Book Review: Before Tomorrowland

This book is a prequel of sorts to the movie Tomorrowland, though not having seen that yet I’m not quite sure where it will fit in.  It took me awhile to get into this book – it started off with a couple of different plot lines that didn’t really come together until about 1/3 of the way through, and only then did it start making sense.  Before that it was just a little bit all over the place.

There’s Henry, the boy-turned-robot that wants revenge on the people that made him an emotionless monster.  Then you have the Nazis, who are trying to usurp the technology of Tomorrowland for their own means.  And you have those who invented the technology – an interesting group of real people, geniuses and creative minds of their time such as Amelia Earhart, Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla, and H.G. Wells.  And finally you have your everyday citizens, a mother and her son, who accidentally get caught in the middle of everything.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is really into sci-fi, as well as Disney fans curious about the upcoming movie.  If you’re not familiar with reading science fiction, just be aware that some of the jargon might be a little bit confusing at first.  You’re thrown into the middle of a situation that you don’t know all of the details yet, and non-sci fi readers may be thrown a little at first.

The writing itself is okay, though nothing special.  Aside from some of the issues mentioned above, like the pace in the beginning and the confusion, there were also a number of obvious typos (at least in my copy of the book).  These were a little bit distracting in the beginning.  Even to the extent where a paragraph was repeated twice, which I would think is something that really should have been caught by editors.

There’s also a 20 page comic book in the back, which is full of fun illustrations and ties into the story nicely (as said comic book is actually something that the characters in the story read).  I would actually recommend reading the comic first, or at least once you’re a little bit into the book, because I felt like I had a better understanding of what they were talking about and referencing once I had read that.

At least now I feel like I have a basis for what the movie will be about.  Sometimes Sci-Fi stuff confuses me, so I’m glad to have an understanding of what Tomorrowland is before going into the film.  I also got to see a sneak peek of the movie at Epcot, so I’m excited to see the film when it comes out!

Are you looking forward to Tomrrowland?  Do you have any interest in reading this book?