Book review – “While I Live” by John Marsden

After helping fight off enemy attackers in the Tomorrow series, this new book marks the first of the Ellie Chronicles, the adventures of Ellie in peace time. It is turbulent peace time, though, with Ellie living on the border of a smaller Australia with the enemy not living far away, and frequent border raids. (One feels Marsden was inspired by the recent East Timor experience). Poor old Ellie hasn’t had much time to readjust to peace time when her parents are killed in one of the said border raids – couldn’t Marsden give her some happiness? Of course this enables her to struggle against the odds without parents like she did in the other books. And we never got to know the parents that well so we don’t feel their loss that much – just feel sorry for Ellie. The plot of this is a bit more episodic than the Tomorrow books – there’s no big mission to blow something up, just a series of adventures, some encounters with the enemy, Ellie meets some new friends (setting up for further novels), hears about a secret society of people who retrieve people still held by the enemy (not really used here but setting up for further novels), battles to save her farm. There are a few Aussie baddies this time, giving Marsden the chance to create some personalized villains (the enemy are always unpersonalised) and presumably settle some scores. Mr Sale the dodgy lawyer is a great villain and has a satisfying come-uppance. Odd bit where Ellie recalls her dead parents and remembers her father's penis.