Joe MeyersOne of the best things about doing the ‘Book Beat’ column for the Sunday Arts & Travel section of the paper is the way it has introduced me to the work of so many writers I might not have experienced if I didn’t need to do research before I interview them.The column has forced me to read – and enjoy – several ‘chick lit’ writers who should be read by men as well as women, including the smart and funny Westport novelist Jane Green who moved from her native London several years ago and has since written about Fairfield County with as much insight as any native.Last week, I read Patrick Carman’s ‘Atherton: The House of Power’ (Little, Brown) to prepare for a phone interview with the 41-year-old young adult novelist who lives in Walla Walla, Washington. I was completely captivated by his story of an artificial world created a century from now when pollution and mechanization has made our planet virtually uninhabitable.The book is being marketed with a teen audience in mind, but the quality of Carman’s writing and storytelling puts many so-called ‘adult’ writers to shame.I don’t like it when someone simplifies a new book by comparing it with old ones, BUT Carman manages to pull together some of the elements that have made the Tolkien stories and J.K. Rowling’s books so popular – mythical worlds, children as adventurers – with his own distinctive style. ‘Atherton’ is the first of a three volume saga and I can’t wait for the next two chapters of this wonderful story. And rather than rail against the inroads made by the Internet and other new media, Carman has created a Website and CD-Rom that complement his book in an exciting way. 10 or 20 years ago, readers would visualize a movie version of their favorite books. Now, there are ways to augment books visually and aurally without the compromises that often result when Hollywood steps in to dramatize a novel.If you have children, read “Atherton” with them, if you don’t have kids, savor it on your own.(Patrick Carman will be speaking on April 3 at 3:30 p.m. at Just Books & Arcadia Coffee, 28 Arcadia Road in Greenwich. He maintains his own Website at www.patrickcarman.com and the new site devoted to Atherton be found at www.unlockdrhardingsbrain.com)

One of the best things about doing the ‘Book Beat’ column for the Sunday Arts & Travel section of the paper is the way it has introduced me to the work of so many writers I might not have experienced if I didn’t need to do research before I interview them.The column has forced me to read – and enjoy – several ‘chick lit’ writers who should be read by men as well as women, including the smart and funny Westport novelist Jane Green who moved from her native London several years ago and has since written about Fairfield County with as much insight as any native.Last week, I read Patrick Carman’s ‘Atherton: The House of Power’ (Little, Brown) to prepare for a phone interview with the 41-year-old young adult novelist who lives in Walla Walla, Washington. I was completely captivated by his story of an artificial world created a century from now when pollution and mechanization has made our planet virtually uninhabitable.The book is being marketed with a teen audience in mind, but the quality of Carman’s writing and storytelling puts many so-called ‘adult’ writers to shame.I don’t like it when someone simplifies a new book by comparing it with old ones, BUT Carman manages to pull together some of the elements that have made the Tolkien stories and J.K. Rowling’s books so popular – mythical worlds, children as adventurers – with his own distinctive style. ‘Atherton’ is the first of a three volume saga and I can’t wait for the next two chapters of this wonderful story. And rather than rail against the inroads made by the Internet and other new media, Carman has created a Website and CD-Rom that complement his book in an exciting way. 10 or 20 years ago, readers would visualize a movie version of their favorite books. Now, there are ways to augment books visually and aurally without the compromises that often result when Hollywood steps in to dramatize a novel.If you have children, read “Atherton” with them, if you don’t have kids, savor it on your own.(Patrick Carman will be speaking on April 3 at 3:30 p.m. at Just Books & Arcadia Coffee, 28 Arcadia Road in Greenwich. He maintains his own Website at www.patrickcarman.com and the new site devoted to Atherton can be found at www.unlockdrhardingsbrain.com)

Patrick Carman sees himself as a “book evangelist” as well as a best-selling author of such young-adult novels as “The Dark Hills Divide” and “The Tenth City.”The writer is no Luddite, however. Rather than rail against the Internet, video games and the iPod, Carman has tried to find ways to bring old media and new together.”Atherton: The House of Power” (Little, Brown) is Carman’s latest novel – a thrilling combination of fantasy, science fiction and cautionary tale that will entertain any reader (of any age) who picks it up.Carman has given the book an added 21st-century dimension by including a bonus CD-ROM inside the back cover and he and his publisher have created Web sites that allow readers to dig deeper into the world of the novel.”This is a topic I know a little bit about,” Carman said, in a Wednesday phone interview, of the inroads new media are making on children’s leisure time.”I’ve visited 406 schools in the last three years & and things are changing so fast for young people,” the writer added from his home in Walla Walla, Wash.Earlier generations faced many distractions, too – movies, television, comic books – but these days many kids have electronic gizmos that put them in touch with an unprecedented array of home entertainment options.And yet, as Carman said, “the numbers bear out” the fact that many books are still being bought by children and their parents. In July, a publishing industry record will be set when the new “Harry Potter” book gets a first printing of 12 million copies.What books can bring children (and readers of all ages), the author stressed, is a “quiet” contemplative experience “amidst all of the noise” of contemporary pop culture.”There is a link between literature and achievement,” Carman said of the special imaginative experience of reading vs. the passive action of letting other media wash over you.”My idea with ‘Atherton’ was to create a bridge,” the author said of the Web sites and CD-ROM that augment the experience of reading the book [and vice versa].”Atherton” follows a boy named Edgar who lives in a seemingly ancient world divided into three parts – the Flatlands, Tabletop and the Highlands.Edgar is a serf-like worker in Tabletop, who secretly climbs the rock faces that lead up to the Highlands (where the rulers of Atherton live).The book’s narrative kicks into high gear after Edgar finds a book left for him in one of the cliffs that explains the mysteries behind Atherton.This happens as the three different levels of the planet begin shifting and it becomes apparent that Atherton will soon be one flat world and that the creatures known as “the cleaners,” who were restricted to the Flatlands, will then be set loose on the human populations of Tabletop and the Highlands.We learn that Atherton is an artificial world – revolving around the Earth – that was created as a retro-escape from the mechanization and pollution of our own planet in the 22nd century.”Atherton” was inspired by Carman’s reading of “Frankenstein” and “The Turn of the Screw” – the first for its cautionary take on man playing God and the second for the way the Henry James story’s “intensity gets tighter and tighter.”A few years ago, Carman returned from an especially long book tour with his family and was “completely burned out.”In the middle of the trip, he started to think about global warming “and the fact that we’re plowing through so much gas & and here I was driving a van that got about five miles to the gallon.”Carman felt a weird letdown after he got back to his home in Washington.”I was literally walking the streets of Walla Walla reading ‘Turn of the Screw’ and ‘Frankenstein,’” the author recalled, with a laugh.That big question of what is going to happen to our planet in the next century was nagging at Carman as he created Atherton and its inhabitants.”I believe in open conversations with kids and at some point we have to engage young people with the process,” the writer said of making young people aware of our limited resources and environmental stresses.Carman hopes the environmental warnings in “Atherton” – and the two sequels that are already set to be published-are packaged in an old-fashioned page-turner that will be enjoyed by children of all ages.Patrick Carman will be talking about “Atherton: The House of Power” on April 3 at 3:30 p.m. at Just Books & Arcadia Coffee, 28 Arcadia Road, Greenwich. For more information call 637-0707.The author has a Web site at www.patrickcarman.com and the site devoted to the new book is www.unlockdrhardingsbrain.com.

In this launch title of the Atherton series, as with his The Dark Hills Divide, Carman creates an isolated world whose very existence relies upon the hero venturing out of bounds. A trio of waterfalls connect the three-tiered world of Atherton, which is comprised of the upper-level Highlands, where the wealthy and powerful reside, the agrarian Tabletop beneath it, and the poverty-stricken Flatlands “at the distant bottom.” Eleven-year-old Edgar lives in Tabletop, harvesting figs and scaling the cliff walls. A faint memory directs him to search for something hidden (“It will come for you,” says the voice in his memory)and he discovers it on the way to the forbidden Highlands. Edgar’s discovery is a book, and he must enlist the help of a Highlands servant boy to read it to him (the residents of Tabletop are illiterate); thus the author points out the importance of cooperation. The book, it turns out, was written for Edgar and offers up a cautionary tale: Atherton was built as a home for escapees of an Earth-like “Dark Planet,” now poisoned and dying. With subtlety, Carman delivers a strong message; he constructs a world in which water is precious above all, and tampering with nature always ends badly. The author occasionally breaks out of the narrative to address readers directly, and these intrusions mar the flow of what is otherwise a fluid and compelling fantasy and mystery. Ages 8-12. (May)