Series Recommend: The Chaos Walking Trilogy

Guys, this is our next installment of "series recommend" and it's a bad ass one. There is murder, deadly viruses, space travel, and man eating bayou creatures. Patrick Ness is the author of the Chaos Walking trilogy, and he is a consistently interesting writer.These were the first books that I read by him and I'm really excited to share with you, probably more of his books will show up here in the future.

The first book in the Chaos Walking trilogy is called "The Knife of Never Letting Go".

Todd Hewitt is about to turn 13, and lives in a rural/swampy farming community eking out a living subsistence farming with his two adopted parents Cillian and Ben. (Pretty normal so far, right? That changes right about now). Todd, like every other person in his community can hear the thoughts of everyone and everything around him. But not in a way that he can control. When he walks past someone the thoughts that that person has flies into his own mind unbidden. This means there is never a moment of peace for anyone in his community, they call it The Noise.He can even hear his dog's thoughts, which is kind of like listening to a toddler.

It hasn't always been this way. His community had been settled by a small group of Christian farmers from earth (did I mention we're not on earth? Because we are not on earth. We're basically in Space Louisiana, God helps us) who had lived peacefully for quite sometime.However a germ had been released by the planet's native species (called the Spackle) which KILLED all the women and left the men with the constant "noise" in their heads. Though recently Todd has found a spot in the woods that is absolutely silent....

I know that's a lot. Let's have a cuppa while that settles in.

Todd tells Ben and Cillian about the silent spot in the woods. They react strangely and tell Todd that he has to run away, right now. They hand him a knapsack with some possessions and a book that he didn't know had existed before, his mother's diary. Todd is pissed because he doesn't know what's going on but he does as he is told, faithful dog Manchee in tow. When he gets to the swamp he is attacked by the town's preacher named Aaron, who has never liked Todd. Todd manages to escape when Aaron is attacked by a crocodile.Todd continues to run through the swamp and stumbles across the silent place. He sees a girl, who is silent but shows him that she has crash landed in a spaceship that has come from (our) earth. They are soon pursued by more townsmen who are intent on killing Todd and this new girl.

I know that that is a lot to take in and this is pretty long already so I'm just going to say that Todd finds out the terrible truth about what actually happened to the women of his settlement,what ritual he would have had to perform to "become a man" at 13 in Prentiss, and that there is a cure for The Noise. He and the girl run far beyond Prentiss's borders to placs that Todd never knew existed.

The next 2 books in the trilogy are called "The Ask and the Answer" and "Monsters of Men". Patrick Ness has also written very small stories that go between the books and one following "Monsters of Men".

Hopefully this has intrigued you enough to go and read this trilogy. I think it'll blow your mind and make you really thankful that you can't hear anyone else's thoughts!