Changes

If anything I think the race-against-time side of the book is a bit more successful than the comedy. I did laugh - especially at the dinosaur's thought-bubble - but Griffiths seemed to go for a gag-for-everyone approach (witness the PM's name, which few youngsters will get) and not a sustained level for one particular target audience. That said, there is a good levity throughout, as opposed to joke-telling, and in among the sort of slapstick Douglas Adams style there is enough to make this enjoyable. This might be book two of three, five or more, but this is definitely a marker for a vivid, imaginative, pacey series, and one I can recommend.

[[Tommy Storm and the Galactic Knights by A J Healy]] covers very similar territory for a slighter older audience, with more parodies than you can shake a Babel-fish at.