Tomorrow, When the War Began

Tomorrow Series #1

By: John Marsden

Narrated by: Suzi Dougherty

Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

While Ellie and her friends are away in the bush, the world changes. Suddenly they are in the toughest situations humans can confront, facing life and death decisions. They are thrown into a world where they find courage, initiative, spirit, and wisdom, or they die.

The first of an enormously popular series that has been translated and published all over the world.

Don't miss the other titles in John Marsden's Tomorrow series.

©1995 Jomden Pty Ltd. (P)1999, 2001 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd, by arrangement with Jomden Pty Ltd.

Critic reviews

"A gripping tale, told with Marsden's customary incisiveness." (Publishers Weekly)
"Fast-paced and provocative, it's a natural for book talking." (School Library Journal)

Deja Vu all over again

First, this is a good book and easy to listen to. It has the same plot as Red Dawn just moved to another country. Not America but Australia. I am not sure which book was written first so it is kind of a chicken or the egg dilemma. If this book was written first, I have done the author a disservice and I should have rated it a five. Either way it is worth the credit. I love the Aussie accent the narrator has and it is not fake. The book held my attention and though I think it is targeting teens, I am sixty eight and I enjoyed it and will get the next book in the series at the very least.

Good for what it is, but not what I wanted.

This is a teen romance-adventure novel, and as such it's probably pretty good, so I rated it that way. But that's not what I expected. I got fooled by other reviews saying this is a great adventure story and a good read for all ages. The story is told in the first person by a seventeen-year-old girl and yes it has some good adventure but there is also a lot of narrative about her romantic feelings and experiences. For an older male these teen romance interludes weren't very appealing. Too bad, because I did enjoy the adventure part of the story, which is, as others have noted, basically Red Dawn in Australia. This is probably a great book for girls from age 10 to 17, give or take, but if you're not in that category you might want to look elsewhere for a good adventure story.

The Narrator Makes This

This is one of the few audio books where I think more highly of the narrator than the story itself. Suzi Dougherty's reading is really nice to hear, perhaps it's her lovely Aussie accent and the way that she can capture the speech and mannerisms of a spunky teenage girl. As for the story itself, it is overall a nice little action tale of a country suddenly invaded, and a small group of people who decide to rebel.

The discussion of whether it is too much like "Red Dawn" is a helpful one to have. I personally hated Red Dawn for its sensationalist xenophobia. I won't accuse Marsden of similar xenophobia because, frankly, I can't tell where he stands on the issue. For most of the book, the kids are naturally loyal to their home nation and want to fight against its occupation. If they have to use violence to do so, I have no problem with that (being an American, I realize that rebellion is often the necessary beginning to something better), and the violence in this novel is nowhere near as brutal as Red Dawn's, so it didn't feel sensationalistic. Nor did the kids seem like insufferable uber-patriots.

In a couple of places, I thought Marsden was going to go in a different direction and use the situation as a commentary on Australia's history. After all, didn't white people take over a nation that belonged to the aborignal inhabitants? So, maybe this book was going to be an elaborate metaphor, to say, "How would you like it if you were invaded?" But after going through the entire book, I saw that Marsden wasn't going to go there. There seems to be no interest in exploring the deeper issue of who should control what; Marsden seems to want to tell a straight action story, with the middle-class Aussie high schoolers as heroes.

Some other issues made the book a bit odd. I have no idea who the invaders are. The only clue I remember is that they don't speak English, but we aren't told if they are Asian, Middle Eastern, European, or whatever. Do I have to buy the other six sequels to find this out? Also, it was very strange that the students had no access to TV, Internet or radio which would have helped them to get outside reports. Then again, I don't know when this was written. (They finally get ham radio late in the book, which helps a bit.) And perhaps the worst thing is that the author plays up the jokey-pranky-angsty part of teen life waaaaay too much. Even when these kids' lives have been turned upside down, they are making wisecracks. And as they are launching a rebellion against an army, they are intensely concerned about their love lives. Those parts took me out of the story at various times.

The conclusion of the book wasn't a conclusion at all, just a promise of more action ahead in the various sequels.

Despite the flaws, I ended up liking it. I'm somewhat curious about how the story plays out in the rest of the books.

Wonderful

I was born in Australia and all the cultural references in the language came flooding back. I guess I may be a bit biased because of that but seriously the story was a gripping and thought provoking tale. Adventure at its best. I'm now hooked and am so happy that audible has the sequels available. I since read that this work won many awards as book for late teens. Don't let that put you off its not just a kids book! It's quite dark and serious in places.

Could it really happen?

Where does Tomorrow, When the War Began rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

One of the best I have listened to.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Tomorrow, When the War Began?

When the girls blew up the wirawee bridge.

What about Suzi Dougherty’s performance did you like?

I love her Australian voice. I could listen to her all day.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Scary to think of an invasion but also quite plausible. The book had many ups and downs just like real life. I also enjoyed the movie.

Any additional comments?

I think it is an excellent series for young people right up there with Twilight and the Hunger Games.

Thrilling Australian Story

Would you consider the audio edition of Tomorrow, When the War Began to be better than the print version?

Our whole family listened to this on a road trip - Audio book edition was fantastic!

What did you like best about this story?

This book appealed to each of us in different ways - adventure, thrill, strong characters, great story line...

What does Suzi Dougherty bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

We loved her obvious passion for the characters - really bought them to life for us!

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

We got addicted!!

Any additional comments?

This was our first experience with audio books. Loved every minute of it!!!

Confusing to follow with book!!!!!!

Would you try another book from John Marsden and/or Suzi Dougherty?

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What was one of the most memorable moments of Tomorrow, When the War Began?

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Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Suzi Dougherty?

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Could you see Tomorrow, When the War Began being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

It already has been. Two different versions of the movie and a tv series as well.

Any additional comments?

As she is a slower reader, we bought this so our niece could follow along with the novel she was given to read in class. The novel has 22 chapters. The audiobook only has 7, each of which includes more than one chapter from the novel and lasts over an hour. The last audiobook 'chapter' is only a few minutes long and consists of only the last chapter of the novel. It would have been nice if the reader could skip directly to the chapter they wanted to read as is shown in the Audible App preview. This has made it very hard for her to follow. I am NOT impressed with my purchase.

Great bit of Aussie literature.

I really enjoyed listening to this. I remember way back in year 7 getting this book to read for English and loving it. My only gripe was the narrator was very quick speaking. If she had slowed down just a bit it would have been even better.

Excellent Story, Disappointing Narration

The story in this book and the rest of the series are really wonderful (particularly the first 3 books). I got the audiobook for my dyslexic sister and I was really disaapointed with the narration. I checked with her (since she had no previous experience of this book) and she also found the narrator underwhelming.
There is no issue with the narrator being Australian (the book is set in Australia) but she lacks the talent to take on the personality of each character, and her overall narration isn't all that easy to listen to (unlike other narrators I've heard).
I'll probably still get the rest of the series because the books themselves are great for teenagers (this is an Australian classic for teens) and audio is a great way to assist dyslexic readers.

How is this science fiction?

It is an interesting and well done YA adventure/survival story, but I do not see how it is science fiction. It is speculative, in that it is based on an imaginary war, an imaginary invasion. But that is what fiction is. Have I missed something? Seriously, if someone could enlighten me how this should be considered science fiction, I would be interested to know.. It seems to me that in no way does this involve any of the elements one would expect in science fiction, and I feel it is mis-categorized.

That said, again, it is a really interesting and well done adventure, but its classification is a bit misleading, in my opinion.