I have never been to Zimbabwe, and 2194 is still a little while away. But the author, Nancy Farmer, made the setting, story and characters in The Ear, The Eye, and the Arm all very easy to picture and believe. I was not a huge fan of the Sea of Trolls, and while this is not one of my favorites, I would say that this was at least a well-thought out story.

One of the reasons that I did enjoy this book was the children’s resourcefulness. We mainly follow the older brother Tendai and see him as he struggles to protect his younger sister Rita and youngest brother Kuda. The younger two seem to have a hard go of things, but the internal battles we see Tendai fight give him more depth. We can really feel his struggles to fit in, to accept his own differences, but mostly to protect the people he cares about.

General Matsika shelters his kids from everything outside their living compound. As a result, they are completely unprepared for what they encounter when they sneak out of the house to go on a forbidden trip. They meet several different groups of people on their adventure, and all of them are more dangerous than they appear. Each villain lures the children in and tries to assimilate the trio into their people groups. Will the children settle in with one of these societies or will they find their way home?

An even more strange trio, hired by their parents, tracking them throughout the adventure. The Ear, the Eye and the Arm. These detectives are trying to bring them to safety, using their gifts. Will the children be found alive? Will they escape an even bigger threat, the Masks, who have been behind them at every turn? The Masks are the outlaw group that General Matsika is trying to rid his country of.

The setting was very interesting to me, because it’s very much what it seems our future holds. A technologically advanced society with its non-technical outcasts and a hub to maintain memories of the “old way” of life. The government is trying to control crime and failing in some big ways. All in all, its not much different from today.

The message I felt from this book was that you can’t keep innocent of the happenings around you forever. It will find you. What will you do with that knowledge, when it does? Accept it, lose all sense of self or bring it with you as you learn about yourself and use it to become a better person?

I liked the book. I did have to re-read some passages as they weren’t clear right away, which annoys me, and I felt there were still a couple loose ends. While her subjects have been interesting, on the whole, I have not been impressed with this authors writing in general.