by Lian Turner

278 pages of adventure fantasy

I’m going to work to see if the Imitation of Nothingness works – it would be very handy!

After I finished the Museum of Thieves I had so many questions that I was uncertain of how I felt about the book.  I wasn’t sure of the main message – was it freedom, was it being wary of the cruelty that comes from lust for power, was it listening to the voice within and acting on what you know in your heart to be right?  Why was the museum alive with wildness?  Is wildness good?

Some of those questions still remain now that I have completed the second in the Keeper Trilogy, The City of Lies, but I am not bothered by the wondering.  I am looking forward to the Path of Beasts to see if I will find the answers. (I hope so.)  The city of Jewel is still troubled but is recovering from the floods and the warped greed of the Fugleman and the Blessed Guardians.  Goldie is trying to decide if she is needed more by her parents or the museum.  She has been asked to become the 5th keeper and she would dearly like to take her place with Sinew, Herro Dan, Olga Ciavolga and Toadspit – Morg and Broo too.  The challenge is that her parents have not recovered from their sentence in the House of Repentence when she first ran away.  They are ill and frightened.  They depend on her and she feels the guilt and shame of having brought on their frailties.

While trying to make her decision, Goldie visits Toadspit, Bonnie his brave sister follows and is kidnapped.  Goldie and Toadspit follow to rescue her and Toadspit is caught.  Now it is up to Goldie to rescue them both in the wild city of Spoke during the Festival of Lies when everything is backward and upside down and only the opposite is true.

The magic that surrounds the lives of those who live in these books add a touch of mystery that makes you wonder – true or not.  No- it might be – well, maybe a little.  What will happen to Mouse?  How does he tell fortunes?  What doesn’t he talk?  What about Pounce?  What about the cat?  Why are animals, long thought to be extinct returning?  How is that part of the overall plan?  The new villains are not so new, but still just sinister as ever. At the end there may be a glimmer of hope on the horizon.  We’ll have to wait until October to see.  Leave a comment and let us know what you think.

Another fun twist for me was learning that semaphore, margrave and margravine, bombardon and skerrick are real words.  The first means communicating messages with a flag system.  The second and third words on my list are the male and female titles given in medieval times to the families of the king’s protectors. The fourth is an instrument like a tuba.  And the last means a very small piece of shred.  I’m glad I looked to see if they were real or not – they were!

Museum of Thieves

by Lian Tanner

312 pages of survival in dystopian Jewel

Museum of Thieves takes places in the renamed city of Jewel, a fearful, depraved society where young children are kept on short leashes for their safety. The city is run by a Grand Protector who knows more about the past and the present than the rest of her people. She is working to bring balance back to the city, but know she must move slowly to maintain calm.  The corrupt Fugleman (willing to gain power and control at all cost) and the Blessed Guardians will have none of that.  The Blessed Guardians, supposedly kind and gentle souls, are anything but. They enforce the cruel laws stating that chain children to the authorities at all times. Care is a jail for children. The citizens have been brainwashed into thinking that all children must never be exposed to the dangers of the world and so they allow this lesser of two evils to define their lives.

Goldie Roth is twelve. It is her Separation Day.  Her guardchain is about to be severed.  Her life is upon her and she will be free to walk through the city alone for the first time.  Just before her ceremonial release, the Fugleman halts the proceedings with news of the unthinkable – the murder of children, an attack from outside.  He claims no one is safe and that the children cannot be freed. Goldie is faced with a choice: remain tied to her childhood, or cut the chain herself and run. Fuelled by desperation, she cuts and runs.

Goldie flees through the dark and daunting streets.  At first she regrets her decision; she sees nowhere to go and winds up at the mysterious Museum of Dunt.  This museum houses the records of her city.  Why was the name changed?  What happened to bring on so much fear?  What does it mean to have past and present collide?  Once in the museum, Goldie discovers it is alive. The rooms are ever-changing and maintained by an odd group. Goldie joins them and to learn the ways of the Museum.  There is trouble brewing beneath the surface, as there always is when power is abused and dishonesty prevails. This trouble could destroy the entire city.  Goldie, with the other keepers must find a way to save it…if it’s not too late.

The Museum of Thieves is the first book in the Keepers Trilogy. It is cleverly crafted and well written. When I finished I had so many questions I can’t wait to get the second, The City of Lies.  I need to find out how Goldie’s story continues with the Keepers and if Jewel is able to become morally secure and trustingly productive city…that may not happen yet because the evil still lurks.  It seems it has only temporarily been washed away.  The Keeper Trilogy is definitely one to read – you won’t be able to put it down once you begin.

Winterling

by Sarah Prineas

245 pages of magical adventure – can you set evil magic right?

Since I finished reading Winterling last night it is growing on me.  I love books that keep coming back to make you wonder.  Fer lives with Grand Jane.  She is different and doesn’t fit in.  She is teased and taunted and nowhere feels right.  Being on the bus makes her feel sick.  Being in the woods feels glorious and there is so much to be curious about.  With kids her own age, she is always fighting.  In the woods she is always discovering and wondering.

It is during one of these escapes into the woods that she find a creature, a dog maybe, being attacked by wolves – something that doesn’t belong in her woods at all.  Of course she attempts to save the creature, there is no question about that – she fights the wolves back, discoveries an injured boy and thus binds his life to hers through the saving.  Through this one selfless act she discovers The Way, an opening to a world that makes Fer tingle with anticipation and excitement.  Somehow it feels right for her to be there – on the Other side.  All the things that made her so odd in our world help her in this.  The herb lore Grand Jane taught her, the talismans for safety and the art of questioning through the power of the glamorie work and help her here.  They help her help others, and though, she feels right she knows something is wrong.  Spring can’t or won’t come and, what’s worse, now that The Way has been opened the evil is spilling into Grand Jane’s world as well.  It’s up to Fer to make it right, and she doesn’t know how.

I appreciated the notion that caring and kindness wins the day.  I found the idea that there is a place for everyone that feel right comforting – I look for that place all the time.  I find the idea of glamories and glam intriguing and I want to learn out more.  I first came across that in Runemark by Joanne Harris, a story based in Norse legends.  Winterling has leanings in that direction too so I am curious.  What would you do in land that was forever waiting for spring?  Would you have the courage to question and the bravery to take action? Read Winterling to find out what Fer does and then let us know.

Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes

by Jonathan Auxier

380 pages of exciting adventure, fantasy and determination

A great middle grade read

What a grand adventure; funny, scary, prophetic and imaginative.  Peter Nimble has been blind all his life.  Because he is blind, his other senses provide information the rest of us don’t even notice – the smells of stones and of wealth, the sound of beating hearts and of friendship.  These abilities lead him to becoming an extraordinary thief; perhaps the best thief in all the world.  He can pick any lock.  At the end of one particularly difficult lock-picking challenge he discovers a box containing six amazing eggs.  The yolks of these eggs turn out to be three sets of fantastic eyes that launch Peter on a journey.  From gold, to onyx to emerald, Peter moves from world to world and shape to shape on a quest to help the writer of the note that may have come from the Vanished Kingdom.

“Kings aplenty, princes few,

The ravens scattered and seas withdrew.

Only a stranger may bring relief,

But darkness will reign, unless he’s …”

Each step of the way is hard but Peter knows he has a friend, Sir Tode.  He has the fantastic eyes which will be all that he needs if he uses them only when the time is right.  And he knows the person he is now is the reason this quest is part of his destiny.  It is his true nature that will lead him through  each problem he encounters.

One page will lead you to the next and the next and the next.  You won’t be able to put this adventure down – enjoy this unique story from cover to cover