Garth Nix

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Mister Monday

Be a Player, Not a Pawn.

Garth Nix's Mister Monday begins a brand new children's fantasy epic: The Keys to the Kingdom. This Australian author is fast-becoming one of the biggest names in fantasy with his reinvention of the genre and his intricate, fascinating plots. Unlike other such authors, who place their heroes in a medieval realm of magical swords, horse-back riding and dragons, Nix follows the example of writers such as Philip Pullman, Susanna Clarke, and (to a lesser degree) J.K. Rowling by creating a more contemporary fantasy-world with the flavors and style of the 18th and 19th centuries. Where his Seventh Tower series was written for younger readers, and Abhorsen trilogy for teenagers (though many adults got in on the act), The Keys to the Kingdom are situated smack dab in the center of these two age groups — though again, I hope this doesn't prevent people of any age group from reading them.

The Epicentre of the Universe is a realm known as "The House" — a labyrinth of rooms and halls and fantastical landscapes, that are ruled over by the treacherous Trustees, or as they are more commonly known, the Morrow Days. Their task was to take over the supervision of our world (or 'The Secondary Realms') from the creator — the Architect, who left Her instructions written in a Will, to be carried out accordingly. But the Days tore the Will into seven pieces and scattered the scraps across the known worlds to be guarded forever more, and only now — thousands of years later — has one fragment of the Will managed to escape...

Meanwhile, in the ordinary world, Arthur Penhaligon is coping with the pressures of the first day at a new school. Forced to go on a cross-country run — even though he has severe asthma — Arthur soon finds himself lagging behind, and eventually collapses on the lawn. Whilst his classmates run for help, the strangest thing happens: a young man and his butler appear from nowhere, and bequeath to Arthur something that they call a "Key" (though to Arthur it looks more like a large minute hand from a clock), and a strange book called 'The Compleat Atlas of the House and Immediate Environs'. But when a fight emerges between the two figures — Mister Monday and Sneezer — they both disappear without any further regard to Arthur.

And from there, things just get stranger. A giant House has appeared on the block that only Arthur can see, and ugly dog-faced men in bowler hats are coming after him. Worse of all is the outbreak of a mysterious illness that puts the whole community into quarantine and Arthur's own family in danger. Seeing no other way of helping, Arthur travels to the House, uses his key, and enters its domain... Arthur has been chosen by the Will to become Heir to the Kingdom and set right the corruption that is destroying management of the realm.

What follows is an amazing adventure through a world chock-full of danger, intrigue, invention and surprises. The House is one of the most colorful places you could ever wish to visit, complete with everything from elevators to dinosaurs to coal cellars. Nix delights in playing with words and concepts, and the phrases "got a frog in your throat" and "having a silver tongue" take on whole new meaning here, and things such as books, paper, the written word and language are given a solid, tangible quality that is thought-provoking and completely original. Old legends are given new life (such as the tale of the Pied Piper and the Greek myth of Prometheus) and concepts and symbols given real form: such as the days of the week in human form, and their angelic-looking (but quite devilish) Dawn, Noon and Dusks.

Throughout, Arthur is a sympathetic, understandable protagonist, who reacts to his adventures in a way that you'd expect a young boy to do, but with extraordinary resilience and courage, as does his young sidekick Suzy Turquoise Blue. All other characters are vivid and interesting, both good and bad, and immensely memorable. Also, Nix sprinkles little hints and clues to the next books throughout the text, so read carefully!

Mister Monday suffers slightly from the number of ideas and concepts that Nix crams between its covers, which can seem either random or confusing to a first-time reader. By the time they get on to the next books, the general formula of where Nix is going is straightened out and most of the things Arthur sees and hears of in this first book are understandable (which should justify a second reading!). Make sure Grim Tuesday is on hand to continue Arthur's story. —Rebecca Fisher

Mister Monday

Arthur Penhaligon was going to die of an asthma attack when a strange man appeared in an odd conveyance that seemed to be a cross between a wheelchair and a bathtub, and pressed a key into his hand — a key shaped like the minute hand of a clock. He’s about to give Arthur the hour hand key as well, when help arrives, and the old man disappears as quickly as he arrived. From that moment on, nothing will be the same. The key is actually the Lower Key to the House, and Arthur has been named heir, and if he wants to save the world from a mysterious plague that arrived with the dog-faced men known as Fetchers who were sent to retrieve the key, he’s going to have to claim him inheritance, venture into the House, and get the rest of the key from Mister Monday, who will resist relinquishing the source of his power.

Mister Monday, the first book in The Keys of the Kingdom, a series of seven books by Garth Nix, sets off into an entertaining, almost surreal romp into a parallel dimension. There powers are divided into seven realms, each presided over by a specific day. In this book we meet Mister Monday and his henchmen Dawn, Noon, and Dusk. While the conceit of time could grow old very quickly, making the book feel forced, Nix keeps it fresh and exciting. There are rational limitations built into the system as well, making time a force that both sides in the fight have to reckon with, not just Arthur and his friends.

Arthur manages to accumulate some interesting allies in his travels through the house — a talking frog, one of the girls spirited away by the Pied Piper of Hamelin, and he also has to decide if Monday’s Dusk is serious in his overtures of assistance. The motley assortment of characters in the House is fascinating and intriguing, but unfortunately, it throws the rather flat human world into stark relief. Arthur insists on finding the cure so he can get back and save the people he left behind, but the emotional ties he demonstrates haven’t been imbued with veracity through the story.

These stories are designed for 5-8 graders, and any kid who has worked his way through Harry Potter will enjoy this fun tale of adventure, absurdity, and intrigue. Recommended for anyone who enjoys fantasy targeted to the younger set, but which is still interesting enough for an adult. —Ruth Arnell

Drowned Wednesday

By now the formula to the Keys to the Kingdom series is in place — taking place over a week-long period (with each book chronicling a day) young Arthur Penhaligon travels into the mystical realm of "the House" in order to find seven pieces of a torn Will. This Will was destroyed by the personified Days of the Week (or the 'Morrow Days'), each of whom embody one of the seven deadly sins. Arthur has already defeated Mister Monday's sloth and Grim Tuesday's greed, and now comes up against Drowned Wednesday's terrible gluttony. By doing this, Arthur hopes to bring order once more to the House, in accordance with the instructions left by the Architect (the world's Creator) in the Will she left behind.

There's a lot more to it than that, so I strongly suggest reading Mister Monday and Grim Tuesday before this one, as Garth Nix's storylines are rather complicated — though not so complicated that it's not accessible to young readers. Once more Nix brings fresh new ideas to the fantasy genre, as well as a twisting plot, colorful characters and a brave protagonist who has now decided to take matters into his own hands.

From his hospital bed Arthur is set adrift on a stormy sea, along with Leaf, his new friend from the previous books. He's back in the realm of the House, and has a luncheon meeting with Lady Wednesday before him — and given his experience with the other Morrow Days, he's not looking forward to it. Separated from Leaf, and marked out by the terrible pirate Feverfew, Arthur meets an array of more unusual characters — such as the suspicious Doctor Scamandros and the untrustworthy Raised Rats (the rats that were spirited away by the Pied Piper of Hamilton). Now he must find a way to rescue Leaf and attain the next part of the Will — but who can he really trust?

Once more Nix fills his books with allusions to myths, legends and other famous stories — here in particular he shows his regard for Herman Melville's Moby Dick, and characters both old and new turn up to join in the adventure — in particular the irrepressible Suzy Turquoise Blue. Drowned Wednesday in particular gets a different treatment than the other Morrow Days, portrayed as a victim rather than an antagonist — the role of villain goes to the pirate Feverfew.

Unfortunately, Drowned Wednesday was not as enjoyable as the last two books — a sense of invention and magic was missing this time around, though there is still plenty to explore. The Border Seas were simply not as interesting to me as the previous settings; Arthur spends most of his time on ships and submarines — I either wanted to go back to the myriad of rooms of the House or onto the tantalizing named and often-mentioned 'Great Maze' and 'Incomparable Gardens'.

Nix seems obsessed with giving poor Arthur as many injuries as possible (rest assured, had he been in the real world, he would not have survived all the gashes, broken limbs and asthma attacks he experiences here), and often tension is created through near-escapes and close encounters — nothing like the battles and competitions of the other books. Drowned Wednesday is therefore not quite as gripping as the previous installments — but I can only be critical in comparison with other Nix books, since Drowned Wednesday is still much better than many other children's fantasy out there, and I'm eagerly awaiting Sir Tuesday.

And does anyone else think that the name 'Arthur Penhaligon' is a little too similar to 'Arthur Pendragon' to be a coincidence? —Rebecca Fisher

Sir Thursday

By now the basic premise of Garth Nix's seven-part The Keys to the Kingdom series is well established. Arthur Penhaligon has been thrown into an extraordinary world: the epicenter of the universe, known as "the House". Ruled by the treacherous Morrow Days (named after the days of the week and each personifying one of the seven deadly sins: Mister Monday/sloth; Grim Tuesday/greed; Drowned Wednesday/gluttony and now Sir Thursday who appears to be pride), Arthur has been given the task of reassembling the missing pieces of the Will that will strip these characters of their power and return it to the Rightful Heir — himself!

Perhaps a bit more exposition is needed: the Will is the written word of the creator of this world; a mysterious female-deity known as the Architect. Each piece of the Will takes the form of an animal before each is enveloped into Dame Primus; the embodiment of the Will itself. She grows stronger as Arthur returns each part of herself, and armed with the keys of the Morrow Days, the two stand a chance against the awesome power that each Morrow Day wields. So far Arthur has been successful, though the reluctant hero is getting nervous about his chances of returning home to his ordinary life, not to mention the dangers posed to his own world thanks to the upheavals taking place in the House.

In particular, Arthur is terrified about "the Skinless Boy," the doppelganger that has taken his place in the real world and who has the power to infect those about him with a grey mould that renders them his mindless servants. Sending his friend Leaf (her parents were hippies) back home to attempt to find the source of the Skinless Boy's power and destroy it, Arthur turns his attention to matters in the House. He has unknowingly been drafted into the Glorious Army of Sir Thursday, who has arrogantly released several thousand Nithlings (creatures made from Nothingness) into his province, the Great Maze, in order to train his troops. Feeling that it is the best hiding place for Arthur, Dame Primus encourages him to enlist so that he might seize the opportunity to get close find the forth piece of the Will. Moving between the two plots is the irrepressible Suzy Turquoise Blue, easily Nix's most vivacious character.

Garth Nix spent a few years in the Australian Army Reserve, which explains why so much of the routine and regulations of army life is so vividly captured in Arthur's stint as a soldier. Long hours of tedious training, yelling drill sergeants, heavy marches through difficult terrain, endless inspections, being shuffled from officer to officer, and then the heat and confusion of battle itself — it's enough to put you off war for good.

Arthur is gradually growing up as the stories go on, willingly taking more and more responsibility on his young shoulders as his emotional investment in the House and its inhabitants grow (not to mention the symbiotic effect it has on his own world). Even if it means loosing his own humanity and becoming a Denizen of the House, Arthur is now fully committed to his cause, foregoing a way out at what seems like a great personal cost. Likewise, pieces of the master-plan at work behind the Morrow Days are beginning to show — could it be that the Days of the Week are not behind some of the chaos? Arthur finds himself relying more and more on himself to find his own path through the turmoil of the political intrigue. At one stage he finds himself caught between three morally ambiguous characters: the self-righteous Will, the tyrannical Sir Thursday and the mysterious Piper that considers himself the Rightful Heir. Event the Architect herself — supposedly the creator of the universe — is thrown into some doubt in this installment. How Arthur wades through these murky waters makes for challenging and thought-provoking reading.

Unfortunately, much of the story feels a bit like padding. Arthur gets "cleaned between the ears", that is, his memory is wiped, but this somewhat clichéd amnesia-device adds little to the plot itself save as a minor inconvenience that he soon overcomes. Likewise, although the action-sequences of Leaf attempting to thwart the designs of the Skinless Boy are tense and fast-paced, it is ultimately a subplot that has no real bearing on the central thread of the story. Garth Nix's vivid imagination is firmly intact when it comes to atmosphere — particularly in his portrayal of the Great Maze as a moveable checkerboard, with each square covered in a different terrain — but although I enjoyed this installment better than Drowned Wednesday, it still doesn't quite live up to the intense imaginative tour-de-force of Mister Monday and Grim Tuesday. Nevertheless, I'll be on the lookout for Lady Friday!
—Rebecca Fisher

Lady Friday

At the epicenter of the universe is the House, a sort of celestial bureaucracy that is responsible for recording everything that happens in the Secondary Realms (the world as we know it). It is the Architect who is responsible for creating all this, with a range of guidelines and rules in place for keeping order in each world.

Named after the days of the week and personifying the seven deadly sins, the trustees took over the House when the Architect disappeared, disregarding the instructions she left behind in the form of the Will. As such, they have failed to appoint the Rightful Heir that the Will stipulates should take over in the Architect's absence. It is not until several thousand years pass that a piece of the Will manages to escape its imprisonment and find the Rightful Heir to defeat the seven trustees and claim the keys to the kingdom.

By this stage, if you have not yet been introduced to the world of Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom heptalogy, then there's no point in starting here. As you can see from the above summary, this is a complex story with a multitude of characters and subplots. Needless to say, any reader who doesn't have the previous four books under his belt will be hopelessly lost by what takes place here. Get yourself back to Mister Monday and work your way up from there.

For everyone else, this installment picks up right where Sir Thursday left off, in the Friday of the longest week of Arthur Penhaligon's life. Now with four Trustees taken care of, as well as four aspects of the Will reunited in the formidable Dame Primus, Arthur turns his attention to Lady Friday. Surprisingly, this trustee has decided to abdicate in order to pursue her own interests in the Secondary Realms. Unfortunately, it's not going to be that easy for Arthur: she's leaving her key to whoever can get to it first, and so it's a race between Arthur, the dangerous Superior Saturday, and the enigmatic Piper to reach Friday's scriptorium and the key first.

Together with familiar allies Suzy Turquoise Blue and Fred Initial Numbers Gold, Arthur sets out across the House which is swiftly becoming a war zone, filled with skirmishes, booby-traps and new acquaintances that may or may not be trustworthy. That's not the only thing he's got to worry about: every time Arthur uses the power of the key, he becomes more contaminated by its magic. Should he become a full Denizen, he won't be able to return home. This leads to several interesting situations in which Arthur must use his brain power instead of magic in order to solve his problems, and every time he is forced to rely on the key, the reader winces at the loss of his humanity.

Meanwhile, his mortal-friend Leaf (her parents were hippies) finds herself trapped in the House when she follows Lady Friday, and witnesses her sampling of the happy experiences of the sleepers she's gathered, including her Aunt Mango. Making her own plans to try and save her aunt, Leaf undergoes her own challenges as she tries to negotiate this dangerous world.

To be honest, I didn't find that this was best installment of the series. The setting seemed a little bland this time around, especially when compared to the likes of the Great Maze and the Outer Sea, and it suffers from "middle book" syndrome in that nothing really gets started, and nothing really gets resolved (and yes, I suppose you could say that about the last three books, but by this stage, the "get the key" plot is getting somewhat formulaic). Furthermore Lady Friday is hardly the most interesting of the trustees: she has no real agenda except to be left alone.

That said however, there is plenty here to enjoy. As both his family and life as he knows it slips away from him, Arthur also takes more responsibility for what is happening around him. The reluctant hero has always been sharp and compassionate, but here he is more proactive: making plans, taking charge, and declaring himself as the Rightful Heir with confidence and authority. The story moves along at a rapid pace, and our characters struggle onward, make mistakes, experience regret and triumph, and sometimes get lucky. At all times, you feel their determination and fatigue, and when they emerge victorious from a particular trial, the reader really feels that they deserve that success.

As usual, Nix's wordplay is always fun; in this case we have "Artful Loungers," a character called Peter Pirkin Paper Pusher, and someone yelling: "Stop the press!" (It's not what you think).

There are only two books left in this series, and it feels as though it's time to wrap things up. All the pieces are in place: I'm looking forward to seeing what Nix has planned for the conclusion.
—Rebecca Fisher

Superior Saturday

The longest week of Arthur Penhaligon's life is drawing to a close in this, the penultimate installment in Garth Nix's The Keys to the Kingdom seven book series. Although he has managed to win five Keys from the immortal Trustees that rule over the House (the epicentre of the universe) and free five parts of the Will (the embodiment of the legislation left behind by the mysterious Architect) he still has the two most dangerous challenges left to defeat: the powerful Superior Saturday and the enigmatic Lord Sunday.

As in all the books, Arthur must free the next part of the Will and wrest the Key from the Trustee, but Nix's skill as a storyteller keeps this formula from getting stale. By this stage, the situation is dire and things just keep getting worse for our intrepid hero. The terrible Nothing is swallowing up the lower portions of the House, many of his allies are unreliable, and a nuclear bomb attack threatens his home city. With his family and friend Leaf endangered on the one hand, Arthur must make an intractable decision regarding his own humanity to (literally) buy some time for the safety of his loved ones.

Meanwhile, Superior Saturday stands in her impossibly tall tower soaked by constant rainfall, the square iron cubicles that make up its height constantly being raised in her attempts to breach the base of the Incomparable Gardens where Lord Sunday resides. (Could this be Nix's sly nudge at corporate life? Even though promotions are physical movements to a higher floor, conditions aren't really improved, one's peers are bitterly resentful, and one only gets a different colored umbrella in return for all that hard work). All of the Trustees embody one of the seven deadly sins, and Saturday jealously coverts Lord Sunday's position, which opens up an opportunity for Arthur (and Suzy Turquoise Blue, of course) to infiltrate her realm.

By this stage Arthur is a proactive, three-dimensional hero who has accepted the burden placed upon him. He makes his plans, stands up to Dame Primus, and goes undercover with the grease monkeys that oversee the growth of the tower. But at the same time, Arthur himself is going through some rather profound changes. Every time he uses the power of the Keys, more of his mortal self is sapped away, along with the chance to return home to a normal life. Although his transition into a Denizen of the House means supernatural strength and the elimination of his asthma, it also has the troubling side-effect of loosing much of his empathy toward lesser life-forms. Struggling to stifle his newfound sense of arrogance, one can feel the weight on this young man's shoulders, even as his body loses many of its weaknesses.

The Keys to the Kingdom is so complex that it's impossible for a beginner to start things here, what with the sheer amount of information concerning the House, the Trustees, the Will, and various other powers and personalities. But for long time readers Superior Saturday is a satisfying read... for the most part. Superior Saturday herself, one of the most dangerous entities in the entire series, is disappointingly absent for most of the book, and although all of the books thus far have been relatively self-contained with a clear beginning-middle-end to the adventures, Superior Saturday ends on a frustrating cliff-hanger. Perhaps it's better to wait until the publication of Lord Sunday and read the "weekend books" one after the other in a single volume.

But like a giant chess game, the pieces now seem to be in place for the final battle: the Piper, Saturday and Sunday, Dame Primus, and Arthur himself are all ready for the final climactic battle (as well as an intriguing reappearance from the Old One that will surely have its consequences in next book). I'm greatly looking forward to Lord Sunday. —Rebecca Fisher

Lord Sunday

In the concluding installment of Garth Nix’s The Keys to the Kingdom, Arthur Penhaglion has to organize an assault on the Incomparable Gardens, home to Lord Sunday, who controls the last part of the Architect’s Will. But Arthur isn’t the only one trying to liberate the last magical fragment of the will — he also faces the armies of Serious Saturday and the Piper, both intent on reaching the Will before Arthur can free it to join the other six parts (which will allow the will to be fulfilled). And Arthur has to get the Will soon, because the House is falling to the forces of Nothing, and if it reaches the Will first, all will be undone — including his life back at home.

I had only read the first book in The Keys to the Kingdom series (Mister Monday) before I began Lord Sunday, the seventh and concluding book, but Garth Nix catches the reader up on details without overburdening the narrative with extraneous exposition. The first book set up the operation of the world well enough that I was able to follow the story without any significant difficulty. (Rebecca’s reviews, above, help, too.)

Arthur has gained enormous powers by this point in the series, and constantly struggles with the temptations of wielding phenomenal amounts of power, yet he has also stayed true to his core values. Since he loses some of his humanness each time he uses the magical Keys, Arthur has to rely on his own mental abilities much of the time to keep from turning into one of the Denizens of the House. The only reason he is in the House in the first place is to protect his family back at home from the disease and destruction caused by the appearance of a Denizen in the mortal realms. Though he acts nobly, at times I was surprised by Arthur’s trust in the other characters. After all the deception and competing agendas going on amongst the seven keepers of the Will, his willingness to trust implicitly in the Will struck a false note to me.

The full supporting cast of characters is here as well. Leaf, Suzy, and the martinet Dame Primus are the core of Arthur’s support system, but other people move around on the periphery in amusing, and sometimes unexpected, ways. Suzy adopts a Sorceror, Giac, and Leaf accidentally ends up in charge of a monstrous beastwort. These small details help flesh out Nix’s world.

However, there are so many characters that need page time and so many story lines to be resolved that at times the pacing was a bit erratic and choppy. Because all the characters are involved in adventures of their own, Nix jumps back and forth between storylines so frequently that it makes the narrative seem disjointed. Additionally, everyone is in so much danger throughout the entire book that there wasn’t anywhere for the reader to pause and a catch a metaphorical breath.

On the whole, Lord Sunday is a satisfying conclusion to a series which is full of interesting characters and moral dilemmas. Arthur has to make some difficult choices in this tale, and some of his choices are bad. Watching the consequences play out, without the traditional happy ending, makes for an emotionally satisfying tale for young readers. —Ruth Arnell