- Midnighters Trilogy
"The Midnighters Trilogy", is a
science-fiction fantasy series written byScott Westerfeld . It was published by Eos in 2004. It is comprised of three books;The Secret Hour ,Touching Darkness andBlue Noon .Plot Overview
15-year-old Jessica Day moves with her family to
Bixby, Oklahoma after her mother gets a job offer at a high-techaerospace company. Upon arriving in Bixby, Jessica discovers that she is a Midnighter and is thus able to enter the "Blue Time" - a secret hour hidden within the instant of midnight. Over the course of the trilogy, Jessica encounters other Midnighters whom she allies herself with. The protangonists in the triligy are Desdomona (referred to as Dess), Rex, Jonathan, and Melissa. The antagonists of the series are the "Darklings and Slithers" - dangerous and powerful beings that created and live in the Blue Hour.The Midnighters
In the Midnighters Trilogy, individuals born at midnight are able to live within the Blue Time while in
Bixby, Oklahoma . These individuals are referred to as "Midnighters". As well as the ability to travel within the Blue Time, each Midnighter is gifted with super-human abilities. It is implied inBlue Noon that a Midnighter's power will not work outside of Bixby, however this remains unconfirmed, as none of the Midnighters leave the town during the course of the trilogy. Alongside their superhuman abilities comes the disadvantage of being highly sensitive to intense light.In
The Secret Hour , it is revealed that prior to the current generation of Midnighters, there used to be a large collective of Midnighters who effectively ran the small town of Bixby in an attempt to protect it from the Darklings. The character Rex managed to deduce this from both historical accounts and "The Lore", notes made by previous Midnighters. However approximately fifty years before the beginning of the book, the lore ceased to be updated for unknown reasons. The disappearance of the previous generation of Midnighters remains a mystery until the second bookTouching Darkness .The Midnighters Trilogy features five main protagonists, all of whom are Midnighters. Despite all possessing the ability to pass into the Blue Time, they do not always work together - resulting from personal conflicts between members.
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Jessica Day
For the majority of
The Secret Hour , Jessica's ability is unknown to any of the Midnighters. At the conclusion of the novel, it is revealed that Jessica is a "flame bringer ", a rare talent that allows her to use electrical devices during the Blue Time. This makes her a valuable addition to the team, as she can use this ability to be a formidable opponent against the darklings, who fear light, and to a greater extent, technology. Her first use of this power is aflashlight initially named Serendipitous. As both fire and technology can be used outside the blue time, Jessica's power is effectively useless in regular-time.At the climax of
Blue Noon Jessica uses her ability to harness the power of a lightning bolt to fight the Darklings. While this proves effective, wiping out the majority of the Darklings, it also has the side-effect of trapping Jessica within the Blue Hour.Desdemona ("Dess")
Desdemona, called Dess for short is a
polymath , which means that she has an inherent aptitude for mathematics. Her skill with numbers is seemingly unparalleled. In the books, it is even suggested that ability is so extensive that she can process mathematical data at a greater rate than even a regular computer. Throughout the series she uses this ability to deduce the "shape" of the Blue Time, allowing her to predict abnormalities in the fabric of time and space within midnight. Along with her skill at mathematics, she is also easily able to locate and identify thirteen letter words. As a result, she is the group's expert on anti-darkling defence and weaponry. Dess' power is useful in both the Blue Time and regular time.Rex Greene
Rex, a Seer, can read the lore, which is the history of all Midnighters in Bixby. During the day he wears glasses. Without them he can see the other midnighters and anything touched by Darklings or slithers in a strange Focus, while everything else is blurry. He enjoys being in control, and acts as a leader, and dislikes this disrupting his control. Melissa is his best and oldest friend, knowing her since age eight.
Jonathan Martinez
Jonathan is an acrobat. During the Blue Time, Jonathan's personal
gravity is reduced, increasing his jumping distance dramatically. Jonathan enjoys the freedom this allows him and, in turn, dislikes regular time. By making physical contact, Jonathan is able to share the effects of reduced gravity with both people (usually Jessica) and objects. Unlike the powers of Dess, Rex and Melissa, Jonathan's acrobatic skills only function during the Blue Time. Because of this his movement back into real time is more physically intense, as he must readjust to regular gravity.Before the events of
The Secret Hour , Jonathan rarely associates with any of the other Midnighters, due to a personality conflict with Rex.Melissa
Melissa has the ability of "Mindcasting". As a mindcaster, she has the powers of
telepathy and mental manipulation, which are active both in and out of the Blue Time. She likens the sensation of mind reading to the sense of taste, associating certain behaviours, moods and thoughts particular tastes. For most of her life this ability has proven to be problematic, as she had limited control over the thoughts that she read. This inability to control her power results in her reading the minds of all those within a certain proximity. Because of this, she often feels overwhelmed by the overpowering emotions of others. Melissa relishes her times spent in the Blue Time, as the only human thoughts she has to tolerate are those of the other Midnighters. There are a number of factors that can influence Melissa's mindcasting abilities, including but not limited to: proximity to the subject, physical contact and wrinkles inherent within space and time.Melissa's power of mental manipulation allows her to control the thoughts and actions of other individuals who she has touched. While it is possible for her to do this during regular time, she prefers to do so during the Blue Time, presumably because the subject cannot resist or know what is going on. Melissa found Rex when she was 8, running through Bixby on her bare feet and in her Cowboy PJ's. Throughout the series Rex refers to her as "Cowgirl.
Darklings and Slithers
The darklings, and their servants, slithers, are ancient creatures that were once the dominant species on the planet. Darklings come in many shapes and forms, and have the power to change their physical form at will, whereas slithers are generally serpentine in nature. As humans began to grow in intelligence they began hunting the darklings and slithers by exploiting their weakness to new concepts, such as mathematics and language (particularly the number "13" and words with 13 letters), light and heat, and new "technology". This technology consisted of anything crafted by humans. Initially simple objects such as stone spearheads were effective weapons against the Darklings, but as time progressed the Darklings adapted and grew immune to the effects of simpler technology. However humans continued to advance and began to forge weapons of other materials such as
bronze andiron . As the balance of power began to shift in favour of humans, the Darklings created the Blue Hour to escape to by collapsing the twenty-fifth hour of the day.At the time the novel begins,
steel and otheralloy s, particularly newer and more advanced alloys, are the most common and effective tools used by Midnighters to combat darklings. The Midnighters use those things to defend themselves against the darklings. However, the metals they use must be untouched by darklings or slithers for them to be effective. To maximise the effectiveness of the Midnighters' weapons, they are often given names with 13 letters, or names with a number of letters equal to a multiple of 13, and are sometimes inscribed with certain patterns representing mathematical concepts. The names given to objects can only be used once, but the metal can be used several times, depending on how strong a darkling it was used against.Setting
The Midnighters trilogy is set mainly in the town of Bixby, Oklahoma, with reference to the nearby towns of Broken Arrow and Jenks. Particular reference is made to its latitude and longitude - coor dms|36|00|00|N|96|00|00|W|city. It is implied that the Blue Hour only occurs in Bixby and the surrounding areas because 36 (as a multiple of 12) is a number strongly associated with the Darklings, as is 96, and the digits of these numbers added together is 24, another multiple of 12. In reality Bixby, Jenks and Broken Arrow are all real towns in Oklahoma, however they are not located in the formation described in the book, and the point 36 N, 96 W, although nearby, is not where it is described as being.
Television Adaption
The rights to a Television Adaption of the "Midnighters Trilogy" have been optioned to
The WB . Brad Kern, former Executive Producer of the TV seriesCharmed , has expressed an interest in helping launch a "Midnighters" series [http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?id=38500] . Despite Kern's support for the series,Scott Westerfeld has stated on his blog [http://scottwesterfeld.com/blog/?p=204] that he is not in favour of Kern's vision of the show, which would have the Midnighters aged into their mid-to-late twenties.Trivia
* Parallels can be drawn between "The Blue Hour" from the
Midnighters Trilogy and "The Dark Hour" in theAtlus game . The Dark Hour is also a hidden hour that occurs between midnight and 12:01 A.M.
* Jessica Day's working name was "Gillian Flood".
* Neither Dess nor Melissa's surnames are mentioned in the books.References
* Westerfeld, S. (2004). "The Secret Hour", London: Atom.
* Westerfeld, S. (2004). "Touching Darkness", London: Atom.
* Westerfeld, S. (2005). "Blue Noon", London: Atom.
* *Westerfeld, S. "Westerblog". Retrieved March 15, 2008, fromhttp://scottwesterfeld.com/blog/ .
* *Kern Eyes Midnighters Show, "SCI FI Wire". Retrieved March 15, 2008, fromhttp://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?id=38500 .
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