The Supernaturalist
 Cover of the British edition | |
| Author | Eoin Colfer |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction, adventure |
| Publisher | Puffin (UK); Miramax (US) |
Publication date | 2004 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover), audiobook |
| Pages | 290 (UK); 267 (US) |
| ISBN | 0141380403 |
| OCLC | 892527255 |
| Followed by | The Supernaturalist 2 |
The Supernaturalist is a science fiction novel by Irish author Eoin Colfer. The work was influenced by film noir and other predecessors of the cyberpunk science fiction movement. Colfer has outlined plans for a sequel, The Supernaturalist 2.
Characters
- Cosmo Hill – Found on Cosmonaut Hill, from which he was named. He was sent to the Clarissa Frayne Institute for Parentally Challenged Boys. He was almost killed on an escape attempt along with his best friend (Francis "Ziplock" Murphy), but Cosmo was "saved" by a group of kids who at the time still believed that the Parasites fed on life force, and not pain. He was 14 years old when recruited into the group. Although he has no experience as a medic or spotter, he saves Mona Vasquez a number of times.
- Stefan Bashkir – Stefan is an eighteen-year-old of Russian descent with spiky black hair, presumably short. His mother was killed in a car accident, later revealed to be due to a bomb planted on the car by Ellen Faustino. He has the worries of someone much older than he is, despite being so young. He also the leader of the Supernaturalists.
- Mona Vasquez – A Latina girl, she is a former member and ex-mechanic of the Sweethearts, a street racing gang. She is 15 years old and the love interest of Cosmo. Although she denies it, Ditto is sure that Mona has feelings for Cosmo as well. She has brown hair and other Latina features, such as dark eyes. She also has a DNA strand tattooed above one eyebrow.
- Lucien "Ditto" Bonn – A "Bartoli Baby" being the product of the gene splicing experiments done by a Dr. Bartoli 28 years before the story began. He suffers several mutations because of the experiments, such as arrested physical development (Ditto is 28 years old but appears to be about six). Ditto has "healing hands" (the ability to take the pain from a person or animal's body) and is a spotter. He pointed out to the rest of the Supernaturalists near the book's end that the Parasites actually feed on human pain, not on human life force as thought earlier (Ditto was caught by Mona deliberately cutting his finger and offering the pain to a parasite, proving that he knew this secret all along but never told anyone). He is the medic of the group, and does not fight the Parasites, claiming he is a pacifist. He is the first one to go in the group, since Stefan was the one who created the group.
- Ellen Faustino – The evil mastermind who manipulates the Supernaturalists into helping her catch Parasites. Former Instructor at the Police Academy, she is now President of the Development section in Myishi Corp., and was responsible for the death of Stefan's mother.
- Splinter – A former Supernaturalist that preexisted Cosmo. Not much is known about Splinter, and he is never actually shown in the book, and only mentioned in passing. He is used as an example of how spotters can become terrified of their visions of the Parasites. He wears glasses with blue filters that hide the Parasites from his eyes, and he never takes them off.
- Miguel – The leader of the Sweethearts gang. He adopted Mona as their mechanic after catching her trying to steal a Sweetheart-owned car.
- Ziplock Murphy – Cosmo's friend and fellow No-Sponsor. The Supernaturalists were unable to save him, due to him having been electrocuted when falling off the roof when he and Cosmo escaped.
- Marshal Redwood – The Marshal who is very strict to Cosmo and all the other no-sponsors. He has cruel tendencies, such as knowingly saying he'd wrap Cosmo and Ziplock when they were on the roof, despite the duo mentioning they would not be able to be taken out of the cellophane for hours.
Places and things
Lightning rods – A mechanical device that can shoot electricity of varying strengths; one such strength is stun. These were used to fight Parasites until they figured out that they actually help the Parasites reproduce. The energy will over flow a parasites making it explode.
Extendable bridges – These devices are seemingly flat steel trays that can be hung on the user's back. A cable reel is attached to one end. The other end can be placed on the edge of a building. Once the reel is turned, the end of the tray farthest from the user extends forward, forming a bridge reaching the edge of another building. These extendable mini-bridges are helpful when one has to cross far distances. This does not last long, for it is powered by gas.
Climate – Weather in Satellite City isn't extremely unusual. However, a thick layer of smog covers the city's sky (maybe even the whole world), most likely due to pollution. The smog can change color depending on which chemicals are in the air at the time, or what time of day it is. During sunrise and sunset, the smog is a multitude of colors. When the smog turns red, it would be better to wear a gas mask outside (although it is never mentioned why.) People with allergies suffer when the smog turns purple. However, if one was to look down on the Earth from a celestial point of view it would still be blue.
Due to all the chemicals in the air, the raindrops in Satellite City are much larger than ours, and looking up in a rainstorm can take your eye out, as the pollution in the air causes the water molecules to bond more effectively. The other interesting thing about the weather is that it can change very abruptly. One second it could be raining, then next it is as if someone "Turned off the tap up in heaven", as the book describes it.
Food – Regular everyday food can be found in Satellite City, such as beer and pizza. However, there is also a new fast food craze called the "Pazza". It is simply a calzone filled with pasta shells stuffed with different sauces. This is the perfect food for a busy or traveling person but Ditto has trouble stomaching it. There are also self-heating non-perishable food packs which the Supernaturalists sometimes eat, and military rations that Cosmo ate while he was at Clarissa Frayne that are fully edible – food and packaging both. The institute had tested these meal packs to be used by soldiers in the field. The army rejected them because of lawsuits from soldiers, claiming they caused internal bleeding. The Clarissa Frayne institute bought the surplus and fed them to orphans every day. Even the food trays are made of an "unleavened crispbread" and the bottles of "semi rigid gum".
Myishi H.Q. – A very fancy hi-tech place, home to some main characters like Ellen Faustino. Here is also where the Supernaturalists find out that she is creating a master plan to get the perfectly clean energy source for the satellite from the parasites at the same time as betraying them. Myishi was an antagonist in The Wish List, suggesting both books take place in the same universe.
Transportation – When the no-sponsors get on a Clarissa Frayne truck it is stated that it is a hundred years old because it still uses rubber tires instead of modern plastic treads. It is also known that drivers do not drive vehicles manually, but instead let the satellite direct them to their destination. According to the book, manual drive had become so obsolete that the Clarrisa Frayne driver had trouble driving with the steering wheel. Steering wheels in the book are only used in illegal drag races in the Booshka region and in rural zones outside the city.
It has either been seen that having more than four wheels is superior, or it is simply trendy. Whatever the reason, several "Krom" vehicles were mentioned with more than four wheels. The real piece of notable change from the standardized vehicle design of today is the Myishi Z-12 which is a state-of-the-art car (it is unclear if its nature was racing, or being a luxury sports car). The Myishi Z-12 used nitrous as a main fuel and because nitrous burns so quickly the entire car had been converted into one big fuel tank.
The Supernaturalists use a vehicle which is called the "Pigmobile" because it is made of pig-iron. This reference to pig-iron is also made to Satellite City as the city's nickname is the "Big Pig" due to the abundance of pig-iron.
Communication – In The Supernaturalist, forms of communication appear to be very similar to today's technology, however this impression could be because the Supernaturalists do not have much up-to-date technology. They use standard mobile phones to send texts, in a way that you would expect now. The reader gets the impression that companies use more high-tech forms of communication which are not fully described.
Fuzz plates – Fuzz Plates are the slang term for the large plastic night-vision goggles that the Supernaturalists wear when they go on a mission. They wear these goggles to avoid being caught on camera. The plates block X-rays, therefore their heads show up on cameras as blurs.
Sequel
In a September 29, 2007 interview, Eoin Colfer released a rough idea for the plot of the sequel, working title, The Supernaturalist 2.[1] When asked about ideas for a Supernaturalist sequel, he answers, "Well, the main idea is, well, at the end of book one, Stefan dies, but, being that they can see supernatural beings, in the second book, Stefan appears to Cosmo and tells him that they're all stuck in Limbo and can't get through to the afterlife, because something terrible is happening there, so it's an environmental thing as usual that's blocking the passageway to... forever, so they have to take care of that. But at the same time, they've got the corporation, the Myishi Corporation, trying to track them down."[1]
References
- 1 2 "Interview with Eoin Colfer". Retrieved May 29, 2010.