The Ask and the Answer - (Chaos Walking) 2nd Edition by Patrick Ness (Paperback)

About the Book

Includes bonus short story, "The wide, wide sea" a Chaos walking story.

Book Synopsis

"There is so much to love about the remarkable Patrick Ness! Above all, his deep, ferocious respect for young readers." --#1 New York Times best-selling author Libba Bray

The international bestseller and masterpiece of science fiction

Fleeing before a relentless army, Todd has carried a desperately wounded Viola right into the hands of their worst enemy, Mayor Prentiss. Immediately separated from Viola, Todd finds this new landscape is shrouded in secrets. And then one day, the bombs begin to explode . . .

Review Quotes

Inventive, gut-wrenching, and all-consuming, this is an unforgettable coming-of-age reading experience.
--Chloe Gong, #1 New York Times best-selling author of Coldwire

Harrowing, heartbreaking, and brutally human . . . a masterpiece of speculative fiction and social commentary.
--Neal Shusterman, New York Times best-selling author of the Arc of a Scythe trilogy

An epic journey through both a sci-fi world of extraordinary imagination and an emotional landscape of gripping intensity.
--Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of the Hugo Award-winning Children of Time series

Intelligent, compelling, and utterly devastating, Chaos Walking is one of the seminal YA series of this century. No one gets you in the feels like Patrick Ness.
--Juno Dawson, author of Her Majesty's Royal Coven

Grim and beautifully written...uses a brilliant cast of well-developed characters and its singular setting and premise to present a provocative examination of the nature of evil and humanity. This is among the best YA science fiction novels of the year.
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

An amalgamation of society's most brutal facets--fascism, terrorism, torture, ethnic cleansing--with all kinds of relevance to our world... a relentless flurry of heavy-hitting issues, hinging on appeasement, complicity, and maintaining one's morality in the face of impossible choices.
--Booklist (starred review)

Provocative questions about gender bias, racism, the meaning of war and the price of peace are thoughtfully threaded throughout a breathless, often violent plot peopled with heartbreakingly real characters.
--Kirkus Reviews

Ness takes his characters to new, dark places...the series continues to develop a fascinating world, and its fully formed characters and conflicts draw attention to difficult issues with a rare, unblinking candor.
--The Horn Book

Packed with action and moral dilemmas, this compelling read presents two inspiring, strong characters who act bravely in the face of evil.
--School Library Journal

Science-fiction fans, especially those who appreciate dark stories, will devour the first two novels, and they will eagerly await the conclusion to this planned trilogy.
--Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Gripping story of two young people fighting to stay true to themselves and each other under terrible circumstances...stunningly clear depiction of the moral wreckage of civil war: power-lust, shifting loyalties, betrayals and seductive competing justifications for violence.
--Wall Street Journal

Are revolutionaries the same as terrorists? That's not just a theoretical question as we watch the protagonists forced into taking sides, especially as the ship arrives from Viola's home planet. Once again, the final chapter zings.
--Chicago Tribune

Ness is both accessible and sophisticated, handling big subjects -- terrorism, feminism, genocide, love -- in prose that is simple and heart-stopping.
--Sunday Times (UK)

About the Author

Patrick Ness is the author of the critically acclaimed and best-selling Chaos Walking trilogy, as well as Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody and it sequel, Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody: The Hat of Great Importance. He wrote the #1 New York Times bestseller A Monster Calls (inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd), which won both the Carnegie Medal and the Kate Greenaway Medal, was a Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist, and was made into a major motion picture for which he wrote the screenplay. He is also the author of More Than This, Release, Different for Boys, The Rest of Us Just Live Here, and Burn. His many accolades include two Carnegie Medals, an Olivier Award, the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, the BookTrust Teenage Prize, and the Costa Children's Book Award. Patrick Ness lives in Los Angeles and London.