The Vanished

The Outer Limits by John Peel #7

by John Peel

Where is everybody?

The alarm clock goes off. You wake up and get ready for school, just like every other day. So what's the big deal? Well, what if one morning you suddenly discovered that you were one of the last surviving people on Earth? That's right, everyone else has disappeared. No idea how, no idea why, just...gone--vanished. This has come true for a small group of teenagers who have just awakened to their worst nightmare.

But it gets worse. Someone--or something--is hunting them down.

Genres: Science Fiction

128 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

John Peel is the author of Doctor Who books and comic strips. Notably, he wrote the first original Doctor Who novel, Timewyrm: Genesys, to launch the Virgin New Adventures line. In the early 1990s he was commissioned by Target Books to write novelisations of several key Terry Nation Dalek stories of the 1960s after the rights were finally worked out. He later wrote several more original Daleks novels.

He has the distinction of being one of only three authors credited on a Target novelisation who had not either written a story for the TV series or been a part of the production team (the others were Nigel Robinson and Alison Bingeman).

Outside of Doctor Who, Peel has also written novels for the Star Trek franchise. Under the pseudonym "John Vincent", he wrote novelisations based upon episodes of the 1990s TV series James Bond Jr..

Reviews

[Marc Hobbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book for the first time in the late 90s, as a young teen. Then I returned it to the library and forgot about it... mostly. Some part of it stayed with me though, bubbling to the surface from time to time as strange thoughts or fleeting impressions. Now, roughly twenty-three years later, I tracked it down thanks to the power of the Internet and read it again.

It wasn’t as good as I remembered, but it wasn’t terrible. The story meanders until about three-quarters of the way through when the action finally picks up. The characters are not particularly complex, nor is the writing, but the ending is what stuck in my mind all these years—and it just might stick in yours too.

[Alejandro Joseph · Rating 2 out of 5]

Um… The Outer Limits series is one I have not had much exposure to until recently when I checked out the series coinciding these kids’ horror books. It’s basically just an edgier Twilight Zone, which is cool. I’ve known about these books for years and have owned this one for a while now, but I never picked them up since they are kinda on the longer end in terms of word count. AKA I’m pussy shit. Finally jumping into the most popular and intriguing one… I’m extremely mixed. One thing I will give my highest praises for was the idea. It takes that age old idea of “what if you were the last person on earth and everyone else just vanished?” and turns that into a kids’ horror book, except there’s four people left and not just you + the answer is a LOT less simple than everyone having just vanished. Whilst I did piece most of the twist together before it came, I was still taken away by it and really liked the reveal. All-in-all, super solid final chapter with a unique ending. And that’s it for praises, though these are strong compliments. Now to bash: this book was far too slow for my liking. It only takes off in the final two chapters, with barely anything happening throughout most of the book, which also made this read quite boring throughout. So yeah, could’ve been much better paced, and the mystery wasn’t enough to cure the boring parts (basically most of the first two-thirds of the book). And it doesn’t help that a huge percent of the focus here was on… finally bringing it up… the horniness. I’m not even kidding. When it comes to literature, I don’t care if the characters are dying to get each other’s pants… but this is a kids’ book. What the fuck. Not only is it a bland romance (though I don’t find any romances enticing lowk), there’s just some stupidly horny writing. Perv/sex jokes and subtext galore between two sixteen year olds. It’s almost revolting at times, mostly since this is a book for 8-12 year olds. I mean shit, the company that produced these books is called ‘For Kids’—the irony. It’s such an intrusive and weird ass aspect of this book, and it’s not even at least subtle, down to even the very unnecessary moment on the last page of the damn story. Anywho… oh yeah, the dialogue is ballocks half the time. Never had this issue elsewhere, but yeah, these kids don’t talk human half the time, whether it’s because they’re on honey packets or just fault of bad writing, AKA more honey packets. Overall, 5.5/10. Don’t write a book for kids’ about two ridiculously horny sixteen year olds and try to sell it as a cool dystopian/sci-fi story, even if it barely stuck that landing. Hopefully other books from this series aren’t like this, though I won’t be finding out for a hot minute since I’m hella turned off by this book (ironically).

[Jessica Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really easy to read, but it has an interesting story line; its one of my favorite books.

[Jethro99 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book took me by complete surprise. Wasn’t expecting it to be THAT good! Definitely one of the best stories I’ve read on people disappearing into thin air. Kept me on the edge of my bed all the time. And I love that it’s incredibly creepy. Also, I wouldn’t necessarily classify this as a kids book. Definitely YA horror for sure. But not for kids under 13. No way.
Only complain I would have is the cover. Wish the book I have, which is the original fist edition, had a better one and more closely related to the actual story. Overall, love it! Love the big reveal at the end as well. Definitely did not see that coming. And I love that!

[Krys Li Fo Sjoe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book left me in suspense from cover to cover when I read it some 20 years ago. Yes i still remember the book and the emotions I felt reading it. I'd love to read it again with the other outer limits books. all i can say is you wont put the book down and the questions will haunt you for like 20 years until you can read the book again. experience

[Sugarrr · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was Excellent !! I loved this Book ! If you Buy only One of the Books in this Series buy this One !!!!!

[Dreama · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started this book when I was 15 and never finished it. Now at 33 I finally found it again and decided I had to know how it ends. I think it's a good read for teenagers.

[Chelsea · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got this book as a teenager and never read it back then and decided to read it at age 29... Probably should have read it as a teenager and maybe I would like it better. I understand now that I'm an adult, I am not this book's demographic, however I am still going to talk about it.

The characters are not likable to me, but the plot kept me engaged into wondering what was happening with these kids and where the world went and why were they the ones left. My rating is solely for the mystery plot, but that alone could not save this book for me.

You can tell this book was written by a man, if I did not know who wrote it I would guess a man every time. Because the way the male character is written and how he just doesn't like the girl at all at first but always comments on how she's attractive, but hates her clinginess. And the fact that the girl is written as being so insecure and purely clingy and like everything in her life can be saved by this dude, yeah no. Male fantasy for sure.

And the ending pissed me off so much. They had just met, they'd only known each other for a few days and they literally chose to stay together in their own made up world forever instead of going back to their families who they missed and loved, absolute crap. Teenagers really do make the worst decisions, but the author is not a teenager and could have made better ones.

I know I didn't need to go this hard, but it was my first book to read after taking a long hiatus from reading, and it just left me feeling very deflated.

Found: My brother gave it to me as a teenager

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having read this years ago, the story does still stick with me....

[Josh Dormammu · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book good

[Abby Peskin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this when I was a kid and reread it several times because it was such an interesting book.

[SETSS Readopoly]

Lexile level: 650