We Are Tam

Patricia Bernard (author)

Eldorado Publishing, Australia: 1994; 131pp

ISBN: 1864120185

Genres: adventure, science fiction

Issues: friendship, family, relationships

Tamarisk Woodward, known as Tam, is an ordinary high school student living an ordinary life - until the day that she is contacted by Tameron, her mirror image in the 25th century. Tameron's father is dying and only Tam and her sceptical brother, Steven, can help.

In the 25th century memories of the past are forbidden. "Now is now and forever will be now," is the maxim that Tameron has been taught at school. So when her father, Darwei, teaches her that Oldcit, the ugly ruins in the middle of Newcit, are in fact relics from past centuries, she is both frightened and fascinated. Darwei feels that by denying the past his people are in fact endangering their future. He is caught entering Oldcit in search of a time capsule that will force the Elders who govern his society to recognise that the past does exist, and carries lessons for their world. Completely humiliated by his punishment - loss of all privileges, job and status - Darwei ‘comarises' in an effort to recover. When he doesn't wake up, Tameron realises that he is dying. The only way that she can think of to save him is to take up his cause, to prove that the past is real. To do that she needs help, which is why she contacts Tam.

Somewhere in what, five thousand years before, was the city of Sydney, Tameron must find the evidence to clear her father's name. Tam and Steven, doing their best to help her, find that an eccentric professor in their own time is somehow at the centre of things. Will they be able to convince him to help them? Will Tameron be able to overcome her terrible fear of the dark to enter Oldcit when the time comes? And will Darwei ever wake up?

This is a fast paced time-slip adventure that will appeal to young Science Fiction readers. Although the characters are rather too similar in personality - even Steven - there is plenty of page-turning action and suspense. Don't expect much in the way of subtext - this is simply designed to be an entertaining adventure.

Same Author: Riddle of the Trumpalar (Patricia Bernard Waite)