The Green Futures of Tycho by Michael Crichton

There is a certain special class of books out there that many of us have read. The "YA," or "Young Adult" books. They tend to be about the experiences of younger people, from, say, eleven to fifteen, and are, on the whole, pretty good. We usually remember them throughout our adult lives. Authors like Judy Blume provide younger people a voice that says, "Your life is bizarre, and we understand."

Which probably explains why so many young adult books get banned from libraries. The Man doesn't want sympathizers talking to the kids.

But the majority of the YA books have to deal with real life problems and issues - family, school, parents splitting up, drugs, that sort of thing. These are the ones that have something of a double edge to them. When you're in fourth grade and reading Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, the story is very cool. You can relate to it. But come back to that book when you're 25, and the effect is gone.

Now the wierd YA books are nothing like that. The SciFi, the Fantasy, those are the ones that can, even after many years, still hold your attention. Such is the case with The Green Futures of Tycho.

The basic concept behind this story is easy. Eleven year old Tycho TIthonus finds a small, egg-shaped metal object while digging to start a vegetable garden. His siblings, jealous of his find (for no good reason other than he found something and won't show it to them), harass him. He presses his thumb down in just the right spot on the egg.... And a day has gone by.

Tycho discovers that he has a time machine on his hands, and decides to take it on a little joyride. He visits his own future, and finds that he does not grow up to be who he thought he would. But that's not the end of things. Every time he visits the future, he finds it nastier and uglier, and the person who is to be feared the most is himself. He encounters an older version of him, each time more insane, and plotting the way for.... something to come to earth.

The book is very short. You can pull it off in an evening. But in such a short book, there's a lot to miss.

Every time Tycho comes back from the future, his knowledge of it makes him say something, or do something, which changes that future. He plants the seeds of his own destruction every time he time travels, and doesn't understand what is happening until he sees his sister vanish before his eyes, erased from time because his older self drowned her as an infant.

Sleator incorporates a lot of dynamics into making this book work as well as it does. First off, let me remind you of the "Eleven year-old Boy" rule, as pointed out when I reviewed IT - if the story will center around a young person, that young person will inevitably be eleven years old. For many reasons, all of which can be seen in Green Futures. Tycho is rational enough to put pieces together and see where he goes wrong, but still enough of a dumbshit kid to make mistakes that almost hang him. He has to balance the responsibility of the power he has acquired with the burning desire to tinker with the space-time continuum. And in the end, he has to put it all to right, even if it kills him.

Tycho's family is an interesting bunch as well. All named in accordance with what their parents wanted them to be - Leonardo (an artist), Ludwig (a musician), Tamara (a dancer) and Tycho (an astronomer) - the four are in almost constant battle with each other to be the best. The only thing the elder three can agree upon is that none of them like their youngest brother, Tycho. That and their parents insist on the kids calling them Bobby and Judy instead of Mom and Dad, and any parents that do that are just touched, if you ask me.

A tangent, while we're talking about names - "Tithonus" is the name of a man in Greek mythology. It seems that he was a very beautiful young man, and was rather intent on staying that way. So he asked the gods for immortality and the gods (being pretty generous about those things back then) agreed. But he didn't mention anything about eternal youth. So he just kept getting older and older and older until they took pity on him and turned him into a cicada, which just goes to prove that maybe there are some gods you should just steer clear of.... But that kind of "be careful what you wish for" atmosphere hangs over this book.

Suffice it to say, this book has stuck with me for a long time. It's probably been a good fifteen years since I first read it, and I still read it every now and again. It was the first time travel book I ever read, and that in and of itself is a blessing, since it's introduced me to so many other good time travel books. Plus, because of it I read even more William Sleator, such as Interstellar Pig, House of Stairs (which is a mindfuck for any age reader, not just a kid), and Singularity. And there are so many more.

I was inspired to read up on Tycho Brahe, an astronomer whose observations provided the groundwork for the men who would make astronomy into a true science - Kepler and Galileo - despite his being a complete asshole who lost his nose in a duel. Despite his accomplishments, though, he is rarely given a mention in high school science texts.

In high school, I began to put quotes up on the chalkboard in the band room, signing them only as "Tycho," and the name has stuck with me ever since. In a bizarre way, I owe a part of who I am to this book, and so it'll always occupy a place on my shelf.

If you can find a copy, I would suggest buying one. It's out of print, I believe, but there is always a way....