Changes

|title=Mortal Chaos

|author=Matt Dickinson

|borrow=Yes

|isbn=978-0192757135

|pages=286

|publisher=Oxford University Press

|date=February 2012

|website=http://www.mattdickinson.com/

|summary=A dynamic adventure that gives you chaotically intertwined storylines, and thrills throughout. The blurb of my review copy sums it up as ''The book Jack Bauer would have read as a teenager'' – I can't really beat that.

}}

''Mortal Chaos'' is a powerful name, and it's perfectly apt for a book that describes a day in the lives of many characters, some from different countries, some adults and some children, some set for a typical mundane day while for others the day will be the definition of chaos. As the narrative rapidly alternates between the stories of these varied characters, it soon becomes apparent that they are all connected. How, you would think, could the day of a jockey, an airline pilot, a mountain climber on Everest, two boys exploring a forest, a boy in Africa, a thief, a gambler, a television crew, and an insane man with murder in his mind, all be connected? They don't know each other but the lives of all of these characters on this fateful day, depends on the actions of each other. Some will find themselves in life-threatening situations, while others will inadvertently end up causing them!

I understand the author's motivation for keeping the length of the book reasonably short; spending more time on building up characters might have slowed down the pacing and lessened the intensity of the story. However, I think that more character development and fleshing out of the backgrounds of the various personalities would have helped the characters feel a lot more interesting and real. If more of a chance to really connect with the characters had been provided, the conclusion could've been so much more intense and meaningful.

[[Monsters of Men (Chaos Walking) by Patrick Ness]], which also features an alternating narrative, is the conclusion to a brilliantly original series, which I would highly recommend to those looking for intense reads. [[Danger Zone: The Devil's Breath by David Gilman]] is another piece of high-octane fiction that those who enjoy ''Mortal Chaos'' might find entertaining.

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