Author: Marianne Curley
Cover Artist: Ian Butterworth
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Binding: Paperback
Publication Date: October 2002
This is the first book in a YA series by Marianne Curley. The story begins with Ethan dreaming of the death of his sister, a sinister death that has haunted him into his teens. At 16 years old, he lives with his parents in a small town, hiding his special talents from his friends and family. Since his sister’s murder he has trained to harness his gifts and become a Guardian of Time. Now his tutor Arkarian, believes Ethan is ready to take on his own apprentice, Isobel. Unfortunately Isobel is sister to Matt, once Ethan’s friend but through a disagreement over a girl are hardly able to tolerate each other.
The storyline follow Isobel’s initiation into the world of the Guardians, and how she learns how various skills to help her cope with future trips into the past. Ethan’s gifts are of illusion, were as Isobel’s gift is of healing. The pair quickly embark on their first mission, through time, to undo changes to the past by members of the Order. The Order wants chaos to rule and through changing important parts of history the Leader of the Order wants to rule the world in the future.
During their first joint mission an old adversary of Ethan’s targets Isobel and drags her and her brother Matt into the Time War. Ethan has to battle his fears of the dark man, who murder his sister, in order to save Isobel and his once friend Matt.
Personal Thoughts – The Named is a cross genre story, blending fantasy and sci-fi into the plot and I felt the author does this very well. It’s an interesting idea to have two groups battling to manipulate the past, to either keep the present as it should be or in the case of the Order, change the present or future to their gain.
I found Ethan to be the strongest and most interesting of all the characters in this book. Probably this is due to us finding out the price his family paid to be a part of the Guardian’s and I found the scenes were he faces his old adversary and learns the truth about his family and the Guardian’s brought the most tension to the story
Most of the characters of the Guardian’s are interesting and have special abilities, this brought in the magical, fantastical elements to the story and I felt they use these abilities inventively, without loosing any believability.
All the main characters are well written and developed, with the relationship of Ethan and Isobel driving the plot. However I did find it slightly annoying that each chapter was either named Ethan or Isobel and then the POV changed, as the story proceeded from their stance. This didn’t lend towards smooth reading and spoiled the enjoyment of the overall story.
Despite this annoyance the story is interesting and did pull me in enough to want to know what happens next.
