Well, here we are, more than halfway through January somehow already. I have managed to keep my resolution so far to weed at least one book a week, though I know that is going to get harder as the year progresses and I run out of the “easy” picks. But because of that I’ve also grabbed some old books off the shelf that I really should have read a long time ago, mixed in with my current reads.
Today’s column is a mixed bag of what I’ve been reading lately.
The Vanished Kingdom series by Jonathan Auxier
I mentioned The Vanished Kingdom: The War of the Maps back in December — it’s a third book in a series that I had thought was done years ago, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that there would be more. Since it had been a while, I went back and started at the beginning with Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes and then continued with Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard. (If you’re not already familiar with those books, you can click on the titles to read my original impressions.) The series was not originally titled The Vanished Kingdom when the first two books came out, but have gotten new covers with that series title since I first read them.
Coming back to the books nearly a decade later, it was interesting to compare the details that I still remembered and the things that I had totally forgotten about. I also have a different perspective on some things now, too — there is language (particularly around Peter’s blindness) that feels even more uncomfortable, and I had also forgotten how brutal and violent some scenes were. It’s a kids’ book, but it doesn’t shy away from some gruesomeness. The first book is a magical tale about a blind orphan who is trained by an awful man to be a thief, and eventually becomes a hero. It’s full of magic and whimsy, and one of the things I really loved about it (both then and now) is the voice of the narrator, which is prone to exaggerations and makes the whole thing a tall tale.
The second book switches to focus on Sophie Quire, and a battle between the magical and the modern. Inquisitor Prigg is determined to rid the world of what he considers “nonsense,” which is basically anything that seems to defy science. When Peter and Sir Tode — basically fairy tale characters themselves — burst onto the scene, it causes a huge clash, and Sophie soon finds herself at the center of it, even though she doesn’t have any magical powers herself. This book is really a celebration of stories, as captured by this quote:
“Stories are not mere diversions to occupy us on rainy days. … They are a type of magic spell — perhaps the most powerful in existence — and their effect is to summon possibilities. … Every time the spell is cast, the impossible becomes a little more possible.”
The War of the Maps takes place a while later — Sophie and Peter indeed defeat Inquisitor Prigg and save the magical world, and go on to have more adventures. All is well, right? But then along comes another threat: the League of Maps, a scientific group that insists that everything can be measured, described, and defined … which then seems to sap the wonder out of everything. At first, it felt a little like more of the plot of the second book — wait, they decided to build a second Death Star? But the story takes a different direction, and Auxier manages to up the stakes as well.
Peter feels obliged to take up arms again, but (as we learned in the second book) sometimes he doesn’t always think things through before acting. As Sophie learns more about the League of Maps, she’s also not entirely convinced that what they’re doing is wrong. And this time we also get to follow Peg Hazelgood — a girl we met in the first book (but no more spoilers!) — who also plays a more active role in the story when she has her own encounter with the mysterious Professor Cake.
What these three characters discover is a war over what reality is and could be, and that there are forces in play that are quite ancient — but also that it’s not very easy to tell who’s on what side. This is a story that sets you up to think it’s obvious who the “good guys” and “bad guys” are, but then things get complicated. As before, Auxier trusts kids to wrestle with some big concepts, and the story is really thought-provoking.
One thing that felt a little strange was that, although the story isn’t told in the first person, each chapter does center on one character at a time, and the story is presented primarily from their perspective. But that means that sometimes things are repeated — we know something happened to Peter in an earlier chapter, but then Sophie learns about it in the next chapter so we hear a little bit about it again, which felt redundant. That’s a minor complaint, but one that did not keep me from devouring the book. If you love the magic of stories, this series is definitely worth (re)visiting. You’ll have to wait until April for The Vanished Kingdom, but you can get started on the first two books in the meantime!
One Level Down by Mary G. Thompson
Ella lives on Bella Inizio, a colony on an alien planet founded by her dad, Philip Harkin. She is five years old, and everything is just perfect… at least, perfect according to Philip. Because if it isn’t, he has the keys to fix it: Bella Inizio is actually a simulation, and Ella has been “five years old” for 58 years, a replacement for the daughter who died soon after Philip arrived on the real Bella Inizio. He and the colonists who arrived with him were all uploaded into a simulation where they’re safe and basically immortal, but nobody knew until the deal was done that Philip gave himself control over everything else, including the ability to delete people from the server if he chooses to.
Ella wants out. She can’t bear to act like a five-year-old anymore, but Philip has punished her whenever she behaves her actual age, and has also retaliated against anyone who has tried to help Ella. Her only hope is to contact a Technician — a support tech from the company who designs and maintains the simulations — but will she able to get her message across, and will the Technician be able to help her?
Like Ella herself, this sci-fi novella is small but has a lot packed into it. Philip is a scary character — he is abusive (sometimes physically, but primarily psychologically) but tells himself he’s doing what’s best, and people who have experienced his type of manipulation may not want to re-experience that in a story. However, if you can stomach that, Ella’s story and her plan to escape Bella Inizio is fascinating, and took some surprising directions.
My Current Reads
I’m about halfway through my re-read of the Inkheart series (also mentioned in this column) so I can read the new Inkworld novel, and have been enjoying it. Like the Peter Nimble series, this one is all about the magic of words, and also happens to feature a bookbinder character. I also started on Against Platforms by Mike Pepi (one of my reading resolutions), which felt timely given all of the recent news about both Meta and TikTok. We migrate from one platform to another, but in the end we are still the product — what’s the alternative? I haven’t gotten that far yet, but I’m intrigued.
Disclosure: I received review copies of the books covered in today’s column. Links to Bookshop.org help support my writing and independent booksellers!
