Owen, James A. The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica: The Indigo King. Simon & Schuster. 375 pages.
Hurrying along one of the tree-lined paths at Magdalen College in Oxford, John glanced up at the cloud-clotted sky and decided that he rather liked the English weather. Constant clouds made for soft light; soft light that cast no shadows. And John liked to avoid shadows as much as possible.
The third in the series. (The first book: Here There Be Dragons; The second book: The Search for the Red Dragon). This fantasy stars three Inklings: C.S. Lewis (Jack), J.R.R. Tolkien (John), and Charles Williams. (Though the Charles in this novel isn't the Charles we really know. But that is a long story!) It is also sprinkled with other writers (aka Caretakers) including H.G. Wells (Bert), and Jules Verne. New caretakers are being discovered in each book and it is fun to see which writers are the good guys and which ones aren't.
It's been fourteen years since these three Oxfordians became Caretakers of the Imaginarium Geographica. And these years have been sprinkled with adventure here and there. (Which of course you're encouraged to read about in the first two books.) In case you don't remember, an accident in the second book (I believe it was the second book anyway) caused troubles with time, with the time line. And those troubles erupt in this third novel. Jack and John (and friends) are traveling here, there, everywhere in time trying to solve problems and prevent catastrophic changes in the timeline. If they don't succeed, the world as we know it may never exist. It can be a bit complex. But it's a good and satisfying kind of complex, in my opinion. We have Jack and John meeting some very interesting characters (both human and animal) along the way. And there are a few fun twists. And new characters. Including Hugo Dyson.
This one does play around with the theme of King Arthur, Merlin, Mordred, The Green Knight, and The Holy Grail. So if you're in the Arthurian challenge, you can count this one.
Other reviews: Rhinoa, Semicolon, Deslily.
© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
3 comments:
I really want to read this series at some point, but I just have too many series on the go at the moment!
My son loves these books and hasn't yet read the 3rd one. Thanks for the review!
Elizabeth
Mystery Writing is Murder
thanks for the refresher on this one becky.. I have recently begun book 4 The Shadow Dragon. I like the series for "who" the main characters are and that he goes and uses so many other from fantasy and myth... it's a good series.
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