David Whitley

The Agora Trilogy — (2009-2010) Ages 9-12. Available for download at Audible.com. Publisher: In a society based on trade, where everything can be bought and sold, the future rests on the secrets of a single document-and the lives of two children whose destiny it is to discover its secrets. In this spellbinding novel, newcomer David Whitley has imagined a nation at a crossroads: misshaped by materialism and facing a choice about its future. He has brought to life two children who will test the nation's values-and crafted a spellbinding adventure story that will keep readers turning the pages until the very end. For readers who love Philip Pullman, THE MIDNIGHT CHARTER combines great storytelling with a compelling vision — a many layered adventure with powerful and timely implications.

The Midnight Charter

The Midnight Charter by David Whitley is an intriguing YA book with some deep ideas behind it, though it doesn’t quite meet its potential in terms of the story itself. The book is set in the city of Agora, a walled-off dystopia whose workings revolve around a barter-for-everything system: Food, art, labor, even emotions, are commodities of trade. The system has stood for some time, but as the story opens, the needed disruption (otherwise there wouldn’t be much of a story) is about to occur. That disruption takes the form of two orphans and a secret document whose prophecy is about to unfold.

One orphan is Lily, who through the course of the novel begins to undermine the whole philosophy of Agora through the novel idea of “charity.” The other — sometimes set against, and sometimes acting in concert with Lily — is Mark, who through unexpected means becomes a powerful figure in the city’s economy.

The Midnight Charter's success is mixed. The underlying themes and concepts are deep, casting a wider societal net than many YA books do, going beyond the simple “tyranny is bad” or “ignorance is bad” of many such allegorical books. The issues of class and capital and ethics give the book some real potential for originality.

Unfortunately, the book doesn’t quite live up to that potential — mostly because we don’t really get a strong sense of the world and the way it works. There are some sharp moments, especially those dealing with the selling and buying of emotion, but more such moments layered throughout would have greatly improved The Midnight Charter.

Characterization is also a mixed bag. Lily is interesting but a bit single-minded, and often her passionate words and actions seem more crafted by the author than inherent aspects of the character. Mark is less interesting for several reasons. First, for most of the book he goes along with the society rather than against it as Lily does, so there is less room for conflict. Second, he is more passive than Lily, being acted upon rather than acting. Finally, he is more naïve than Lily (despite her idealistic crusade) and thus is played for a fool for much of the book. The reader will see this far earlier than Mark does, and will want to shake him and point out what is obvious. Though, to be fair, he is relatively young. If you keep repeating his age to yourself while reading, his blindness is less annoying.

The plot of The Midnight Charter is solidly interesting, but I wouldn’t label it compelling, and it’s marred by a rushed resolution and a relatively clumsy chunk of exposition at the very end. All in all, The Midnight Charter's original thematic focus keeps the reader (at least this reader) going to the end, but it fights itself along the way with some weak plot and characterization. A slightly weak three. —Bill Capossere

The Children of the Lost

The Children of the Lost is David Whitley’s follow-up to last year’s The Midnight Charter, which I reviewed as a weak three: strong in ideas but weaker in characterization and plotting. The Children of the Lost is a stronger book, though it also has its flaws. One thing I feel compelled to point out upfront, however, is that The Children of the Lost ends in a true cliffhanger of an ending, and so those who find such endings annoying may want to hold off until the third book comes out (I assume next year).

The Children of the Lost shares most of the same characters from The Midnight Charter, including the two major ones: Lily and Mark, along with other familiar ones such as the Director (who runs the city of Agora), the shadily effective Snutsworth, Lily’s friends at the Almshouse — Laud, Dr. Theo, etc. And part of the book shares the same setting: the city of Agora, where everything is up for formal sale and contracting, including people, memories, emotions, and political support.

The Children of the Lost opens up the geography, however, picking up at the end of the last novel when Lily and Mark were cast out of the city. This gives Whitley leave to explore several other settings. As with Agora’s extreme form of capitalism, Whitley uses these separate settings to portray ways of life for the characters (and the reader) to consider in light of their/our own priorities. Once again, Whitley offers up a story of ideas (even if some are a bit familiar) rather than simply plot. As with the first book, this meets with mixed success: one lifestyle is a bit predictable (though to be fair, it will be much less so to younger readers, so this shouldn’t be considered a major flaw) while the others don’t quite get examined in anywhere near the detail of the first, or of Agora in the first book. Personally, I would have liked to have seen much more of both.

The Children of the Lost also does a better job with characterization, as both Mark and Lily come alive a bit more here. Even better, their relationship does as well, and the way the two spark off of each other, for good and bad, is a major improvement. Side characters in the Mark/Lily plot line are mostly one-dimensional, save for one. The Agora plot line gives us many more characters, though we spend less time with each. Here the plot involving the Director and Snutsworth is the most interesting (and leaves the most questions hanging), while a subplot involving a rabble-rouser character offers up potential for the future if not a lot of excitement here. Finally, the subplot involving Lily’s friends at the Almshouse is, I have to say, relatively dull and repetitive, though luckily we don’t spend much time on it.

In general, the plot moves along more quickly and smoothly than that of The Midnight Charter, especially for the first two-thirds of the book. It does have a few pacing issues, mostly in struggling with how to portray the characters waiting and not doing much without that same sensation happening to the reader. The ending, unfortunately, is probably the weakest part. It feels quite rushed, has several clumsy sections of exposition, and then, as mentioned, ends on that cliffhanger.

I gave The Midnight Charter a “weak three” in that review, but would put The Children of the Lost up at a strong three or a weak four; it shows improvement in nearly every aspect save for its close. If the same level of improvement occurs between this and the next book, it looks like the series will be a winner, but at this point, I think I’ll wait for that next one before recommending whether readers should start the series or not.  —Bill Capossere