Val
Tyler
Books
Shadows Beyond
Shadows Beyond - for Young Adults and all fans of fantasy and dystopian epics.
Tagg is a thief and the last person Emtani would turn to for help, but she has no choice if she is to save her enslaved sister from the death-factories of the City. When Tagg and his uncompromising brother, Zeff, defy the ruthless Judge, Emtani is drawn into a web of half-truths and treachery. Their only hope lies in the uncertain world of shadows.
The Greenwich Chronicles
The Time Wreccas (2005)
Humans
always rush around claiming that they do not have enough time, but no
one thinks of guarding it. This is the job of the Guardians. When the
Wreccas (troublesome beings that live in the Underneath) send young
Snot to Topside to steal the Tick from the Guardians, little do they
know that they threaten to stop time forever, and little does Snot know
that Topside is full of possibilities and second chances...
The Time Wreccas is the first book of the Greenwich Chronicles and was nominated for the inaugural Ottakar's Book Prize.
The Time Apprentice (2006)
The second book
of the Greenwich Chronicles, The Time Apprentice
continues the adventures of Sofi, Tid and Old Father Tim as they race
against time to save the Earth.
Read reviews of the Greenwich Chronicles below.
Translated into thirteen languages and published in many
countries, The Greenwich Chronicles have fans all over the world.
Reviews
If you like your books stuffed full of heart-stopping
excitement, fantastical worlds and weird and wonderful characters, you
should get yourself a copy of Val Tyler’s brilliant new novel The
Time Wreccas so that you can read all about their
unbelievable adventures.
-Chingford Guardian
I bought The Time Wreccas
to read to my primary school class. I have not known a book to so take
their imagination since I read a previous class The
Philosopher’s Stone. The children love the characters,
especially Tid and Sofi. There is always a sigh of regret when I have
to stop reading to them. Quite a few of the children have now bought
their own copies as I am obviously not reading it fast enough.
-Literacy teacher from Northampton
This is the perfect fantasy for the grunge generation and the
very promising start of a trilogy.
-Pitshanger Books
I fear I may be beaten to death by rampaging muggles for
saying it, but I think Harry Potter is hugely overrated. Give me Philip
Pullman or Val Tyler any day – if I ate sausages I’d try and buy the
ones without the cereal because I’d be after the meat rather than the
rubbish that pads it out. Anyway, that aside, this is a rollickingly
good read for eight to twelve year olds, or indeed anyone who
appreciates the idea of a parallel world. The Guardians look after time
for all people. Humans always rush around claiming that they don’t have
enough time (sound familiar?) but no one thinks to try and guard it. In
every region of the world there is one person in charge of time – in
Greenwich it is Old Father Tim. The Wreccas populate the Underneath
(below ground) and want to disrupt the orderly lives of the Guardians.
They send Snot Topside (above ground) to wreak havoc, but little do
they know that she will feel more at home with the Guardians than she
does with the Wreccas and she’ll make a firm friend in Tid, Old Father
Tim’s grandson. Nor do they know that Snot’s actions could cause time
to stop for ever. A clever book that will keep kids riveted to every
page. Stand back Master Potter.
-Evening News (Norwich)
This is the first in an exhilarating new series ‘The Greenwich Chronicles’Primary Times in Northamptonshire (*Star read)
Fantasy books set in an imaginary version of a
real place are always fun, and offer an extra
dimension if the reader knows the location. Even if
they are not intimately acquainted with Greenwich Park, the Meridian
Line, the Cutty Sark (the 'Great Ship' of the
story) or Blackheath, readers will probably heard of some of them,
maybe even seen pictures. If you actually know it, it's an
amazing bonus. For all readers, however, the use of a real place in a
familiar world somehow adds to the fantasy, making it more tangible,
frightening and possible rather than distancing it in a fictional and
unrecognizable location.
Val Tyler's book, ostensibly concerned with the desperate race to
recover and return the stolen Tick, which keeps time going, to its
master clock at the Observatory in time for the new Millennium,
provides an exciting adventure in painstakingly described Underneath
and Topside worlds.
At a deeper level, however, The Time Wreccas
examines some far more serious subjects: abuse, bullying, compassion,
ethnicity, and family relationships, particularly the nature of
belonging and responsibility. The Guardians are all that is
noble and right, the Wreccas all that is evil and wrong.
Yet from each come those who break the norms: young Tid, who is
hoodwinked by Snot into revealing Old Father Tim's workshop; Sheldon,
the Guardian boy from a dysfunctional family, who wants to join the
Wreccas; Snot, the Wrecca who hates the casual cruelty of her
Underneath existence, and longs for the love and justice she
experiences when she ventures Topside as Sofi; and Snivel, who hates
his Wrecca existence but cannot yet accept the compassionate Guardian
life.
-Review by Bridget Carrington
The Time Wreccas is an exciting fantasy adventure that is
absorbing right from the start… there’s a surprise around every corner.
-Poppi
Fantastic read and my tip for children’s book of 2005
-eBay
A romping good read – more
please!
-Ottakars
A fascinating fantasy.
-Kid’s Zone, Yorkshire Evening Post
Vividly imagined. Fun to read.
-Japan Times
A clock-stopping new adventure that will capture the hearts of
all fantasy fans.
-Puffin
The comfortable narrative voice gently nudges the reader
through a delightfully inventive series of adventures.
-The Bookseller
Brilliantly written fantasy from the first time author, Val
Tyler.
-York Evening Press
Brilliant new novel
-Wanstead and Woodford Guardian
Brilliantly written fantasy. Grubby fun!
-hoppersonline.com
