Tommy Storm  Tommy Storm is the first novel by Irish author A.J. Healy. The protagonist is Tommy Storm, a boy, aged 11½, who experiences friendship and a love for his planet only when he is sent far away from Earth with four other Earth kids, to a school of sorts on the far side of the Milky Way, populated by "aliens". The year is 2096—a time when it is always 34˚C, birds are extinct and it's raining at all times everywhere on Earth due to "The Great Climate Enhancement". Only the very tops of mountains protrude above sea-level and everyone lives in floating cities. The book follows Tommy's first adventure. A sequel, Tommy Storm and the Galactic Knights, was released in Ireland on 24 September 2009, with more to come. Declan Kiberd, one of Ireland's foremost literary critics has said of "Tommy Storm": "Brilliant. Hilarious. An intergalactic Gulliver's Travels.” In December 2006, Tony Hickey said in "Village" magazine: “"Tommy Storm" is a knockout achievement that succeeds on so many levels and satirises so many cultural and literary genres that, to me, it reads as if Flann O'Brien had taken to writing science-fiction." Earth's President (Guttly Randolph) and the Grand Council receive an invitation from the MilkyFed, a federation in the centre of the Milky Way. They want 5 Earth children (of the Grand Council's choice) to come across space to a training centre. The training will prepare the participants for a dangerous and secret mission. Elsorr Maudlin, Earth's Deputy President, believes the MilkyFed are up to no good, so he threatens to delay the decision until after the deadline. He agrees not to delay it on two conditions. One, he can choose the Grand Council Elder to accompany the Five children. Second, he can choose one of the five children. For his first condition, Maudlin chooses Randolph, so he can be the President, in full power. For his second condition, he chooses a boy who is thought by all a loser. The boy's name is Tommy Storm. Meanwhile, at The Wilchester Academy for Younger Adults, Tommy Storm, a boy of 11, is being bullied by a stronger, more popular boy named Felkor Stagwitch. In self-defence, Tommy ends up being grounded to his room. Later, Mr Withers, the headmaster, announces that Felkor Stagwitch is going on to a training school far away in the centre of the Milky Way.