Hi! My name is Nadia, I'm 20 years old and I'm italian. I first read Tomorrow, When the War Began some years ago and loved it. John Marsden's writing style fascinated me and got me hooked. I have never been a big reader but I bought the following books a couple of days later. What made me think instantly that this was an awesome series was Ellie's voice I started hearing in my head as soon as I opened the book. I thought that it was a great way to narrate a story and the character's developement in it is just brilliant.

The series was never translated in italian, only Tomorrow, When the War Began, so I had to buy the books online and read them in their original language and I can just say that it was the best way to enter into the world of Tomorrow. I don't think that a translation can do justice to the Australian slang or all the Australian references in these books.

I've always dreamt of having a website about the series so I kept hoping that one day I could run one, all by myself. Luckily enough, that day came when Gaia and I started talking on Nick's Tomorrow-Movies website and I found out that she was the awesome administrator of the first and only French source for the series, a site I visited a couple of years ago and loved it. She asked me to join our efforts and work together and I immediately said "YES!". As soon as we started creating the website we realised that there was a strong bond between the two of us and I think that it's reflected in our website's content. We've been working on it for so long and it's still not 100% complete yet, but it will be soon.

I hope you like the website. We put a lot of work into it and we'll make sure that we'll keep you updated on this brilliant series of books and films

Hi, my name is Justin, I'm 22 years old and I'm from Germany. I learned to know the Tomorrow-series by accident. One day in September, I was in the video rental shop looking for some interesting movies for the evening. Then I saw the cover of the Movie "Tomorrow When The War Began" and read the summary on the back and thougt 'that's the kind of story I like!'. So I rented it and enjoyed it so much, that I bought the blu-ray of the film and the first two books of the series, which had been translated into german, on the same evening. The third part (The Third Day, The Frost) had also been translated into german, but there were only few copies left, so it was very expensive. That is why i decided to read the remaining parts in original language. It was quite hard to get them for a reasonable price. Some I ordered from Australia, some from USA and some from UK. Now I have got the complete Series, including "The Ellie Chronicles" at home and can not stop reading. Currently I'm in "The Night Is For Hunting".

In my opinion this is one of the most astonishing series of books ever written! The story literally has become part of my life. I'm only wondering, why the series has not become quite popular in Germany.

And, yeah, I like the Website very much. I found it while google'ing for some german site. Also i didn't know, that Tomorrow has also been translated into polish, which is quite an interesting fact, the more as i also speak polish.

Greetings from Berlin!

Justin

just3042 wrote:

Hi, my name is Justin, I'm 22 years old and I'm from Germany. I learned to know the Tomorrow-series by accident. One day in September, I was in the video rental shop looking for some interesting movies for the evening. Then I saw the cover of the Movie "Tomorrow When The War Began" and read the summary on the back and thougt 'that's the kind of story I like!'. So I rented it and enjoyed it so much, that I bought the blu-ray of the film and the first two books of the series, which had been translated into german, on the same evening. The third part (The Third Day, The Frost) had also been translated into german, but there were only few copies left, so it was very expensive. That is why i decided to read the remaining parts in original language. It was quite hard to get them for a reasonable price. Some I ordered from Australia, some from USA and some from UK. Now I have got the complete Series, including "The Ellie Chronicles" at home and can not stop reading. Currently I'm in "The Night Is For Hunting".

In my opinion this is one of the most astonishing series of books ever written! The story literally has become part of my life. I'm only wondering, why the series has not become quite popular in Germany.

And, yeah, I like the Website very much. I found it while google'ing for some german site. Also i didn't know, that Tomorrow has also been translated into polish, which is quite an interesting fact, the more as i also speak polish.

Greetings from Berlin!

Justin

Hi Justin! Welcome to the website I am so glad that you like it!
My name is Nadia! It's very nice to meet a German fan! It's such a shame that the books aren't well-known there. In Italy we're in the same situation The Tomorrow Series is very successful only in Australia and New Zealand, I think the fact that the first book is introduced in high school helps a lot! The story is very 'Australian' so I am not surprised that they love it there! But it has something for everyone, it deserves to be more appeciated The release of the books should have been better advertised, same for the film! Oh, did I mention that I own the German Blu-Ray? I love that edition, with the deleted scenes and outtakes. As a fan of the books I felt that the scenes they cut out added so much to the movie. Who's your favorite character? Let us know that you think of The Night is for Hunting as soon as you finish it!
We're actually working on a Polish version! Two other friends joined Gaia and I (I run the English version and she runs the French one) and we'll be adding a Spanish and Polish version to the main website soon If you'd like to start a German one let us know
Yeah it's impressive how the books are doing well in Poland! They're translating the novels very quickly, I am sure they'll translate the Ellie Chronicles as well (which would be very rare, if you check out the gallery you'll see that it has been translated only in Swedish as a foreign language)
I see what you mean when you say how hard is to get the books at a reasonable price! The shipping is very expensive and yeah, the German translation is not available everywhere, I am surprised that you found a copy! I too read the series in English! I think that it's better in the original language: sometimes the translation loses some words or small elements that are still very important. I don't know if it's the same for the German translation, but the Italian one (only the first book) did a quite bad job. Again, welcome to the forum! ^^

Hi Nadia, nice to meet you! Thanks for the nice welcoming! I am so glad that I found a european fansite in the end. Yes, I agree with you on the fact that it's a shame that the series didn't become more popular in europe. As I told already, I ran into the movie by complete accident. I can't remember it being in the cinemas in germany. Maybe it's a bit due to the fact, that the first novel is a bit stigmatized as a children's book in germany. A good friend of mine is now beginning to read the series and actually likes it. I presume, there would be quite a number of people who would buy and read the series, if there was the possibility to buy it. This 'Australian'-ness is in fact one of the things I like most about the story.
About the german translation, I can tell, it is pretty stiff. It seems, that the translator had translated the australian language word by word, which sounds quite strange in german I think, I will buy the first and second part again in english, to be able to fully enjoy the story...
Yeah, this german blu-ray I also love it very much and I agree with you in that the deleted scenes better would have been stayed in the movie. But I can tell, as one who saw the movie before beginning to read the series, that, if you didn't know the novel, you would not miss them though. But they make the story a lot clearer.
Today I finished 'The Night is for Hunting' and I enjoyed it, as all the other parts, a lot! It ends on quite a cliffhanger, so I am burning to take 'The Other Side of Dawn' out of the cupboard and start to read. It's amazing though, how much the characters have developped since 'Tomorrow, when the War Began', especially in this part of the story, when they 'adopt' the feral kids. They suddenly have to bear so much more responsibility than the time before.
My favourite character is, I think, Ellie, although Lee's character fascinates me quite a lot, too. Who is yours?
About the german site, I really would love to run it, that would be great!
When i 'importet' my copies of the novels, I was quite lucky on the shipping costs, i paid average 9 € per book, including shipping.

Greatings!
Justin

Hello there !!

Sorry to be late, but finally I'm here !

Greatings Justin and welcome aboard You'll see, it's the hardest world but you'll like it !

just3042 wrote:

Hi Nadia, nice to meet you! Thanks for the nice welcoming! I am so glad that I found a european fansite in the end. Yes, I agree with you on the fact that it's a shame that the series didn't become more popular in europe. As I told already, I ran into the movie by complete accident. I can't remember it being in the cinemas in germany. Maybe it's a bit due to the fact, that the first novel is a bit stigmatized as a children's book in germany. A good friend of mine is now beginning to read the series and actually likes it. I presume, there would be quite a number of people who would buy and read the series, if there was the possibility to buy it. This 'Australian'-ness is in fact one of the things I like most about the story.
About the german translation, I can tell, it is pretty stiff. It seems, that the translator had translated the australian language word by word, which sounds quite strange in german I think, I will buy the first and second part again in english, to be able to fully enjoy the story...
Yeah, this german blu-ray I also love it very much and I agree with you in that the deleted scenes better would have been stayed in the movie. But I can tell, as one who saw the movie before beginning to read the series, that, if you didn't know the novel, you would not miss them though. But they make the story a lot clearer.
Today I finished 'The Night is for Hunting' and I enjoyed it, as all the other parts, a lot! It ends on quite a cliffhanger, so I am burning to take 'The Other Side of Dawn' out of the cupboard and start to read. It's amazing though, how much the characters have developped since 'Tomorrow, when the War Began', especially in this part of the story, when they 'adopt' the feral kids. They suddenly have to bear so much more responsibility than the time before.
My favourite character is, I think, Ellie, although Lee's character fascinates me quite a lot, too. Who is yours?
About the german site, I really would love to run it, that would be great!
When i 'importet' my copies of the novels, I was quite lucky on the shipping costs, i paid average 9 € per book, including shipping.

Greatings!
Justin

You're welcome!
I am not surprised that you got to know about the series accidentally! The film was released straight-on-DVD there, they didn't even try to release it in theaters. I think that if it had to end like in other countries (see Spain, where it was completely ignored :/) it's better this way, at least they didn't take any risks and lost anything. I believe that they tried to release it in Sweden but then they removed it from every cinema, which is very weird because the books were much-loved there. I wonder what happened! Is it possible that advertising helps a movie so much? A lot of fans were disappointed, and it's so surprising that it wasn't released in US and Canada! The books were pubblished by the same editor of the Harry Potter series! (Scholastic)
Wow, the books for children? It's not a very children-worthy material, is it? But yeah, I see what you mean, I am impressed because in Italy it was rated for 7/8 years old kids as well! I haven't checked out the original translation (back in 1998!) but I remember it being VERY short (the first book is about 300 pages, right? Well, the translation had only half of the pages O_o) and was probably censored in order to make it suitable for children. I also agree on it's Australian-ness, it's one of my favorite things about it. We don't get to hear much about Australia, do we? It's very interesting to read a story that focuses on such a beautiful and intriguing country It's very refreshing! Not to mean that John Marsden is intelligent enough to treat his characters in a very mature way, we don't see the stereotypical teens that we see nowadays but a group of people who appreciates the small things (especially during the war!) and knows what it means 'hard work'! I personally love the fact that they're from the country, it made things that weren't realistic (such as driving huge trucks ) more plausible and believable, it's not hard for me to believe that someone who grew up in the country would be able to drive pretty much anything!
Haha, I know, it's very annoying when they translate word-by-word! I hope that you'll enjoy the first two books even more once you read them in its original language Did you like The Dead of the Night? (The second one) I personally loved it, Lee's story arc fascinated me.
I too think that the movie is still great without the deleted scenes They add much more to the film if the viewer is a fan of the books, but if a normal viewer doesn't get to see them he/she would hardly miss them! For us fans of the series they're a very special extra I loved that part when they're on the top of Hell and talk about the Satan's Steps
Yeah, the way the characters change is amazing and unbelievable Homer was such a trouble-maker in the beginning and when he cared about the feral kids it felt weird but very sweet at the same time! I like that they found the time to create a Christmas atmosphere, after all the tension it was nice to see them taking their time to get things done! I hope that you'll enjoy The Other Side of Dawn, I was personally satisfied by the ending but other people weren't happy with it ... still, I warned you Not everyone read The Ellie Chronicles (I wonder how could they not be curious about three more follow-ups! The story didn't really end until Circle of Flight!) so they might be wrong being against The Other Side of Dawn ending I won't spoil you, that's all I am gonna say!
My favorite character is without a doubt Ellie! She's so inspiring, brave, intelligent and such a great character in many ways. You can't help falling in love with her Since the first line I felt like I was in the book and writing the story with her! She's a great role-model and very loyal to her friends. I also appreciate her flaws, she's not perfect and she knows it. It makes the whole thing very realistic and a human story. I completely agree, Lee is one of the most fascinating characters, his journey is unbelievable and I can see what he went through. I am not surprised that he grew more and more darker, when he found out that his parents were dead it must have been the end of him I have to add that I love every character so it's kinda hard to pick a favorite! They're all so relatable!
That's amazing! ^^ We'd be delighted to have you joining our team! We made a private section for us administrators of the various versions, you've got the access to it now so we can discuss about starting the German version! Gaia is working on it, she'll get the design and the base ready for you! ^^

Sorry, that I didn't write back for so long, but i'm quite busy at the moment... I'm glad to have got to know it in the end! Yesterday I finished 'The Other Side Of Dawn' and couldn't help myself starting immediately with 'While I Live'. You could imagine, what a shock I had in the middle of 'The Other Side Of Dawn' (I don't want actually to spoil occasional readers of this topic by telling which incident I mean, but I assume, you know anyway ) I actually was quite disappointed by that ant thought "this would be a really bad ending", but when it came to solution in the end, I was happy again, actually, I felt the same kind of luck that Ellie must have felt this moment
I can tell you this is such a great series! It's quite unusual, that an author tells the whole thing, right from the beginning, and even adds an after-the-happy-ending-story... The problems Ellie has to face in 'While I Live' (I'm already halfway through, as you can imagine ) are really realistic, I get quite a feeling of this whole situation of instability after the war. I have read pretty many books about second world war and the time short after, written by people, who were living in this time, and I can tell, John Marsden did a great job researching.
About 'The Dead Of The Night' I have to admit, I don't remember it in particular, because it's been quite a time since I read it and it was the second part of the german translation. But, you're right, Lee did really impress me in this part. Ellie's reactions to his doings were really interesting, too. It was a bit like she was stuck between the morals of the old times and the necessities of the war, she didn't want to accept, that they now had to do disgusting things to stay alive. I am going to give myself the first two parts in original language for christmas. I presume, it'll be a whole new experience, especially, as I am now quite familiar with the australian writing-style of John Marsden's.
I can share your experience of feeling like being in the book! It's kind of a little second world besides normal life, and, I think, when I will finally have finished 'The Ellie Chronicles', I would start again with 'Tomorrow, When the War Began'...
I'm also really delighted that you've given me the opportunity to be part of the team! Gaia told me how to set up the german site and I hope I will manage it in the next couple of days.

No problem, it's ok And forgive me back for writing you so late! I have been pretty busy with the Christmas decorations and stuff
Thank you for avoiding the spoilers, I think it's a great idea to not ruin the surprises for who hasn't read the books... yet! I too was shocked when I read that part and at the end of The Other Side of Dawn ... it felt very realistic, but also sad somehow! I cannot blame you for starting reading straightaway While I live I did the same! It's a good book and very sad in some parts and most of all very deep. I don't know which exact part you're reading right now but there's a very long scene that is unbelievably touching, it's in the quotes I have listed on the main website (If you have not finished it by now check it out once you've completed it! There might be spoilers!)
While I live was shocking already it its first two pages! Impressive, is it? But it's also the most realistc book IMHO. I love the fact that she returned to her farm life, but on the other hand everything has changed and it's not going to be the same anymore. When the war ends, you cannot expect to feel the peace and the stability any soon (as you said ). There's still a lot of things that should be sorted out and for Ellie things gets more and more difficult!
John Marsden is an excellent writer and not only in the way he tells the story but also for capturing the feelings of a teenager girl that is going through this hard time of her life. He did an excellent job at researching
Oh, you don't need to thank us We're delighted to have you on board! You seem very passioned about the series and it's all we need You can start as soon as you can, there's no hurry at all! Thank you again and I wish you good luck and hope you have fun with us!

Lol, Justin asked me if I would be online this WE in case of questions. I was (well… between the revises and me playing Uncharted…) but I didn't see him ! Then, I suppose everything's okay, then… Nadia asked me to come to her because she had something to tell me but… She still didn't ! Come on, Honey, you're overbooked

I'm on the last line until Xmas holidays, can't wait, I'll be working on Tomorrow on my spare time because I've got less job to do than previous holidays. I'm all sick and sleepy (and other things Nadia knows ) but I'll have time for Tomorrow ! Can't wait. But by the way, I need to speak about something with Nadia. I realized something about the host of our Tomorrow website. We're using already 11Mo on 25Mo allocated for our database. And we've got only two versions done. What will it be with all 5 versions ! I gotta find a way out. Or make some sacrifices "Youuu shall not EAT !"

This is time for week exams !!!! See ya fellows ! Love ya !

Well I havn't been at the computer for long this weekend, because I was so exhausted from the week, but I actually started getting used to this Wordpress-thing. By that time I have realised, that the whole site (including the admin-area) is pretty slow in germany. Anyway, I will see, which afternoons I've got time, but at the latest I am looking forward to get this done during my chistmas holidays.

Now I'm now halfway through with "Incurable". I am truly a bit disappointed every time I have to get off the train when I arrive at work or at home, because I have to stop reading... "While I Live" is truly sad in some parts, but it's got a very optimistic ending. I also love that she's returning to her farm life. It is quite interesting how she copes with all that.
What you tell, this capturing the feelings of the teenagers, is actually one of the things criticised in germany about the series... Thes say, things like feelings have no space in a war story. But I personally don't think so. In my opinion this huge bandwidth of different sides of the characters makes this story actually more than just a war story, but a whole portrait of the main characters' lives. And this is what makes the series worth reading, once, twice, or even more times.

I totally agree on what you're saying. Actually, The Ellie Chronicles are far more realistic then the Tomorrow Series. All the work Ellie and Gavin are giving with or without help, it's just fantastic how well it is described. Incurable, I think, is my favorite.

Why German are criticizing the feelings, I don't understand because that's what I haven't felt, actually, from the While I Live. I was shocked ! No feelings between the characters, Ellie was awful and they weren't communicating one with another. I couldn't believe this after all they've been through. That part disappointed me because I thought the way they fought during war would have brought them closer together. But actually, it's the opposite.

I cannot read something if there is no feelings. Beside ! If you listen to Ellie, Homer or the worst of them : Lee... You won't see a true feeling, just twisted feelings. On my opinion, Marsden made a really great job with this.