Product Description

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 and imprisoned, Todd is forced to learn the ways of the Mayor's new order. But what secrets are hiding just outside of town? And where is Viola? Is she even still alive? And who are the mysterious Answer? And then, one day, the bombs begin to explode... The Ask and the Answer is a tense, shocking and deeply moving novel of resistance under the most extreme pressure.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4945 in Books
• Published on: 2009-09-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 536 pages

About the Author
Patrick Ness is the author of The Knife of Never Letting Go, Book One of the Chaos Walking trilogy, which won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and the Bootrust Teenage Prize. He has written two other books for adults and is a literary critic for the Guardian. He lives in London.

Customer Reviews

Wow!
This was one sequel I just had to read after the outstanding 'Knife of Never Letting Go' and it didn't disappoint in any way. It's a fabulous book.
This story is all about Todd and Viola who find themselves on opposing sides of a power struggle between the new mayor, now self proclaimed president and head of the 'Ask', in what was the town of Haven and the 'Answer' a group of female healers and freedom fighters. Todd finds himself part of the 'Ask' alongside his former enemy Davy and Viola is part of the 'Answer'.
This is a superbly atmospheric book which centres on the town of Haven which is now chillingly renamed New Prentisstown after the new mayor siezes power.
This book delves into topics of ethnic cleansing, female emancipation, torture and terrorism in an enthralling alien world where the 'noise' of animal and male thought can be heard which creates compelling situations and storylines. It is a brilliantly written, intelligent, gripping page turner. The new president is a truly terrifying, manipulative villian.
The alien native Spackle are central to this story and lead to an amazing cliff hanger. Very highly recommended and I will be definitely reading the third in the series...

UPDATE

There is now a short prequel story about Viola, by Patrick Ness, available to read online. Please see the comments section of this review for the link (the Amazon filters aren't allowing the link to be posted in the main body of my review).

A truly outstanding book
I enjoyed The Knife of Never Letting Go and thought it a good book. This, the second in the trilogy, is absolutely excellent. It is billed as a book for young adults and I think they would enjoy it greatly, but other not-very-young-at-all adults like me should read it, too. It is page-turningly exciting and is a really rich narrative which makes remarkably profound observations on really important themes without once making you feel as though you are being lectured.

The first book was narrated by Todd alone. This one is narrated alternately by Todd and Viola as their stories unfold - a very difficult trick to pull off convincingly, but Ness does it brilliantly. The two voices are clearly identifiable, and the structure allows Ness to explore how misinformation and misunderstanding can be exploited by the ruthless and bring grief to the innocent. Ness also explores how a dictator can manipulate even the well-meaning, the nature of oppression and suppression and how the good can become dehumanised by inhuman situations and treatment. There is also a constant sense of the complexities of the ethics of resistance and terrorism, and how seemingly legitimate anti-terrorism measures can be exploited by those wishing to limit freedom. No easy answers are presented, very few people are portrayed as wholly good or wholly bad, and the entire book is imbued with a sense of the difficulty of knowing the right thing to do and how hard it can be to do the right thing even when you know what it is. And, through it all, an uplifting sense of the strength and power of friendship and love.

Be warned, there is some real, unflinching horror here, too. It is anything but gratuitous - it is central to the story and to the ideas being considered - but I found it truly disturbing because, like the whole book, it is so brilliantly written.

This book has more intellectual, ethical and moral content than most books written for adults, conveyed in a superbly-told, imaginative and thrilling story. I cannot think of much more to ask of a book than that, and I recommend it in the strongest possible terms to adults of all ages.

Patrick Ness continues to surprise and entertain
The second in this trilogy, Chaos Walking, continues the adventures of Todd, but this isn't only a young persons book by any means. With its dark and unsettling storyline, its all-too-real human conflicts and (we hope) resolutions, The Ask and the Answer certainly asks difficult questions about authority, complaisance and consequences of actions. Sometimes our own answers are not what we would like to think they would be. Set in a bleak, violent and all too plausible future, it doesn't leave the reader with much hope, but certainly with an anxiety to read the third and final part as soon as possible.