Ah, John Christopher. I loved reading all his books as a young teen. This series, though, pissed me off entirely. Brad and Simon are two boys thrown back in time ala A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court with ball lightning. Deux ex machina abounds in this series, but I liked the settings. It's just that the entire books can be summed up by Simon constantly struggling and Brad, for whatever reason, always one upping him and basically being an annoying know-it-all. I can't really recommend this series since it is so thin on character in comparison to the others, but the consistent rivalry between the two boys is grating in that it never really changes or evolves. And why does Brad get all the brakes? What is this, some cosmic joke on Simon? Give the poor kid a break, already.