The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm
I first read this book in elementary school, when I was nine or ten years old. It's always stuck with me. At the time it was very different from anything else I'd read. It's set in Zimbabwe, 200 years in the future, and the author does an excellent job of combining traditional cultural and language elements with sci-fi ideas. Most notably is the mile-high building which sways in the wind, an image that has stuck with me to this day.
Revisiting this book, I'm impressed with my younger self for reading it. I've always been called a precocious reader, seeking out things for older audiences. But this is marketed as a children's book and it's longer and more intricate than some teen stuff I've read in the last few years.
The book follows three children, pampered and privileged but also sheltered and naive. Their father is a famous general, responsible for breaking up most of the gangs in his city. Having seen that violence up close for most of his life, he now barely lets his children out of the house. They attend school virtually, video-conferencing into classes. Or various teachers come to their home. Sometimes they leave the house on closely supervised school trips or for special occasions.
It's no wonder that they run away from home, just for a day, just to see the city. It's also no wonder that they are immediately kidnapped. What follows is a fun adventure in which the children get into one scrape after another, always managing to find a way to escape from their current captor only to fall in to the hands of the next one. Their parents hire a trio of detectives - the titular Ear, Eye, and Arm - to find them, but they remain one step behind the children for most of the book.
The story held up really well, which is always a relief when you revisit childhood favorites. The world is rich and interesting, an excellent blend of the old and the new. The villains are perhaps a little cartoonish, but this is a children's book. And that's probably why Farmer made up an African nation to be villainous. But other than that, there are some great points of view, leading to interesting conflict between the good guys, as they all have different values and agendas. Of course, in the end, the day is saved and the kids are reunited with their parents. Everyone lives happily ever after, some of them after prison sentences.
Revisiting this book, I'm impressed with my younger self for reading it. I've always been called a precocious reader, seeking out things for older audiences. But this is marketed as a children's book and it's longer and more intricate than some teen stuff I've read in the last few years.
The book follows three children, pampered and privileged but also sheltered and naive. Their father is a famous general, responsible for breaking up most of the gangs in his city. Having seen that violence up close for most of his life, he now barely lets his children out of the house. They attend school virtually, video-conferencing into classes. Or various teachers come to their home. Sometimes they leave the house on closely supervised school trips or for special occasions.
It's no wonder that they run away from home, just for a day, just to see the city. It's also no wonder that they are immediately kidnapped. What follows is a fun adventure in which the children get into one scrape after another, always managing to find a way to escape from their current captor only to fall in to the hands of the next one. Their parents hire a trio of detectives - the titular Ear, Eye, and Arm - to find them, but they remain one step behind the children for most of the book.
The story held up really well, which is always a relief when you revisit childhood favorites. The world is rich and interesting, an excellent blend of the old and the new. The villains are perhaps a little cartoonish, but this is a children's book. And that's probably why Farmer made up an African nation to be villainous. But other than that, there are some great points of view, leading to interesting conflict between the good guys, as they all have different values and agendas. Of course, in the end, the day is saved and the kids are reunited with their parents. Everyone lives happily ever after, some of them after prison sentences.
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