Planet earth spins lonely in space. Its fragile ecology teems with life found nowhere else in the universe. Tim (Tyrannosaur: Improved Model) takes the job: Defender of the Earth! He’s a monster with car-sized teeth, and a tail that could crush the Houses of Parliament. He’s unstoppable. Until that is, he faces Anna’s father, Professor Mallahide. Anna is the classmate of Chris. Chris is a 14-year old teenager and the Chosen One. Only together can they save the earth. Don’t panic! They’re working on it.

TIM is a world-ending spectacular show down. Professor Mallahide is a demented professor whose experiments in nanotechnology transform him into the first posthuman. Tim is the Godzilla who will chomp, wrestle and thwack the Mallahide from posthuman to posthumous. Shrugging off all conventional and nuclear attacks, humanity can only watch Mallahide and Tim turn London’s skyline into an apocalyptic landscape.

 It is also a book about misfits. Mallahide and Tim are the Frankensteins of secret Government research. Chris is an awkward teenager, always trying to be cool and in the right crowd. Anna, constantly moving in and out of secured Government housing, is the weird new girl at school that no one wants to partner and estranged from her father who is inevitably always working late. For me Anna is the central character. It is her struggle to make her father understand the consequences of his actions and to encourage Chris to accept his responsibilities upon which the plot turns.

Above all TIM is a fantastic novel. Sam Enthoven has written a fast-paced, action-packed thriller with great characters that meant I genuinely wanted a happy-ending. The author however keeps the reader and the world on the brink of Armageddon right up to the very last pages. A highly recommended read for readers aged 12+.

2008-04-19