How many times have YOU looked up at the sky and wondered - Is there anything out there?, What are stars?, How are they formed?, and millions of other such questions? The George series has wonderfully provided the answers to all such questions through an intriguing and exciting text, written by the world famous scientist, Dr. Stephen Hawking.
The George series comprises of six books, each encircling the adventures of George, his friend Annie and the supercomputer COSMOS, who has the power to create a pathway for people to travel wherever they want, even to the furthest reaches of outer space. Being paralyzed and immobilized in a wheelchair has not stopped Dr. Hawking from writing these wonderful books. With the power to only move one eyebrow (his left one), he has proceeded to write this wonderful set of books, centered in the town of Foxbridge.
1 : George's Secret Key to The Universe ~Author : Stephen Hawking & Lucy Hawking
Published in : 2007
Genre: Space Fiction , Adventure , Educational
This book begins with George standing outside his home, looking up at the sky, trying to unravel the innumerable mysteries of outer space. Instead of being eco-friendly and conservative like his parents, he wishes for a life full of adventure, action and fun with technology. His only solace is that he is allowed to keep a pig for himself, whom he had christened Freddy.
However, disaster strikes in the form of a pig-shaped hole in the fence, leading to the forbidden reaches of the house next-door. Investigating the house, hoping to find his pig, George discovers a new world when he meets Annie Bellis, daughter of world-famous scientist Eric Bellis. Eric provides George with the answers to all his questions. He shows George his talking supercomputer, COSMOS, who can create pathways to different dimensions and to outer space. With Annie, Eric, and Cosmos, George uncovers possibilities and ideas which he had got only in his dreams. But danger lurks in the form of an old enemy, Dr. Reeper, who has sworn to take revenge on Eric. Do you think George will be able to face this adversary and, at the same time, win the stuff of his dreams, His very own computer? A riot of adventure follows, with visits to space and new discoveries about time, black holes and the beyond...
Stephen Hawking has, throughout the book, provided fact files and fun facts about the different topics George and Annie peruse throughout the book. These are colorful spreads of pictures and text which provide visual aesthetic and valuable general knowledge to the reader.
George's Secret Key to the universe is basically a foundation book for thicker plots and more action in the upcoming books of the series.
2 : George's Cosmic Treasure Hunt ~Author : Stephen Hawking & Lucy Hawking
Published in : 2009
Genre: Space Fiction , Adventure , Educational
George is heart-broken since his best friend Annie, her father Eric and her mother have decided to move to America since Eric had managed to get a job at the Global Space Agency. There, Eric would be in charge of investigating life on different planets in the Universe. Who better than Eric Bellis, owner of Cosmos, the computer that could create portals to space, to do this job? Before leaving, Eric gives George a book, The User's Guide To the Galaxy, which George peruses throughout the trip.
A few months later, George is summoned to America by Annie, who believes that she has had a message from aliens, and needs George's help to decipher it. To their horror, they find that the letter was a threat, and the alien was saying that if they did not follow the clues, he would destroy the Earth and everyone on it. With the help of a friend, Emmet (who was a computer genius) they are able to restart Cosmos, who had not been working since their last adventure, during which Eric had been sucked into a black hole. Following the trail of clues, George and Annie arrive on a new planet, but who knows what lies in wait for them. Is it an alien or is it an old enemy, looking for revenge...
This book is another masterclass of Stephen and Lucy Hawking, and the text is tastefully interspersed by snippets from George's new book 'The User's Guide to The Galaxy'. The articles, said to be written by Eric Bellis are actually written by a different and varied clan of scientists. These beautiful essays on the different topics in space are tastefully decorated with different images of the different phenomenon's and objects.
This book is the first of the wonderful and enticing adventures which are to come.
3 : George and The Big Bang ~Author : Stephen Hawking & Lucy Hawking
Published in : 2011
Genre: Space Fiction , Adventure , Educational
After coming back to the UK, George and Annie are trying to find the best place in the universe for Freddy the pig to live. They first look in the Foxbridge University where Eric is a professor. There they find themselves in the middle of a meeting of an anti-LHC group, which states that the theory of everything resists addition of gravity (TOERAG). Later, Eric uses Cosmos to open a portal and take Freddy to this unknown place, where Freddy would be safe, happy and well-fed.
When George returns to the university to find Eric in order to ask him where Freddy has gone, he discovers that Cosmos' portal is open and wanders out on to the Moon to find Eric. Just before they leave, a Chinese satellite photographs them. However, since no one has supposedly set foot on the moon since 1972, this creates outrage among the Order of Science.
Eric's tutor, Zuzubin, calls a meeting of the Order of Science at CERN. Meanwhile, Dr. Reeper contacts George through Pooky, telling him that he had infiltrated TOERAG, admitting that he had created a mechanical bomb, which has disappeared. He had a suspicion that the bomb was going to be used to blow up the LHC. He was unable to tell George everything, but manages to tell him that the Order Of Science has a traitor. Who is this Traitor? Where is the Bomb?
This book is definitely one of my favorites and I absolutely love the flow of adventure throughout the book. The villain is cleverly designed and the villain's change in flow of action throughout the book was evident. From being a dedicated scientist, he turns into a power-hungry maniac, trying to establish that he was right, is right and will always be right through unfair means.
4 : George and The Unbreakable Code ~Author : Lucy Hawking & Stephen Hawking
Published in : 2014
Genre: Space Fiction , Adventure , Educational
This book is the first of the latter part of the GEORGE series, and the series undergoes a slight but distinct change - In the Book, the main author's names are written as Lucy and Stephen, instead of Stephen and Lucy. This is a prominent change as it signifies the beginning of the handover of the series to Lucy. The series definitely loses some of its original vigor starting from this book.
Chaos is reigning all over the world. Banks are giving out free money, Flight tickets are free, Water is erupting in the deserts, All food is free, and other seemingly impossible feats. The world is clueless as to who has caused all of this commotion. As usual, Annie and George are in the middle of all the action. George, in an attempt to photograph Saturn, has snapped a photo of a mysterious space ship, on whose side is written the words 'I AM'. Meanwhile, Eric is completely occupied in his work on Quantum Computers. He believes that it could only be a Quantum Computer that could hack through all the passwords on Earth and perform the above mentioned impossible feats.
Amongst all the commotion, a weird change has come upon COSMOS. He is now snooty and seems as though he is possessed. Who could be behind this? Who is 'I AM'? And has the world's first Quantum Computer finally been developed?
This book features the arrival of a new villain. This villain is fiendish, nasty and thinks that everything he is doing is for the betterment of humans, and the planet as a whole. He uses his incredible computer skills and well-developed brain to create the weapon of the millennium.
This book is among my favorites in the whole series.
5 : George and The Blue Moon ~Author : Lucy Hawking & Stephen Hawking
Published in : 2016
Genre : Space Fiction, Adventure, Educational
This book begins with George and Annie, along with Eric looking through a space portal on Europa, a moon of Jupiter. Suddenly, noticing a clear, machine-cut hole in the ice, Eric, without saying a word, runs off to Kosmodrone 2, where he now works. Later, we are hit with a big surprise - Eric has been RUSTICATED from his job! Meanwhile, Susan has been selected for a world-wide tour with her orchestra and George's parents have been selected as WOOFer's (Willing worker on an Organic Farm).
Amongst this whirlwind of events, George and Annie enroll themselves into a space program at the Kosmodrone 2 , where they will be trained for a mission to Mars. Despite Eric forbidding them from going for the program, Annie and George sneak away and do it nevertheless. But when they arrive at space camp, George and Annie quickly learn that strange things are happening—on Earth as well as up in the skies. Mysterious space missions are happening in secret, and the astronaut training they’re undertaking gets scarier and scarier…
This book is among the best of the entire series, though I must admit that the ending was an Anti-Climax, and was not at all satisfying for such an enthralling book. 😅
6 : George and The Ship Of Time ~Author : Lucy Hawking
Published in : 2018
Genre : Space Fiction, Adventure, Educational
The sixth and last book about George, and I’d been on tenterhooks ever since Lucy Hawking had him jump aboard a spacecraft heading into outer space at the end of the fifth book. It’s a good cliffhanger, but I was sure George would soon be back on Earth again, among his friends. I was right. Sort of.
George and Boltzmann, the robot, return to Earth after first having failed to turn the ship around. But it’s not exactly the place they left; it’s hot, dusty and deserted. There's a barren wasteland where his hometown used to be, intelligent robots roam the streets, and no one will talk to George about the Earth that he used to know. But Boltzmann assures him they are ‘in Foxbridge’ where George lives. Or rather, lived.
The duo do meet up with humans, and other creatures, odd robots, but they live in the future. George is seen as strange, if not downright dangerous. They’re in Eden, which is supposedly paradise. There is much that is dysfunctional in this place, ruled over by a man with the name of Trellis Dump. The second Trellis Dump. The reader keeps thinking that this can’t really have happened. If this is the future, then George’s family and friends must be dead. But if this Dump era can be reversed, then the people alive now would cease to exist. It’s quite a conundrum, and I won’t tell you how it ends.
With the help of an unexpected new friend, can George find out what – or who – is behind this terrible new world, before it’s too late?
This book is one of my least favorites as it had a plot very out of place with the rest of the series.
