TAKEDOWN

(Catnip - ISBN: 978 1 84647 022 6)

Originally titled Skitzo, and published in 1997 by Scholastic, this story of intrigue, time travel and how to cope with having your half your mind hi-jacked by a man from the future, got its new name because, in the intervening decade, the old one was now considered non-PC. What can I say? I don’t dislike the new title, but see the review below…

Reviews

‘Takedown? What does that mean then? It means nothing to me, which is why the book stayed on the shelf for so long. Pity, because it’s exciting stuff, if you enjoy time travel and saving the world stories.
  They say that time travel can’t be possible because if it were, we would be tripping over time travellers every time we turned round in the street. So, perhaps we have the answer here…when Dachron Amok is selected to travel six hundred years back in time, to the practically prehistoric year of 2007, they don’t send all of him back. They just send his mind, or essence, or soul. Obviously, this isn’t a simple matter because a mind needs a body to park in when it lands. If the tech department knew what they were doing they might choose a suitable, cooperative host body, but this time the procedure goes wrong. And Dachron Amok wakes up in the body of Steve Anthony, 16, and hung over, though it was a brilliant party.
  A big mistake has been made, and it matters, because Dachron Amok has a job to do. He has to save the world, which in the year 2667 is falling apart. All Dachron has to do is nip back in time and point out to the inventor his little mistake in the formula. Can Steve and Dachron save the world? Or will it collapse in the year 2667? Great little adventure story, and it might make you think a bit too.’
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‘On the rollercoaster ride of electrified imagination Graham Marks takes us to the year 2667 to save the plant from universal destruction. Six hundred and sixty years ago Simon Tellkind invented a perfect system to supply the world with power. However as the USS scientists discover a fault in the equations it is simply ripping the universe apart. Selected for his skills in unarmed combat, anti-terrorist tactics, guerrilla warfare and backed by a rumour of being mildly psychopathic, Dachron Amok seems like the perfect candidate to take a journey across time and space to amend Tellkind’s mistake. The vital operation meets a beguiling hitch as Dachron finds himself sharing the body of sixteen year old Steven Anthony. Flying at a tremendous pace Takedown has a relentless thrill-seeking quality able to enrapture even the most reluctant readers. The attention-grabbing suspense is supplied through short chapters, mischievous one-liners and paced action. Sit back and enjoy Graham Mark’s brief twirl through the realms of terrific sc-fi.’

John Lloyd, Waterstone’s Bath