Drowned Wednesday

Allen and Unwin (2005)
ISBN: 1-74114-441-8
$14.95
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Syndicated from Ticonderoga Online, Reviewed by Liz Grzyb, Dec 2005
Should ASif! have the opportunity to review this book, this review will be replaced by an in house review.

The Keys to the Kingdom series is marketed as children's fantasy (and indeed, was nominated for an Aurealis Award in the Children's category), yet is good reading for everyone who likes a good fantasy/adventure story.

Arthur Penhaligon seems like a normal boy. He has asthma, he worries about his friends, and he's also Lord Arthur, Master of the Lower House and of the Far Reaches, Rightful Heir to the Kingdom. Apart from the many titles, Arthur is a realistic character. Both young and slightly older readers will sympathise with Arthur's prosaic responses to some of the fantastic circumstances he finds himself in.

While recovering from his previous adventures, Arthur is invited for lunch with Drowned Wednesday, the third of the Morrow Days who have possessed themselves of the Keys (thus the power) from the Architect and parts of her Will. In Mister Monday and Grim Tuesday, Arthur battled the preceding two Morrow Days to regain their parts of the Will and Keys.

Arthur is borne off with his hospital bed into the Border Sea, where he loses his friend Leaf and when he seeks refuge on a big red marker buoy, he is inadvertently marked as a thief. Once rescued by salvagers on the Moth, Arthur must try to find Leaf and have lunch with (and escape the ravening hunger of) Drowned Wednesday. This is all before persuading the Raised Rats to lend him their submarine to find the Will and save Leaf. In the meantime, Arthur meets some old friends, makes some new ones and almost becomes a rat!

The minor characters in Drowned Wednesday are quite straightforward. There is some suspicion towards the intentions of some of the individuals, but most can be taken simply at face value, so the reader can concentrate more on being swept away by the rollicking adventure story.

Drowned Wednesday is an easy read to while away a summer's afternoon. The story is good fun, and should certainly be on a few Christmas lists, children and adults alike!

Allen and Unwin (2005)
ISBN: 1-74114-441-8
$14.95
Buy this book
Back to Reviews page.
Reviewed by Alexandra Pierce, May 2007

Drowned Wednesday is quite a bit fatter than the previous two books in this series (Mister Monday and Grim Tuesday), at 366 pages. Unsurprisingly, there is commensurately more action, as well as more reflection and angst on the part of the main character, Arthur Penhaligon.

Quick recap for those not following closely: in the first book, Arthur was (accidentally?) chosen as the Rightful Heir to the Architect of the House. The House is something like the world tree, Yggdrasil, of Norse mythology - all possible worlds connect to it (here they’re the Secondary Realms, and include ours), and is a labyrinthine world of its own. The Architect created everything a very long time ago, and not quite such a long time ago she upped and left, leaving a Will and seven Trustees. Since then, the Trustees have got uppity and taken a seventh of everything for themselves. Understandably they don’t much want an Heir to actually come along and upset the apple cart, which, needless to say, is what Arthur is doing. The Will itself is sentient, and helps Arthur along - presumably wanting to be reunited with all of its parts. Each of the Trustees seems to represent one of the Seven Deadly Sins - Wednesday, for those keeping track, is sloth (I think).

This third installment in the Keys to the Kingdom series opens, on a Wednesday, with Arthur in hospital - the repercussion of events the day before - waiting anxiously for the inevitable: being transported back to the House by the minions or means of Lady Wednesday. And this time, his friend Leaf gets dragged along with him. Unfortunately for Leaf, they are soon parted, and she has to find her own way in this weird world. Arthur ends up meeting some interesting people along the way, as always - Dr Scamandros in particular proves fascinating, and I would think will turn up in further adventures. He has various adventures with pirates - the pirate Feverfew to be precise - and Raised Rats (large, and talkative, rodents). He is also reunited with Suzy Turquoise Blue, who has changed somewhat at Dame Primus’ behest but still manages to be amusing.

The Border Sea - where Arthur spends most of this book - is mostly water, having been flooded at some point (hence the title) and there are various ingenuities that the Denizens of the House have come up with in order to deal with that little issue. Unlike the previous two Trustees, Wednesday’s minions aren’t completely terrified of her - at least, not of her wrath… Wednesday is the nicest of the Trustees Arthur has met so far, comparatively, and seems more sinned against than sinning. She also has a smaller part than either Mister Monday or Grim Tuesday, which I think is a shame because she could have been quite interesting.

Leaf doesn’t get much of a look-in throughout Drowned Wednesday, which I think is a bit rough given she is a mortal and is as much a stranger in the House as Arthur, but as the Heir most people are interested in him and what he can do for them, so I guess it makes sense. One of the more interesting long-term issues mentioned in this book, but not explored in any great detail, is the fact that the more Arthur uses the Keys, and therefore magic, in the House, the more Denizen he becomes - and once he is wholly a Denizen, he will not be able to return home. I imagine that this is going to be a continuing problem for Arthur: he only has three Keys by the end of this book (that’s not really a spoiler - I don’t imagine there are any readers who doubt that Arthur will succeed, in these early books at least!), so he still has four left to get, and exactly how he might manage to get them sans magic is quite a conundrum.

In ‘real’ time, this entire series will only take a week - seven days. Of course, in lived time, Arthur will probably experience something close to six months, depending on how long (in House time) it takes to get the remaining Keys. There is, therefore, scope for Arthur to grow up and develop and become better at dealing with the issues he has to face, as indeed he has already - he’s much more grown up, and used to command, than he was in Mister Monday. One thing that hasn’t been addressed yet, and which fascinates me, is how will his family react to this (for them) overnight change? And what will happen if Arthur can’t ultimately go home? These questions, and Nix’s excellent writing, will definitely keep me coming back for more of this series.