A fantastic climax to the Missing Link trilogy Origins is written as two intertwined, parallel narratives. The first, which takes the form of a diary written by Christie at Fourth World around the year 2009, follows the fortunes of Maggie and Bernard and their assorted group of children and gifted animals. The stone which Christie has carried back from the yeti's cave (see Only Human) proves fatal. It releases an alien presence (the Yoke) which takes over the smallholding and laboratory of Fourth World and by its efforts to return to its own planet, destroys both human beings and the environment worldwide. There are few survivors but of those who do remain, two are newborn twins, Ogden and Atticus, who carry a dog and cat gene, the latest and last experiment by Maggie and Bernard in their genetic engineering research. The second narrative takes place far into the future, in a changed world where nuclear devastation and disease has reduced mankind virtually to the stone age scenario. Nessa and Farral from the warring Cat and Dog tribes are thrown together and eventually become tolerant of each other in their travels across wild mountains and nuclear waste. Terminating their journey among a small group of inhabitants in the very far north, they find that Christie's diary has survived and been preserved by this group of people. It is of course the key to the reader of this 'new world' set up. An extraordinary and compelling resolution to the story. Kate Thompson's final volume in the Missing Link trilogy is startlingly dramatic in construction and disturbingly thought provoking in content.

 

 

This book is part of a book series called The Missing Link Trilogy .

There are 368 pages in this book.

It is aimed at Young Adult readers. The term Young Adult (YA) is used for books which have the following characteristics: (1) aimed at ages 12-18 years, US grades 7-12, UK school years 8-15, (2) around 50-75k words long, (3) main character is aged 12-18 years, (4) topics include self-reflection, internal conflict vs external, analyzing life and its meaning, (5) point of view is often in the first person, and (6) swearing, violence, romance and sexuality are allowed.

This book was published in 2003 by Penguin Random House Children's UK .

Kate Thompson lives in Ireland where she has worked a smallholding for ten years. She has two daughters. She is a fanatical player of the fiddle and an obsessive gardener.