The Changes Trilogy

On the face of it, these 3 books are just showing different time periods of The Changes, but as you read you discover they're more intertwined.

In the first book (The Devil's Children) we see the beginning of it all, the sudden horror and turning on machines, the panic, and the blissful forgetfulness once they have all been destroyed.  We also follow an unusual path: a young girl, Nicky, joins a group of Sikhs - apparently less affected than others - as they find a place to settle.  Considered the Devil's Children by the locals, they still have to protect their own, and be able to trade for what they need.  

Britain is now back in the Dark Ages, with witch hunts searching for those who try to use machines still.  In book 2, Heartsease, the antipathy towards machines is beginning to slip, but only for some people.  Jonathan and Margaret live on tenterhooks, trying to keep away from the dangerous Mr. Gordon but are coming to understand that something is wrong, and it's not witches or machines.  Surely it's not right to stone people, even if they're designated as witches?

In book 3, Weathermonger, Geoffrey and Sally sense things are drawing to a close, risking their lives to reach freedom... and then again, to try to free everyone else.  What they find is nothing I'd ever expected, but it reminds us all to heed dire warnings.

I loved some of the plot details, especially centering the first book on a group of Sikhs, and Margaret's loyalty to her pony Scrub, and enjoyed reading the enhanced information about Peter Dickinson at the end.  It's always interesting to learn the context for favorite authors' writings.

Peter Dickinson is moving right up there with my favorite authors now.  I love authors who don't dumb their writing down for children, and the beautiful flow of these is not to be missed.

I need to confess I did something I hadn't done since way back when I first discovered the addictiveness of reading. I gorged on this book. Meaning that when I saw I had little time and no guarantee that I would have another reading break for an undetermined period and was unwilling to leave these characters and story to rest, at the 7% mark I started skimming over the book, reading bits and pieces of it until I got a partial picture and was somewhat appeased.

Don't judge, I know I shouldn't have done it. I wasn't even going to start this book for few days because I needed a break from reading. But once I picked this up I couldn't put it down.

Now that I have fully read this book, I feel free to say I loved it and I have a lot of things to say about it. Let’s see if I don’t mess up my original pre-review.

I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed reading this book. It was sweet, provocatively steamy, and absolutely swoony. It gave me some sad tears but mostly huge smiles. It was truly a celebration of the best emotions overcoming the sad, painful and ugly ones.