Could you sacrifice your family to save the world?
Tom Oakley experiences disturbing episodes of déjà-vu and believes he is going mad. Then, he discovers that he's a “Walker” – someone who can transport himself to other times and places.
Tom dreams about other “Walkers” in moments of mortal danger: Edward Dyson killed in a battle in 1879; Mary Brown who perished in the Great Fire of London; and Charlie Hawker, a sailor who drowned on a U-boat in 1943.
Agreeing to travel back in time and rescue them, Tom has three dangerous adventures, before returning to the present day. But Tom’s troubles have only just begun. He finds that he's drawn the attention of evil individuals who seek to bend history to their will.
Soon, Tom’s family are obliterated from existence and Tom must make a choice between saving them and saving his entire world.
Buy it from :http://www.completelynovel.com/books/90409
Excerpt
Chapter One
Déjà vu
Some people seek fame and glory. Mostly they are fools.
It’s nice to be ordinary sometimes. Tom was ordinary. That is to say that he was, once upon a time, quite ordinary. Some years ago of course: before Septimus came along; before he had heard of Neoptolemas and the Hourglass Institute or of the Twisted Reality. Before he’d made friends with folk who the history books said died before his parents were born. Indeed, before he learned he was a ‘Walker’.
Like us all, he longed for any adventure or excitement that would come to change his ordinary humdrum life. What was about to happen to him and his family would make him regret that wish. Very soon he would look back on those earlier days with longing; as a time of blissful normality that now seemed lost − perhaps never to return.
His parents called it déjà vu − which was French for ‘having seen it before’ − and it seemed to be happening to him more often since he was eleven. Indeed, now that he thought about it, it was on his eleventh birthday that he first noticed it. It was a warm day in the early spring and his mum and dad had organised a party for him. His parents were not particularly well off, but they did have a large garden, or rather a long thin one such as many terraced houses had around the city.
So, he had held his party in the garden. His friends and he played football and then cricket until he slogged a ‘six’ over the fence and lost the ball. That turned out to be the signal for tea. There was the usual party food, including cakes and ice cream along with his father’s homemade burgers, cooked − and half burnt − on a barbecue. Then, of course, there was the cake.
The cake was baked in the shape of a dalek; and as his mother walked out of the kitchen door carrying it, there were shouts of “Cool” and “Wicked” from his friends. The words “Happy 11th birthday Tom” were written in blue icing on the top of the cake.
His mother now started singing, “Happy birthday to you,” and all the boys joined in. His friend James was singing along with the alternative words “squashed tomatoes and stew,” and Tom stuck his tongue out to blow a raspberry at him. James simply smiled and sang louder. Tom bent forward, took a deep breath, then blew all eleven candles out. His mother put down the cake and turned to take a knife to cut it into slices.
That was when it happened.
The world seemed to give a slight judder up and forwards and Tom felt like you might do if you were in a car that suddenly moved off at speed, pushing you back against the seat. Feeling dizzy, he closed his eyes for a moment.
When he opened them again, he blinked, because right there in front of him was the cake with all the candles still burning brightly. Around him the boys were singing, “Happy birthday to Thomas, happy birthday to you,” and cheering. At the time he believed it had been a trick they were all playing on him. All the boys were in on it and his mother must have used those party trick candles that keep re-lighting themselves: that was the explanation, obviously.
He leant forward and blew the candles out again.
Professional Reviews
http://thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php?title=Tomorrow's_Guardian_by_Richard_Denning
Eleven year old Tom Oakley thinks he's going mad when he seems to relive short periods of his life, and dreams about other people from different times. The reality is far stranger – he's a Walker, with the power to rescue those he dreamed about. Travelling to the battle of Isandlwana, the Great Fire of London, and a German U-Boat, guided by the mysterious Professor, Tom saves the lives of soldier Edward, servant Mary, and Able Seaman Charlie, who also have powers. There are others, however, with similar powers, who aren't as pleasant as Tom's new friends – and the four of them, allied with the Professor and his roguish helper Septimus, are pitched into a battle to save the worlds. That's intentionally plural – there are two parallel universes at stake here.
So, not lacking in ambition by any stretch of the imagination. The major success here – and it is a really major one – is that author Richard Denning, after a slightly slow first few chapters, keeps the action fast and furious for the other 400 or so pages of the book. Diving in and out of time, and in and out of the Twisted Reality (the other universe), there's never a dull moment as the inevitable confrontation with the evil Redfeld, villain of the piece, comes closer and closer.
The other thing that really impressed me about the book was the way the time travel was handled – this is a bugbear for me as I've read some dreadfully convoluted stories in the past concerning the subject. Denning sets things up well, never goes into too much detail on how everything works, and trust in his ability to keep the action flowing so well that the fine points aren't particularly important. Speaking of details, while the historical sequences are fairly short and they're set in times which I'm not particularly familiar with, they certainly all seem authentic.
I generally really like 'shades of grey' characterisation in fantasy, and tend to find completely good or evil characters rather boring. However, I'll make an exception here – while there are several characters who are definitely ambiguous, and whose motivations will keep you guessing right until the end, Tom and Edward stand out as really likable 'pure' heroes, particularly with a couple of speeches they make, while Redfeld is a splendidly evil antagonist.
In many ways, the story – young boy finds out he had mysterious powers he didn't know about and is plunged into a quest which has been going on for years – is reminiscent of the Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper, still probably my favourite children's fantasy sequence twenty years after I originally read it. I'm not saying that I'll return to this one again as often as I've done that series – but I'll definitely reread it at least once in the future, and I'll recommend it to readers around Tom's age, many of whom I confidently expect to absolutely love it. I'm not sure whether older teens will like it quite so much, given the huge amount of great fantasy out there today and the lack of much character development, but I'd encourage them to at least try it.
I'm not sure whether author Richard Denning will continue writing about Tom, but I'd be extremely keen to read a follow-up – and I'm also planning on checking out the other books he's already got published, two historical novels.
Further Reading: For another enjoyable story of a young boy charged with saving the world, children could try The Comet's Child by John Ward.
You can read more book reviews and buy Tomorrow's Guardian by Richard Denning at Amazon
Ash wishes he has a tough big brother to fight his battles for him, until his wish comes true.
Who is Big Brother and why is he so keen to help Ash? Does Big Brother have an agenda of his own?
