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  • Tomorrow, When the War Began

  • Tomorrow Series #1
  • By: John Marsden
  • Narrated by: Suzi Dougherty
  • Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (644 ratings)

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Tomorrow, When the War Began cover art

Tomorrow, When the War Began

By: John Marsden
Narrated by: Suzi Dougherty
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Publisher's Summary

While Ellie and her friends are away in the bush, the world changes. Suddenly they are in the toughest situations humans can confront, facing life and death decisions. They are thrown into a world where they find courage, initiative, spirit, and wisdom, or they die.

The first of an enormously popular series that has been translated and published all over the world.

Don't miss the other titles in John Marsden's Tomorrow series.
©1995 Jomden Pty Ltd. (P)1999, 2001 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd, by arrangement with Jomden Pty Ltd.

Critic Reviews

"A gripping tale, told with Marsden's customary incisiveness." (Publishers Weekly)
"Fast-paced and provocative, it's a natural for book talking." (School Library Journal)

What listeners say about Tomorrow, When the War Began

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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Performance
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Story
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  • 4 Stars
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  • 3 Stars
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Love this series, pity about the narrator

I re-read this series every few years and love the story. It is a great series and I strongly commend it. As others have said if you love Red Dawn (the 80s version) this is a great series. That said the narrator's inconsistent and incorrect pronunciation really became an annoyance for me, distracting from the overall experience.

I am surprised that other people have positively rate the narrator's ability to voice each character, I found this to be a weakness. I guess we all perceive and experience things differently, this narrator is not to my taste.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Easy reading/Simple language

Any additional comments?

The book was OK. I mean it's the first in the series, and i would not mind to read the other parts. Very easy language, without too much of detailing and descriptions; easy to follow. the story line is interesting.
However, not sure if I can listen to any more of Suzi's performance...I did not enjoy it for a few reasons:
- she does these smacking sounds with her tongue/mouth after each sentence/pause, so if you don't like anybody chewing in your ear - this is very annoying;
- she tries to slow her speech intentionally, to make it clearer, but it feels like she's overdoing it.. like telling a story to a toddler..The other thing i found confusing is that the pitch of her voice makes the teenagers of this book sound like 10 yo kids.. So in my mind i had a picture of either way too smart kids or a bit "slow" teens, which was kind of annoying as well;
- a few times Suzi would get to a bit faster pace, but then the words are all mumbled..

I'll give it a rest and probably read more of the books from the series or just watch a movie but probably won't listen any more books, read by Suzi..

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Terrible Narration

One of my favourite australian novels and i wanted to re read it but i thought itd be easier to listen.... the narrator’s completely inappropriate racist accent for Lee ruined the entire atmosphere... not to mention homer’s accent. a white woman putting on fake asian accents is so inappropriate :( really sad about how she took me straight out of the illusion every time Lee or Homer talk.. :(

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

narrator not a Rural.

good book but I laughed when the narrator pronounced ag bikes as "Aye gee bikes.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Awesome book, A What if Book 10 out of 10

This story could happen to us, with our natural resources, but our own Government are behind the times with national Defense, if we did get invaded, the war would be a guerrilla, type war hit and run, , attacking infrastructure, rail bridges, power, road bridges, and to stop there resupply.
The would be fought by all ages, love the story.
I sat and listen for the whole 7 hours while modeling, I'm a old warhorse, love these stories and the movies, its a bloody shame that the second story, movie was not made it would have been good, cheers, I own a couple of the books, easy to listen, Awesome read, Cheers

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Engaging story, format is annoying.

This is an established popular teen fiction book. I purchased this audiobook to use alongside a printed copy of the book. I was hoping to listen to a chapter at a time. Unfortunately, the way the audiobook version works, it divides the book into seven "chapters" (read sections), with no information on how to locate the individual chapters. Trying to forward to the appropriate part of the book is clunky on the current app. I hope that this will be something the makers of the app consider for future improvement.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Sensational

Incredible book, im ready to get into the rest of the series now. So much better than the movie was

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars
  • D20
  • 21-05-2020

Read again as a teacher

I remember reading this book in school and hating it, possibly because I was too young (year 6) and did not understand what was happening. However after teaching this to year 9 students, it has given me a new appreciation for the book. I think I will always have an underlining grudge against this book, based on my memories from school. But it is a great introduction for novel studies for lower high school levels. Student's enjoy the action and the characters. It provides kids with good role models and is a great example of Australian fiction, that Australian kids can relate to.
Though the narrator's 'Asian' accent was really off pointing.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Tex
  • 12-10-2015

love this book

I was made to read this at school and fell in love. now I play the book on long drives to keep me going love every bit of it

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • lee
  • 30-01-2015

Loved it

Such a great story, can't wait to read the next one in the series :) great australian work, such an easy listen

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1 person found this helpful

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