What do you think?
Rate this book
The Changes Trilogy #1
The Weathermonger
People of the future recreate the Middle Ages by destroying Machines and by subjecting anyone found with a machine or a knowledge of mechanics to severe punishment or death.
190 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 1968
4 people are currently reading
352 people want to read
About the author
Peter Dickinson
142 books156 followersPeter Malcolm de Brissac Dickinson OBE FRSL was a prolific English author and poet, best known for children's books and detective stories.
Peter Dickinson lived in Hampshire with his second wife, author Robin McKinley. He wrote more than fifty novels for adults and young readers. He won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Children's Award twice, and his novel The Blue Hawk won The Guardian Award in 1975.
Peter Dickinson lived in Hampshire with his second wife, author Robin McKinley. He wrote more than fifty novels for adults and young readers. He won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Children's Award twice, and his novel The Blue Hawk won The Guardian Award in 1975.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
June 16, 2020
DAW Collectors #104
Cover Artist: George Barr
Name: Dickinson, Peter Malcolm de Brissac, Birthplace: Livingstone, Northern Rhodesia, British Empire, (16 December 1927 -16 December 2015)
Peter Dickinson was born in what is now Zambia.
England is suffering in a time known as The Changes when the people have universally turned against all machines and live in a primitive state working on the land. Geoffrey, who has been the town's weathermonger, and his sister are about to be drowned for witchcraft because Geoffrey maintained his uncle's motorboat (and not because he conjures up weather conditions as required). They manage to escape in the boat across the Channel to France following many others who went before them. However the authorities in France, where modern life goes on as usual, persuade them to return to try to trace the apparent source of the paralyzing spell.
The evil seems to emanate from somewhere in the Welsh borders. Geoffrey and Sally choose to travel by car - a Rolls Royce Silver Ghost taken from the Beaulieu Motor Museum - which seems a poor choice in the circumstances since it attracts so much unwanted attention. They are relentlessly hunted by hounds across the countryside and do very much better when they abandon the car for a cantankerous pony. Of course, the journey by car allows Peter Dickinson to paint an excellent portrait of the overwhelming hatred and revulsion which the people have developed for all things mechanical.
Since the Changes began, machines have been anathema in England except, somehow, to Geoffrey Tinker; after five years as the Weymouth weathermonger, he has been caught fiddling with a motor boat, bludgeoned, and marooned on a rock with his sister Sally. The blow has obliterated his memory of the past five years but not his power to manipulate the weather, and they are soon safe with earlier English refugees in France. But to the other Western powers, ""the English phenomenon"" appears as a malignancy: because Jeff and Sally seem to be immune, they must return to discover its source. The scheme contrived by tyrannical General Turville calls for their covert return by motorless boat, then the activation of a long-cocooned 1909 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost for a dash across to the Welsh mountains, source of the most erratic weather. It is a brilliant episode: Jeff (who's 16) driving the Silver Ghost, fitted with a battering ram, through the flocks and toll gates, around the potholes and cursing people of an England which in five years has lapsed into the Dark Ages. . . until a dark cloud bears down on them, one that Jeff isn't strong enough to counter, and the Rolls is demolished by a thunderbolt. This is the work of the Necromancer, otherwise old friend Merlin--a bit of a disappointment, really, but attended by a flustery sort of Frankenstein who's splendid foil. Moments after the cataclysm immuring Merlin, jets appear, bringing the General, mechanical efficiency, unfeeling calculation. . . . One might speculate about the theme (is every British author at heart an Edwardian if not a Luddite? is every garden plot Merlin's graveyard?) but the story, ingeniously conceived and vividly personalized, brooks few reservations.
Changes trilogy:
The Weathermonger (1968)
Heartsease (1969)
The Devil's Children (Gollancz, 1970)
The trilogy was written in reverse order: The "Devil's Children" is actually the first book In terms of the trilogy's chronology, "Heartsease" the second, and The" Weathermonger" the third.
Cover Artist: George Barr
Name: Dickinson, Peter Malcolm de Brissac, Birthplace: Livingstone, Northern Rhodesia, British Empire, (16 December 1927 -16 December 2015)
Peter Dickinson was born in what is now Zambia.
England is suffering in a time known as The Changes when the people have universally turned against all machines and live in a primitive state working on the land. Geoffrey, who has been the town's weathermonger, and his sister are about to be drowned for witchcraft because Geoffrey maintained his uncle's motorboat (and not because he conjures up weather conditions as required). They manage to escape in the boat across the Channel to France following many others who went before them. However the authorities in France, where modern life goes on as usual, persuade them to return to try to trace the apparent source of the paralyzing spell.
The evil seems to emanate from somewhere in the Welsh borders. Geoffrey and Sally choose to travel by car - a Rolls Royce Silver Ghost taken from the Beaulieu Motor Museum - which seems a poor choice in the circumstances since it attracts so much unwanted attention. They are relentlessly hunted by hounds across the countryside and do very much better when they abandon the car for a cantankerous pony. Of course, the journey by car allows Peter Dickinson to paint an excellent portrait of the overwhelming hatred and revulsion which the people have developed for all things mechanical.
Since the Changes began, machines have been anathema in England except, somehow, to Geoffrey Tinker; after five years as the Weymouth weathermonger, he has been caught fiddling with a motor boat, bludgeoned, and marooned on a rock with his sister Sally. The blow has obliterated his memory of the past five years but not his power to manipulate the weather, and they are soon safe with earlier English refugees in France. But to the other Western powers, ""the English phenomenon"" appears as a malignancy: because Jeff and Sally seem to be immune, they must return to discover its source. The scheme contrived by tyrannical General Turville calls for their covert return by motorless boat, then the activation of a long-cocooned 1909 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost for a dash across to the Welsh mountains, source of the most erratic weather. It is a brilliant episode: Jeff (who's 16) driving the Silver Ghost, fitted with a battering ram, through the flocks and toll gates, around the potholes and cursing people of an England which in five years has lapsed into the Dark Ages. . . until a dark cloud bears down on them, one that Jeff isn't strong enough to counter, and the Rolls is demolished by a thunderbolt. This is the work of the Necromancer, otherwise old friend Merlin--a bit of a disappointment, really, but attended by a flustery sort of Frankenstein who's splendid foil. Moments after the cataclysm immuring Merlin, jets appear, bringing the General, mechanical efficiency, unfeeling calculation. . . . One might speculate about the theme (is every British author at heart an Edwardian if not a Luddite? is every garden plot Merlin's graveyard?) but the story, ingeniously conceived and vividly personalized, brooks few reservations.
Changes trilogy:
The Weathermonger (1968)
Heartsease (1969)
The Devil's Children (Gollancz, 1970)
The trilogy was written in reverse order: The "Devil's Children" is actually the first book In terms of the trilogy's chronology, "Heartsease" the second, and The" Weathermonger" the third.
March 7, 2015
The Apocalyse! Now! With.... well, telling really would be a spoiler.
Let's just say that this book establishes that this trilogy belongs firmly in the genre of books that are about The Matter of Britain.
The book begins dramatically, as the curtain rises on two young people forced out into the water to drown as witches. The boy, Jeff, is suffering amnesia due to a recent knock on the head, but the girl, Sally, informs him that she's his sister and that he has the ability to control the weather.
He summons a fog, and the two manage to make their way to a boat that Jeff has kept in running order (part of the reason for the witchcraft charge - weather magic is accepted, but anything reeking of technology is suspect), and they escape across the Channel to France.
However, as soon as the two arrive in the French immigration office, they're (bafflingly quickly) sent back to England to spy on the situation and try to find out where the Changes which have caused so much upheaval are emanating from.
The plan is to grab a 1909 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost from a private collection (since simpler technology might be less troublesome) and make their way to Wales, where there have been rumors of a mysterious wood that's sprung up overnight, inhabited by a Necromancer.
A Quest is underway...
OK, this one in the trilogy is maintaining its remembered 4-star status. I really enjoyed it.
(Although, I didn't recall how much focus, for a good part of the book, is placed on the car... probably because when I read it I was young enough that I had no idea what the car looked like, so it didn't create a visual memory.
)
There is a LOT of love for this car in the book. (Though a lot of hate comes its way.)
Having now finished my re-read of the 'trilogy' I can say unequivocally that re-arranging the order in the omnibus from publication order to chronological order was a mistake. This one should be read first, and the other two should be regarded as ancillary works, only to be read afterward. It just makes more sense in the original publication order, and eliminates some of the issues I had with the other two books.
(Some of the issues - not all of them. There are still inconsistencies. For example, why, in this book, are animals as well as humans driven into a rage by technology, when in the other books animals seem to behave as usual?) Why are some people affected and not others? We still don't know.
The book is also not without its flaws. For example, Geoffrey's amnesia is nothing more than a plot device which gives Sally an excuse to explain the situation to her brother, and thus, the reader. Other than this, it's not really dealt with at all, and Jeff having lost 5 years of his life barely seems to upset him or his sister. This seems like a bit of authorial laziness. I also felt like the weather-magic aspect of the book was hyped-up enough that it's a bit of a let-down when it doesn't end up figuring more prominently in the plot.
I very much enjoyed the final reveal and denouement, however. From a dramatic perspective, it worked really well, even if the post-hoc scientific theorizing about explanations of great mysteries was a bit out-of-date (no one, at this point seriously thinks that there are large areas of the brain lying unused).
The final paragraphs of the book, as well as a few earlier lines, nicely encapsulate Dickinson's rather conflicted attitude toward the events of this book (and the other two).
BIG HUGE SPOILER DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU'VE READ THE BOOK OR DO NOT INTEND TO.
Recommended. And remember, read this one first!
Let's just say that this book establishes that this trilogy belongs firmly in the genre of books that are about The Matter of Britain.
The book begins dramatically, as the curtain rises on two young people forced out into the water to drown as witches. The boy, Jeff, is suffering amnesia due to a recent knock on the head, but the girl, Sally, informs him that she's his sister and that he has the ability to control the weather.
He summons a fog, and the two manage to make their way to a boat that Jeff has kept in running order (part of the reason for the witchcraft charge - weather magic is accepted, but anything reeking of technology is suspect), and they escape across the Channel to France.
However, as soon as the two arrive in the French immigration office, they're (bafflingly quickly) sent back to England to spy on the situation and try to find out where the Changes which have caused so much upheaval are emanating from.
The plan is to grab a 1909 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost from a private collection (since simpler technology might be less troublesome) and make their way to Wales, where there have been rumors of a mysterious wood that's sprung up overnight, inhabited by a Necromancer.
A Quest is underway...
OK, this one in the trilogy is maintaining its remembered 4-star status. I really enjoyed it.
(Although, I didn't recall how much focus, for a good part of the book, is placed on the car... probably because when I read it I was young enough that I had no idea what the car looked like, so it didn't create a visual memory.
)There is a LOT of love for this car in the book. (Though a lot of hate comes its way.)
Having now finished my re-read of the 'trilogy' I can say unequivocally that re-arranging the order in the omnibus from publication order to chronological order was a mistake. This one should be read first, and the other two should be regarded as ancillary works, only to be read afterward. It just makes more sense in the original publication order, and eliminates some of the issues I had with the other two books.
(Some of the issues - not all of them. There are still inconsistencies. For example, why, in this book, are animals as well as humans driven into a rage by technology, when in the other books animals seem to behave as usual?) Why are some people affected and not others? We still don't know.
The book is also not without its flaws. For example, Geoffrey's amnesia is nothing more than a plot device which gives Sally an excuse to explain the situation to her brother, and thus, the reader. Other than this, it's not really dealt with at all, and Jeff having lost 5 years of his life barely seems to upset him or his sister. This seems like a bit of authorial laziness. I also felt like the weather-magic aspect of the book was hyped-up enough that it's a bit of a let-down when it doesn't end up figuring more prominently in the plot.
I very much enjoyed the final reveal and denouement, however. From a dramatic perspective, it worked really well, even if the post-hoc scientific theorizing about explanations of great mysteries was a bit out-of-date (no one, at this point seriously thinks that there are large areas of the brain lying unused).
The final paragraphs of the book, as well as a few earlier lines, nicely encapsulate Dickinson's rather conflicted attitude toward the events of this book (and the other two).
BIG HUGE SPOILER DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU'VE READ THE BOOK OR DO NOT INTEND TO.
Recommended. And remember, read this one first!
April 28, 2025
DNF at Page 66
I tried okay? I know I DNF'ed it quite early in the book and I had to read it (it's a school book) but I just couldn't. I read it for 1 day and then it just lay on my desk for around a week but now I decided I should just stop reading it. The writing is too flowery for me and I just couldn't connect with the characters. I was so confused in what's happening. Maybe it's because it's the final installment in a trilogy and my school (for some odd reason) doesn't keep the entire series? I might pick up the 1st book some other day and give this book a second chance...
I tried okay? I know I DNF'ed it quite early in the book and I had to read it (it's a school book) but I just couldn't. I read it for 1 day and then it just lay on my desk for around a week but now I decided I should just stop reading it. The writing is too flowery for me and I just couldn't connect with the characters. I was so confused in what's happening. Maybe it's because it's the final installment in a trilogy and my school (for some odd reason) doesn't keep the entire series? I might pick up the 1st book some other day and give this book a second chance...
September 17, 2022
I liked the premise very much. There's a bit of a surprise about two-thirds through - I liked that too. It was the ending that seemed a bit underwhelming. I'd read the others in the series if given the chance.
June 8, 2021
What a very curious book this is. I had read it before, and own the copy pictured, but I didn't remember it much (except the outcome, which the Puffin cover blurb spoils outrageously). Will write more fully in my children's book-blog, as I'm embarking on a Dickinson re-read, because reasons. Suffice now to say that it has not aged well - some racist remarks and a rather "boy's own paper" sexism throughout wouldn't go over with publishers these days.
May 23, 2023
[Daw Books, Inc.] (May 1974). SB. First Printing. 158 Pages. Purchased from Zardoz Books.
Written last (1968), but sequenced first, in Peter Dickinson’s “Changes” trilogy. Reordered in the 2015 Dell omnibus.
Happily reminded me of the (loose) ten part BBC adaptation (06/01/1975-10/03/1975) which I’ve not viewed since first broadcast, but would be curious to see now.
A well written, thought provoking, post apocalyptic narrative.
The regrettable Merlin angle inevitably injects a quantity of naffness.
Written last (1968), but sequenced first, in Peter Dickinson’s “Changes” trilogy. Reordered in the 2015 Dell omnibus.
Happily reminded me of the (loose) ten part BBC adaptation (06/01/1975-10/03/1975) which I’ve not viewed since first broadcast, but would be curious to see now.
A well written, thought provoking, post apocalyptic narrative.
The regrettable Merlin angle inevitably injects a quantity of naffness.
February 24, 2014
Lots of "tinkering" p 18 tedious for differently-abled reader, suit like-minded "crankshaft .. dipstick" p 19 "bulldog clip .. cylinder block" p 20. Likewise fiddling with weather is italicized dream stream-of-consciousness fragments, where he always passes out, me nearly. Pages skipped, questions, fine first effort may be worth checking sequel.
Suddenly awake being drowned as witches, Geoffrey Tinker 16 cannot recognize sister Sally 11 p 28 (Jeff and Sal to one another) after head knock sends his memory back five years, before the Changes in England, when people and animals started hating and attacking machines. Mostly Sal sticks her thumb in her mouth and grunts in her sleep, toddler behavior. She balks at trousers not "womanly" p15, yet twice takes on grownups, "butts her head into .. stomach", sends "bearded man" overboard in "luscious splash" p 17; "threw your smelly stove at him" p 61. Able to shape weather, Jeff wouldn't leave, "liked being one of the richest men in Weymouth" p 24, but secretly kept motorboat in repair so they make France.
Jeff prefers lessons driving car to riding horse, so, fed up with exported English rain "must go somewhere" p 36, General Turville sends them back with mechanics who can help break out a museum Rolls Royce 1909 p 81Silver Ghost to reach center of weather disturbances, Wales border. Road trip chores fill days, read maps, hide from hounds, evade hunters, crash through tollgates, repair and maintain.
Invasion is loud, provoking - should recon not be quiet, furtive? Of course the countryside rises in pursuit and they end up on horseback anyway after lightning zaps the car. Why not retrieve supplies?
Wandering Norwich weatherman (teacher "Dominus" p 85 or "Cyril .. not, of course, my real name" p 92) seems friendly, but next morning he has gone with their best horse and all their gold. Castle seneschal Willoughby Furbelow shuts the door on wolves just in time, rambles, mumbles, about learning Latin - school made Sally fluent, morphine mistake, and "he" provides a medieval feast.
Suddenly awake being drowned as witches, Geoffrey Tinker 16 cannot recognize sister Sally 11 p 28 (Jeff and Sal to one another) after head knock sends his memory back five years, before the Changes in England, when people and animals started hating and attacking machines. Mostly Sal sticks her thumb in her mouth and grunts in her sleep, toddler behavior. She balks at trousers not "womanly" p15, yet twice takes on grownups, "butts her head into .. stomach", sends "bearded man" overboard in "luscious splash" p 17; "threw your smelly stove at him" p 61. Able to shape weather, Jeff wouldn't leave, "liked being one of the richest men in Weymouth" p 24, but secretly kept motorboat in repair so they make France.
Jeff prefers lessons driving car to riding horse, so, fed up with exported English rain "must go somewhere" p 36, General Turville sends them back with mechanics who can help break out a museum Rolls Royce 1909 p 81Silver Ghost to reach center of weather disturbances, Wales border. Road trip chores fill days, read maps, hide from hounds, evade hunters, crash through tollgates, repair and maintain.
Invasion is loud, provoking - should recon not be quiet, furtive? Of course the countryside rises in pursuit and they end up on horseback anyway after lightning zaps the car. Why not retrieve supplies?
Wandering Norwich weatherman (teacher "Dominus" p 85 or "Cyril .. not, of course, my real name" p 92) seems friendly, but next morning he has gone with their best horse and all their gold. Castle seneschal Willoughby Furbelow shuts the door on wolves just in time, rambles, mumbles, about learning Latin - school made Sally fluent, morphine mistake, and "he" provides a medieval feast.
August 27, 2016
Set in a vague idea of the future (or rather as the future may have looked to a writer in 1969) The Weathermonger opens with Geoffrey and Sally, two siblings left adrift on a rock in the sea by their community. Confused by a knock on the head, Geoffrey is informed by Sally that their uncle has been killed after being found working on a motorboat, and that the two of them have been left to be drowned when the tide comes in.
After "The Changes," England has regressed back into primitive times, in which any machine or piece of technology is met with fear and loathing. Those unaffected by this bizarre state of mind have escaped to France, and that's where Geoffrey and Sally manage to escape — only to be sent back by the French authorities on a mission to discover where exactly the machine phobia stems from. The majority of the story concerns Geoffrey and Sally's dangerous... Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
After "The Changes," England has regressed back into primitive times, in which any machine or piece of technology is met with fear and loathing. Those unaffected by this bizarre state of mind have escaped to France, and that's where Geoffrey and Sally manage to escape — only to be sent back by the French authorities on a mission to discover where exactly the machine phobia stems from. The majority of the story concerns Geoffrey and Sally's dangerous... Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
June 10, 2019
A brother and sister barely escape a dystopian England to France after their fellow villagers try to drown them for tinkering with machinery. Something's happened across the entire country so that people have abandoned technology out of fear and have reverted to a Dark Age mentality. The French authorities send the kids back to England to try to discover what has caused such a change, and equips them as best they can for the quest. It helps that Jeff, the brother, has the power to change the weather, which also seems to have come to him (and others in England) as a result of The Changes. They need to make a dangerous cross-country journey to find the source of the change and try to stop it themselves. A fun, not-too-intense dystopian novel (the third in a trilogy, but can easily stand alone), and a neat, Arthurian ending.
September 16, 2022
I read this book many decades ago and was curious to give the entire Changes trilogy a re-read to see how it stacked up after all these years. I remembered very little of the two previous books in the series, but thought I had vivid memories of this finale - but it turned out my recollections were vague, not detailed. The opening scene I recalled quite well and the general plotline, but I'd forgotten all about the castle with the provision of a daily feast.
Geoffrey is able to control the weather. He's become very wealthy through his ability, as the townsfolk of Weymouth pay him for keeping the days to their liking and needs. However he's discovered putting a bit of machinery from a boat into an oven and that seals his fate as a "witch". Hit over the head, he's placed on a rock out to sea with his little sister Sally. The thump has knocked his memory completely out of kilter and he has no idea what's gone on in the years of the Changes. The tide's coming in and it becomes evident that if he or Sally try to escape the rock, they'll be killed.
Unknown to the townsfolk who believe he relies on a talisman to control the weather, his ability remains intact despite both loss of talisman and memory. He calls up a concealing fog and, eventually, he and Sally are able to escape by boat to France. There they are told that an invading force of exiles had tried to retake England but of the 3000-strong army that went in, only 7 returned. A general wants someone immune to the effects of the Changes to go in and discover what's causing it. The source of the effect seems centred on an area in Wales. Geoffrey and Sally are persuaded to go. He's given lessons in how to drive a Rolls Royce Silver Ghost which they are told can be retrieved from a museum and which will take them, as fast as possible, to the area in Wales where the effect of the Changes is strongest. Even before they get there, they hear rumours of 'the Necromancer'. And in a long-distance duel of weather-conjuring, Geoffrey is bested and the Silver Ghost destroyed by savage bolts of lightning.
Geoffrey and Sally keep going by foot and, in a dark hidden valley protected by packs of wolves, they find a strange castle apparently occupied only by Mr Furbelow, who was once the local pharmacist. In his diary is the secret to what is causing the Changes.
Geoffrey is able to control the weather. He's become very wealthy through his ability, as the townsfolk of Weymouth pay him for keeping the days to their liking and needs. However he's discovered putting a bit of machinery from a boat into an oven and that seals his fate as a "witch". Hit over the head, he's placed on a rock out to sea with his little sister Sally. The thump has knocked his memory completely out of kilter and he has no idea what's gone on in the years of the Changes. The tide's coming in and it becomes evident that if he or Sally try to escape the rock, they'll be killed.
Unknown to the townsfolk who believe he relies on a talisman to control the weather, his ability remains intact despite both loss of talisman and memory. He calls up a concealing fog and, eventually, he and Sally are able to escape by boat to France. There they are told that an invading force of exiles had tried to retake England but of the 3000-strong army that went in, only 7 returned. A general wants someone immune to the effects of the Changes to go in and discover what's causing it. The source of the effect seems centred on an area in Wales. Geoffrey and Sally are persuaded to go. He's given lessons in how to drive a Rolls Royce Silver Ghost which they are told can be retrieved from a museum and which will take them, as fast as possible, to the area in Wales where the effect of the Changes is strongest. Even before they get there, they hear rumours of 'the Necromancer'. And in a long-distance duel of weather-conjuring, Geoffrey is bested and the Silver Ghost destroyed by savage bolts of lightning.
Geoffrey and Sally keep going by foot and, in a dark hidden valley protected by packs of wolves, they find a strange castle apparently occupied only by Mr Furbelow, who was once the local pharmacist. In his diary is the secret to what is causing the Changes.
September 6, 2020
I came back to this as an adult having read it as a child, because I'm looking for books about a certain subject - and to tell you what would be spoilers.
There are three books in the "Changes" trilogy, there are arguments over which you should read first. This is the one that tells you why the Changes happen, how they start and how they end.
As a book goes, it's a bit of a curate's egg. The whole "Changes" concept is interesting, and the mental shift in otherwise normal people is well-written. But we start with our hero having lost 5 years of his memory, from 11 to 16, and he doesn't seem too bothered by this other than in purely mechanical terms: he lacks knowledge that he needs, he goes about getting it. The descriptions of the countryside, of the boats, and especially of the car, are detailed and believable. The attempt to recreate "the past" sadly varies from "Dark Ages" to high medieval to Victorian - I didn't spot it as a kid, as a former reenactor I certainly do now.
One very strong point with this book, and the series as a whole, is that there are no bad, evil people. There are mistaken ones, there are ones under an unnatural influence that they can't control, but nobody is inherently evil, and everyone gets forgiven.
And, reading, even as an adult, I get swept past the errors by the sheer story-telling.
There are three books in the "Changes" trilogy, there are arguments over which you should read first. This is the one that tells you why the Changes happen, how they start and how they end.
As a book goes, it's a bit of a curate's egg. The whole "Changes" concept is interesting, and the mental shift in otherwise normal people is well-written. But we start with our hero having lost 5 years of his memory, from 11 to 16, and he doesn't seem too bothered by this other than in purely mechanical terms: he lacks knowledge that he needs, he goes about getting it. The descriptions of the countryside, of the boats, and especially of the car, are detailed and believable. The attempt to recreate "the past" sadly varies from "Dark Ages" to high medieval to Victorian - I didn't spot it as a kid, as a former reenactor I certainly do now.
One very strong point with this book, and the series as a whole, is that there are no bad, evil people. There are mistaken ones, there are ones under an unnatural influence that they can't control, but nobody is inherently evil, and everyone gets forgiven.
And, reading, even as an adult, I get swept past the errors by the sheer story-telling.
September 15, 2023
So: what we all secretly wanted to happen, happened.
England gave up cars and planes , electric lights and internet delights. Went back to shire-like hamlets, wattled huts and stone castles. Why? Well, they aren't sure. They call it 'The Change'. One day everyone just decided to return to the Dark Ages. A pre-industrial life that has a certain charm; at least as long as you don't do anything suspicious like build motors in your basement. That sort of love of 'tech' gets the crowds shouting 'witch!'
Geoffrey and Sally are siblings, living well after 'The Changes'. He's a weathermonger; can make the weather change. Pays well, but attracts a certain jealousy. Events lead them on a road-trip in antique car to find the source of The Change.*
A great adventure; but behind it is some thought about what IS the best way to live.
*Hint: it was something buried with a note saying 'Do not, under any circumstances, open this box'.
England gave up cars and planes , electric lights and internet delights. Went back to shire-like hamlets, wattled huts and stone castles. Why? Well, they aren't sure. They call it 'The Change'. One day everyone just decided to return to the Dark Ages. A pre-industrial life that has a certain charm; at least as long as you don't do anything suspicious like build motors in your basement. That sort of love of 'tech' gets the crowds shouting 'witch!'
Geoffrey and Sally are siblings, living well after 'The Changes'. He's a weathermonger; can make the weather change. Pays well, but attracts a certain jealousy. Events lead them on a road-trip in antique car to find the source of The Change.*
A great adventure; but behind it is some thought about what IS the best way to live.
*Hint: it was something buried with a note saying 'Do not, under any circumstances, open this box'.
March 3, 2025
I got reminded of this book recently and decided to revisit it. I read it many years ago when I was in school, though I was surprised when I checked my book list to find that I read it more recently, in 2014.
The story is a mix of fantasy and science fiction, though I would classify it more as the latter. The setting is a modern Britain which has reverted to a more primitive level socially and technologically, where machines are feared and destroyed and certain select people (the weathermongers) can control the weather. How this is possible is the mystery which is solved in the course of the story. The story is enjoyable enough, though rather short.
I understand that there are two more stories in the series, prequels which don't touch on the why of the scenario but are simply stories set within it, but I have never felt inclined to read them.
The story is a mix of fantasy and science fiction, though I would classify it more as the latter. The setting is a modern Britain which has reverted to a more primitive level socially and technologically, where machines are feared and destroyed and certain select people (the weathermongers) can control the weather. How this is possible is the mystery which is solved in the course of the story. The story is enjoyable enough, though rather short.
I understand that there are two more stories in the series, prequels which don't touch on the why of the scenario but are simply stories set within it, but I have never felt inclined to read them.
June 13, 2020
This third in the series turned very fantastical. It opens, in England, with two siblings left on a rock to drown because the town labeled them as witches. They escape to France where the military asks that they return to help the world figure out what madness has descended on England. They embark on a dangerous journey and end up in English mythology. Enjoyed the twist.
May 23, 2022
Never have read any Peter Dickinson before I enjoyed this young adult book. Geoffrey and Sally live in an England where machines are seen as evil and people have the power to manipulate the weather. Condemned to drown as witches the brother and sister manage to escape to France where they are given the task of returning home to discover what is really going on.
February 2, 2018
Reads even better the second time around. Subtle magic-y YA. Makes me want to re-read his book 'Eva,' which was one of the first dystopias I ever read in elementary school...and take a look at his other stuff.
February 5, 2018
The mystery of the Changes in Britain is revealed in this book, the third in the trilogy but the first to be written (and probably should be read first). The explanation seems a bit contrived, but it's a good ride along the way.
October 26, 2018
Brilliant book. I couldn't put it down. Unusual plot. Recommended by school for year 6. Totally agree. Had problems getting hold of a copy and had to get it second hand. Going to buy the other books in the trilogy.
September 2, 2025
Had to read this for my course. I got lost at some point idk if it was because I didn’t pay attention- but the plot didn’t make sense to me until the very end. I need to read it with more focus because I know it has potential
September 18, 2019
Very good up to the point they find the source of the hatred of technology. That so powerful a figure could have been captured in such a way, whilst achieving what he has seemed rather silly to me.
March 19, 2023
I only finished this because I had to read it for my Young Adult Fiction class.
October 10, 2025
Read for one of my English modules, very boring and disappointing tbh
October 31, 2025
I loved this Changes trilogy as a child. What happens when one day in the 1970's everyone takes a sudden and violent dislike to modern technology.
September 19, 2024
I did not enjoy this as much as Heartsease. Will now read the third book in the trilogy to see where it fits.
December 26, 2012
This was a weeding candidate, and it had a very intriguing first chapter, so I dove in.
I really liked the premise of this: for some reason, technology has become evil in England, and people have been killed for showing signs of technological knowledge. Cars and boats have been destroyed or left to decay. Geoffrey learned about motors from his uncle (since murdered) AND he has the ability to go into trances and control the weather. For this he and his little sister are nearly drowned in the sea by their community, but they escape when Geoff conjures up a dense fog. They make it to France, where officials are worried about England's backward condition, and why pilots who've flown over to investigate suddenly doubt their planes' ability to fly. They're also wondering why Britain's notoriously bad weather has been perfect lately: "endless fine summers, with rain precisly when the crops need it; deep snow every Christmas, followed by iron frosts which break up into early, balmy springs...freckled by sudden patches of freak weather." Will this oddity spread to France? How to find out more, and/or stop it?
After mulling several options, they decide to send Geoff and Sally back in, with some adult help, to steal a vintage motor car from a museum. Once back in England, the adults seem to start getting befuddled about machinery. The kids manage to get pretty far toward what seems to be the epicenter, near Wales, as the weather seems to be attacking them.
Not to give away too much, I found the resolution a little soft compared to the original menace, and overall there was a little too much geographical detail--maybe if you were British it would add plausibility. However, great suspense, unusual situation, cool idea.
This is the third book in The Changes trilogy; haven't read the first two, which we no longer own (but other libraries have them: The Devil's Children and Heartsease). It stands alone, but readers will probably want to track down the other two. We'll be keeping it.
I really liked the premise of this: for some reason, technology has become evil in England, and people have been killed for showing signs of technological knowledge. Cars and boats have been destroyed or left to decay. Geoffrey learned about motors from his uncle (since murdered) AND he has the ability to go into trances and control the weather. For this he and his little sister are nearly drowned in the sea by their community, but they escape when Geoff conjures up a dense fog. They make it to France, where officials are worried about England's backward condition, and why pilots who've flown over to investigate suddenly doubt their planes' ability to fly. They're also wondering why Britain's notoriously bad weather has been perfect lately: "endless fine summers, with rain precisly when the crops need it; deep snow every Christmas, followed by iron frosts which break up into early, balmy springs...freckled by sudden patches of freak weather." Will this oddity spread to France? How to find out more, and/or stop it?
After mulling several options, they decide to send Geoff and Sally back in, with some adult help, to steal a vintage motor car from a museum. Once back in England, the adults seem to start getting befuddled about machinery. The kids manage to get pretty far toward what seems to be the epicenter, near Wales, as the weather seems to be attacking them.
Not to give away too much, I found the resolution a little soft compared to the original menace, and overall there was a little too much geographical detail--maybe if you were British it would add plausibility. However, great suspense, unusual situation, cool idea.
This is the third book in The Changes trilogy; haven't read the first two, which we no longer own (but other libraries have them: The Devil's Children and Heartsease). It stands alone, but readers will probably want to track down the other two. We'll be keeping it.
March 17, 2019
Read all my reviews on http://urlphantomhive.booklikes.com
I haven't finished a book in almost two weeks. It feels unnatural, and The Weathermonger is not to blame, but not a single book could keep my attention over the last 10 days. I miss the rest I can usually get from reading.
Anyway, I read this was actually written and published first, with the other books being prequels, and I kind of would have liked to see it that way. There are some things that are being explained in the Weathermonger which make that the other books make more sense. However, I also sort of see why the publisher would switch the order, because some part of the excitement will be spoiled this way.
There are once again two new main characters who are forced to flee to France, only to be immediately sent back to England in order to spy and search for what has been causing the changes. What they will uncover is some much sought after explanation for what has been going on in the other two books. I liked this one best, it felt slightly less cut and closed as the previous two books and the start especially I found gripping.
I think I would recommend starting with this one.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
I haven't finished a book in almost two weeks. It feels unnatural, and The Weathermonger is not to blame, but not a single book could keep my attention over the last 10 days. I miss the rest I can usually get from reading.
Anyway, I read this was actually written and published first, with the other books being prequels, and I kind of would have liked to see it that way. There are some things that are being explained in the Weathermonger which make that the other books make more sense. However, I also sort of see why the publisher would switch the order, because some part of the excitement will be spoiled this way.
There are once again two new main characters who are forced to flee to France, only to be immediately sent back to England in order to spy and search for what has been causing the changes. What they will uncover is some much sought after explanation for what has been going on in the other two books. I liked this one best, it felt slightly less cut and closed as the previous two books and the start especially I found gripping.
I think I would recommend starting with this one.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
June 2, 2009
Of the books in the Changes trilogy, I think this one was my favorite. It's a bit funnier than the other two, but also larger in scope in some ways. When the books were originally published, this was the first book, with Heartsease and The Devil's Children following, but the books were published in reverse chronological order, and depending on the edition this is listed as either the first book or the last in the trilogy. I haven't read them in publication order, but I think I rather like having this be the last in the trilogy, rather than the first, mainly because it explains the mystery of what has caused the Changes. I suspect the other two books wouldn't be as fascinating without that ever-present question.
October 22, 2020
One of my fondest memories of childhood. I’ve read it a dozen times and actually I think I enjoyed this last time, after a break of maybe 15 years, the most. It’s a very well put-together young adult’s post-war fantasy. With no vampires or soft porn, it’s a fast-paced adventure in a strange but familiar setting: a recognisable modern England made medieval by some mysterious magic that covers the British Isles. The heroes are two enviably practical kids, who fix motors and drive cars and cross the Channel in a motor boat in a way that children these days almost never do. And of course Merlin is an addict and can drop weatherbombs whenever he gets the gripes! Excellent stuff.
May 21, 2010
In the beginning, a little hard to follow with all the 1960s British language. Sometimes the transitions were abrupt and hard to follow also, but the book grew on me. I think middle-school children today would demand more than just glossing over subjects as this did--after all, this is the age of Harry Potter and more intricately working plots for children. However, it did find this imaginative and the ideas behind the book are universal and timeless.
August 27, 2016
So I found this book in an op shop and read it as a standalone book - I now find out it's the final instalment in a trilogy.....
I did enjoy this piece of vintage apocalypse fiction. It's certainly reminds me of the fantasy and science fiction that I cut my teeth on back in the 70's and early 80's.
I did find that it was excessive on the tinkering with the car, but it was an entertaining tale. I will keep my eyes out for the other books.
I did enjoy this piece of vintage apocalypse fiction. It's certainly reminds me of the fantasy and science fiction that I cut my teeth on back in the 70's and early 80's.
I did find that it was excessive on the tinkering with the car, but it was an entertaining tale. I will keep my eyes out for the other books.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews