Synopses & Reviews
What if all of London were really an amusement park—a whole city returned to Victorian times to entertain visitors from the twenty-first century? That's the wildly original premise of Ian Beck's Pastworld, a high-stakes mystery set in a simulated past.
Eve is a lifelong resident of Pastworld who doesnt know shes living in a theme park until a mysterious threat forces her to leave home. Caleb is a visiting tourist who finds the lawlessness of the past thrilling—until he suddenly becomes a fugitive from an antiquated justice system. And in the midst of it all, in the thick London fog a dark and deadly figure prowls, claiming victim after victim. Hes the Fantom, a creature both of the past and of the present, in whose dark purpose Caleb and Eve will find their destinies combined.
Page-turning, complex, and haunting, Pastworld masterfully exposes the human experience of the past, of violence, of technology, and of entertainment.
Synopsis
Imagine London as a theme park, where Jack the Ripper is more than just another attraction. Narrow escapes, dark secrets, and moments of strange beauty converge to create a picture of a fascinating world within a world, offering a profound look at the thinning line between entertainment and reality.
Synopsis
What if Victorian London were an amusement park where the inhabitants were actors hired to entertain visitors from the twenty-first century? Now imagine if Jack the Ripper was a planned attraction gone horribly wrong. Life inside the park, Pastworld, is all Eve has ever known. But then she meets a tourist in terrible trouble. Their adventure through this dark and dangerous theme park is sure to grab teens in paperback.
About the Author
Ian Beck is one of the UK's most popular illustrators of children's books and his work appears frequently in magazines and advertisements. In his early years he paid the rent by working parttime in the toy department at Harrod's. Later, he got involved in the record industry, and painted the cover of one of the most popular records of all time: Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. This is his first YA novel. Ian lives in London with his wife, Emma Stone, and their three children.
Visit him online at www.buckland-corporation.com and www.past-world.com