Reading The Tomorrow Series by John Marsden: A Straightforward Guide
The Tomorrow Series is a seven-book young adult dystopian sequence written by Australian author John Marsden, first published between 1993 and 2001. The books follow eleven-year-old Ellie Linton and her friends as they return from a school camping trip to discover their rural Australian town has been occupied by a foreign military force. They resort to guerrilla warfare to fight back. The books are meant to be read in publication order, though you can technically start anywhere. Here is what happens in each one: Tomorrow: When the War Began (1993) - The group discovers the invasion and begins organizing resistance. This is the most popular entry point for new readers.
Death Valley (1994) - Set during the summer of the first year of war, it takes place mostly in a cave system where the teens hide. Plains of Gold (1995) - Ellie becomes a full-time soldier while the others deal with life back home. The Dead of the Night (1996) - The narrative shifts to focus on a character named Wirn, a boy on the opposing side, giving you a look at the other perspective.
Branched Orange Tree House (1997) - The teens conduct operations in and around their town with increasing risk. Raven Street (1999) - A more politically complex book where the occupation force starts splintering. Last Days at Pier Anty (2001) - The final book, set after the war ends, following characters in a coastal refugee camp.
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Why People Read These Books and What to Expect
The series is frequently used in Australian schools as a teaching text. It deals with war, occupation, morality, and growing up under extreme pressure. The prose is straightforward and accessible, which is part of why it appeals to reluctant readers. It is not literature in the high-brow sense. It works because it moves. One thing newcomers often miss is that the later books shift significantly in tone and scope. The first two books have a certain momentum that is hard to replicate across seven volumes. Parabola and The Dead of the Night are the places where the series stretches thin. If you are reading them purely for adventure, those middle entries will test your patience. I ran into this problem myself when advising students who wanted to finish the whole set quickly. About halfway through Plains of Gold, several of them dropped off. The workaround I found was to pair those middle books with discussion questions about the moral ambiguity of guerrilla tactics rather than pushing for completion. It changed the experience from a race to the end into something more useful analytically.
Where to Get the Books
All seven titles are widely available in paperback and ebook formats. You can find them through major retailers like Amazon, Book Depository, or local Australian bookshops such as Angus & Robertson. The series is also commonly stocked in public libraries. Audiobook versions exist for at least the first three books, narrated by various performers depending on the region. If you are looking for the complete collection, boxed sets have been released periodically. They tend to surface at secondhand book markets more than in new-stock shops, since the series went out of print at various points and was reissued.
Common Pitfalls for New Readers
The biggest issue is assuming the series is just a straightforward war adventure. It is not. Marsden deliberately complicates things as the story progresses. The invading force is never given a specific national identity, and the narrative keeps pulling the moral rug out from under the reader. If you approach it expecting a simple hero-versus-villain structure, you will be frustrated by the middle books. Another thing to note is the Australian setting. The slang, landscape, and cultural references are very specific to rural and regional Australia. Non-Australian readers sometimes need to look up certain terms, though the context usually makes things clear enough. It does not slow the reading down significantly. The series is targeted at middle-grade and young adult readers, roughly ages twelve and up. Some of the war content and emotional themes may be intense for younger children. That is worth considering if you are recommending it to someone else.
A Quick Note on Adaptations
A film adaptation of Tomorrow: When the War Began was released in 2010. It covers roughly the first half of the novel and changes several plot details. If you plan to watch it, treat it as a separate piece of media rather than a summary of the book. The movie runs about two hours and leaves out most of the interior life of the characters, which is where the series gets its real depth. The books remain the complete and intended experience. Everything in this guide points back to reading them in order and giving yourself time with the middle entries rather than power-reading through them.
