When I read the Mister Monday, the first in the Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix, I enjoyed it, more or less, but wasn’t knocked out. Sometime this summer, I bought the second, Grim Tuesday. My recollection was that I read it and didn’t like it, so when I picked it up off the shelf as a bathtub book, I was ready to put it right back down. Looking at the first few pages, I thought “I don’t remember any of this. Did I read this book?” In fact I hadn’t.
Now I have, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I think it’s better than Mister Monday, which surprises me. Usually, in books like these, much of the fun is in setting up the world, and later books in the same world are only going to be fun if the story is good. That hasn’t been one of Mr. Nix’s strong points; in The Old Kingdom, the books seriously declined in quality between the first and second, and the second and the third. (Likewise, I enjoyed the first Harry Potter much more than the others, just because it introduced me to Hogwarts.) And in fact what makes Tuesday so much fun is the plot. Not that it’s terribly complex; it’s just fun. The threat at the beginning is creepy and powerful. There are two or three nice set pieces (particularly the ascent from the Pit on paper wings, whacking at gobbets of nothing with a copper pipe). The final confrontation is won in a way that is both in character and sweetly pedagogic, without being obnoxious. And, as it happens, Arthur’s character develops, somewhat, which doesn’t do him any harm, either.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to Drowned Wednesday more than I was looking forward to this one.
Thank you,
-Vardibidian.
Is Keys to the Kingdom related to The Old Kingdom? Or does Nix just have a thing for Kingdoms?
As far as I can tell, they are two entirely different series. Maybe it’s a Commonwealth thing.
Thanks,
-V.
Sounds somewhat related, if there are Paperwings in both?
The Paperwings in the Old Kingdom are quite different from the paper wings in the House. But there are similarities in the peculiar interests of the author. Both series have creatures made of words, both have fun with borders between a world like ours and one not at all like ours, both have flight (air-borne flight) from bad guys, both have untrustworthy helpers. Both have decadent or decayed magical infrastructures, Fallen from a golden age. Now that I think of it, they both start in schools in ‘our’ universe (tho’ not actually ours) and start the plot going with a death that isn’t really a death. But they pretty clearly take place in different universes; the House doesn’t use Charter Magic, nor is the Old Kingdom (so far) one of the Secondary Realms.
Thanks,
-V.