Book Report: Sir Thursday

So. Having enjoyed Drowned Wednesday, YHB had been looking forward to Sir Thursday. Then it came out, last spring I suppose, and I didn’t know about it.

Digression: Neither of our two local library branches have a New Books shelf for teen/YA books. Or have a teen/YA shelf in the New Books. Now and then a new book is displayed prominently on the Children’s Librarian’s Desk, and there is an area for displaying new books in the children’s area, but those are mostly picture books. Now, the branches are squeezed for space, even more so than usual because the Main Branch is closed for renovations, but I would have thought that it would be great to have a display for the latest teen/YA/chapters, particularly in popular series. I know the Garth Nix series isn’t all that popular, but there are popular series, and I know that kids come in asking if the new one is out yet. Plus, it would make my life easier. End digression.

Sir Thursday had a few lovely set pieces, and had some genuinely thrilling moments. On the whole, though, I was disappointed. I didn’t feel that the overall plot was much further along, or that Arthur had grown much, or that we had learned much about the overall situation. He had just defeated another Day and picked up another Key and another part of the Will. Three to go. And none of the major events seemed terribly suspenseful to me. Not that I thought that any of the people would fail, exactly, at their assigned tasks, but that their success seemed a little too easy. Often, in Mr. Nix’s’ssses books the task is, in fact, not completed as it had been assigned, but the goal is reached anyway, when the characters improvise a new approach. Not so much, this time. Suzie has to go get the Thing and give it to Arthur who will throw it into Nothing, and she gets the Thing, just barely time, goes to the Front Door, finds it guarded, and just barely manages to get through anyway, is assaulted within the Door but is just barely rescued, gets to Arthur, gives it to him, he goes to some Nothing and manages just barely to throw it in, and it is destroyed and that’s the end of that. Hum.

One thing I did like about the book, though, was that it fleshed out a little bit the science-fiction nature of the “real” world of the story, that is, the world Arthur comes from. We had known it wasn’t quite our world before, but this book had a few nice touches—little things, really—that were very nice.

Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.