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Saturday, August 16, 2008

Mister Monday by Garth Nix



Link to synopsis at Amazon here: The Keys to the Kingdom, Book 1: Mister Monday

I have a history with this book. As I mention at least every other post, I like to just peruse the juvenile fiction section at our local library, looking for books with the right font on the spine and the right thickness. Basically, I have physically profiled the books I like to read. Anyway, I picked up Mister Monday late last year, along with a handful of other likely targets. As happens from time to time, err, OK it happens all the time, my book basket is bigger than the empty spaces on my calendar, I returned it 3 weeks later unread. I forgot about it, and then a few months later, after the craziness of the holidays were over, I re-discovered the book the same way and took it home. For the second time I returned it unread. So when it caught my eye yet again on my routine trip through the fiction section I paused and thought it through. I decided that I wouldn't check it out unless I was really going to read it. I already had three different first-books-in-the-series in my basket, but I checked it out anyway, and when I got my first free minutes afterwards and got to pick the book to start with, this was it.

The good news is that as long as the editors and graphic design people don't change their ways, my physical book profiling is pretty good. A little weird in the prologue and first chapter or two, I had my doubts about this book early on, but by the end I am a fan and will read the rest of the series. Since you can read the basic plot elsewhere, I will attempt to give you a feel for the book. It is something of a cross between Levan Thumps and the Septimus Heap books (Magyk, Fltye, Physik, etc.) It is an adventure, with our main character destined to save the world, but in an outlandish kind of way. The world is contemporary, yet fantastic and eccentric.

I liked it and look forward to posting about the rest of the series.

Date Completed: 8/2/2008
Rating: 4.0

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