trilogy - The New World

Patrick Ness really surprised me. I'm not a young reader, I've been reading for 35 years. I enjoy sci fi and alternate universes so I was very pleased with the creative truly original thoughts from Patrick. I recommend it.

While I loved (LOVED!) the Chaos Walking trilogy, I didn't like this story at all. The Viola in this story is more of a "typical teenager" than she is in the books -- all she did was whine, mope about, not appreciate what her parents and others did for her, and whine. Did I mention whine? Because she sure did whine.

Maybe younger folks are interested in reading about characters like that, but older ones might want to skip this (even though it's free).

It is a YA book/story, so I'm not blaming Ness for making her a realistic teenager, I'm just saying that as an adult, it was no fun at all to read.

Started slowly but the pace picked up about mid-way and ended with me being immersed Viola's plight. The only other issue is that it contains run-on sentences throughout, making it hard to read at times. Overall good story that I would recommend for a quick, enjoyable read.

I thought it was very well written: descriptive, engaging, pleasantly simple and entertaining. Some may find the switching back and forth from the journey to the events leading to it annoying, but I found that it enriched the understanding of why the journey was taking place and deepened the characters. Oh, but what a cliff on which you are left to hang! It ends feeling like just the beginning. Still worth the read.

I finished the Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness and was still hungry for more of the story, so I was excited to find this FREE prequel to the series. It gives the reader further insight into Viola's backstory before she arrives on the New World. Definitely recommend it.

So ever since the beginning of the Chaos Walking Trilogy i was wondering how exactly Viola got to the planet and what caused her parents death. This is a great short story that explains it all. Not only did it provide details of the crash but it gave flashbacks of when she was in the convoy which gave suspense to the rest of the story.

I am constantly looking for good reading material that will help to turn the young people in my life into book worms. I read everything before passing it on and that was my purpose in obtaining the kindle edition. It was far too short; it was like a story that began and did not finish. It was sufficiently interesting that I sought to obtain the kindle edition of the first full sized book in the series so I could review it and determine whether it was good enough to justify purchasing the hard copy to pass on. I was disappointed to find that neither the kindle version nor the used version (with shipping cost added) was substantially lower than a new paperback. I've not totally discarded it; I'll keep my eyes open in bargain bookstores and resale shops but for now, I've not seen enough to convince me to spend the funds available to me on this. I'll stick with those items that are more certain to be what I am looking for.

Having reading The Knife of Never Letting Go, I was interested in reading this prequel. Ness has created a believable character in Viola. This short story helps us to understand more about her and how she came to the new world. Knowing what was going to happen did not diminish my enjoyment of this story. Ness has created a satisfying story in The New World.

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Simply put, it lacks the elements of a short story: A beginning, middle, and end.

Oh, it has a beginning, and sort of a middle, both of which I liked. But, no end. It just STOPPED in mid-thought. Call it a teaser, but it is certainly not a short story. If it had just been called an intro to the following books I would have had a better opinion of it. Bad marketing, that's all.

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This actually made me tear up a little bit, especially after having come to know viola through the first book. I won't say much more because it's a quick read and you should just read through it for yourself.