Chaos Walking Trilogy

The "Chaos Walking" Trilogy by Patrick Ness is a commentary on our society, even though it's set lightyears away.
      Todd is the only boy in a town of only men.  All of the women died of a native plague on this new planet just after Todd was born, they died of the plague that can broadcasts all men's thoughts to everyone else.  Their collective thoughts create the Noise, and through the Noise, nearly all secrets are revealed.  But when Todd finds a pocket of silence in the swamps, he has to rethink what he knows of his town and himself.  Because when you've been lied to all your life, there's only one way to find out the truth, and fighting back against the convention could have bigger implications than you could ever guess.  Especially when your tap is all that's needed to set the dominoes cascading down.

So, a bunch of settlers come to a planet, and find that they can all hear each other's thoughts.  They also find an alien species who have hardly any way to communicate with them.  What's the next obvious thing that these settlers do.  Oh, I don't know, maybe they ought to start a war?
       Hmm.  Well, you know, we're starving, we're hungry, and we're 60-something years away from any help.  We're going to have to live with this alien species for the rest of our lives, and our great-great-great grandchildren are going to have to live with them too.  So, heck, why not go for it and start blowing their brains out?  Yeah . . . What's the worst that can happen?   I love the human thought process.  Especially when it's in books, and I don't have to live with the repercussions.
        These books, well, about half of the time, these books are written by an illiterate boy.  Todd, pretty obvious, right?  It isn't as bad as "Blood Red Road," Moira Young, but he spells thing phonetically.  I don't have a problem with that, I actually sort of like it, because I'm awful with the spelling part of things, but it might not be your cup'o'tea.
         The characters are very strong.  Very strong.  Each person is unique, painfully so, and they all have their own motives.  Some of them are very easy to predict, such as Todd and Viola, but others are more of a wild card.  Everyone does things that are morally disgusting, such as committing murder, initiating planet-wide-war, and infecting innocent people with fatal diseases, but it's their reaction after the deed and the motives that drove them that you have to judge them on.  Otherwise, you'd wind up hating everyone in the books.
        The Land, and you won't know what I'm talking about until you've read the third book, confuses me.  It's sort of a peaceful part of the book, except for the fact that the Return is basically baying for blood, but I can't pick out individuals.  I couldn't even tell you if the Return is a male or a female.  The Return seems male for the most time, but other times it seems female . . . It adds to the overall effect of the story, but it can also subtract from it a bit.
        Another thing that subtracts from the story is the obvious bloodlust.  It sort of repulses me how many people in this book want war.  The Return can't stop begging to stick a knife in the Knife, Todd blatantly harms the captured ones in New Prentisstown, Mistress Coyle goes around blowing up things left and right and smiling while she does it, and the Mayor decides to start a war, just so he can rule.  What is with these people?  Most of the semi-prominent characters adore violence, and the main characters take part in it just to please the semi-prominent characters.  It is repulsive, but enthralling.  And it is completely rateable to today.  How many bullies hurt others, just because it gives them power?  It's a theme you see repeated here, but on a much grander scale.
        The New World in itself is intriguing.  The fact that everyone can hear the thoughts of everyone else (except for . . . but I won't ruin it), that animals can talk, and that you can hear the thoughts of the animals is really quite an interesting concept.  It is said in the book that it's all about information:  How much you have, how you can control it, and, of course, how often you get it.  Patrick Ness said, in his biography in the back of the first book, that he got the idea from today's society, and how we're always hooked up to information.  Computers, television, even radios and newspapers.  You name it, we're getting information from it.  Again, another theme that applies to today, and today's life.
         There are three books, this being a trilogy.  The first is "The Knife of Never Letting Go," followed by "The Ask and the Answer," and "Monsters of Men"  (because war makes monsters of men . . . ).  You might just want to check out all three at once, because both "The Knife" and "The Ask" end on major cliff hangers. Like, major.  Major, as in in-your-face, you are going to die if you don't read the next book as soon as humanly possible major.  I mean, "Monsters of Men," has a major cliff-hanger too, but you can't do really anything about that one.
         And even though all Viola and Todd want is to be safe, they forget that when you spit into the wind you get a convoy of 40 spaceships, the arrows of an alien species, and the hostilities of your own people coming right back at you. I hope you don't.