I've said in my book review of the Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix, that the books are complex in my opinion, but I thought that perhaps I have not truly done the books justice. This is me remedying the situation and explaining myself more completely.
Why are these books so complex? Well if that background wasn't enough to make your head spin, I'll try and clarify. Part of it is my expectation of what the author will do to a character in a book that is designed for a younger audience. Garth Nix does things to his characters and to the story I would not expect.
The rest of this post is very spoilery
**SPOILER ALERT** **SPOILER ALERT** **SPOILER ALERT**
Background:
The story is about a boy, Arthur, who is given a key by a mysterious stranger who appears to him just as he is about to die. Unbeknownst to Arthur, the situation has been manipulated by the first of seven parts of the will left by the mysterious Architect. The key gives Arthur strength and he becomes the Rightful Heir to the will and the keys. The will was separated into 7 different parts, each held by a trustee together with a key, but they did not honour the Architect's wishes. "The will must be done"Why are these books so complex? Well if that background wasn't enough to make your head spin, I'll try and clarify. Part of it is my expectation of what the author will do to a character in a book that is designed for a younger audience. Garth Nix does things to his characters and to the story I would not expect.
The rest of this post is very spoilery
**SPOILER ALERT** **SPOILER ALERT** **SPOILER ALERT**
World building and word building:
- "From Nothing came the whole House."
- ... [the Lieutenant Keeper of the door was wearing] a blue sallow-tailed coat with gold buttons and a single gold epaulette on his left shoulder, over a snowy white shirt, tan breeches, and shiny knee boots with turned-down tops."
- Dr. Scamandros has tattoos that are alive and flit across his face.
- They rode Not-Horses.
- Arthur can use the key to create the "Improbable Stair" summoning one where one does not exist. However "it is possible to end up somewhere you particularly do not wish to be. It is even likely, for that is part of the Stair's nature."
- Avoirdupois (my favourite)
- Samovar
The author is merciless:
I expected an author writing for the younger age group would be more benign towards his characters, but Nix is merciless.- Just when I thought that Leaf (Arthur's friend) escaped the "skinless boy" (an evil Arthur), she gets caught and gets infected by the mold - a disease that allows the skinless boy to take over her mind.
- Just when I thought that surely the author would not let Arthur get washed between the ears - a procedure that causes him to forget everything including his own name, he does. And this happens in the 4th book! Arthur forgot everything that happened to him in the 3 books before then!
- The author lets the lieutenant keeper of the door die - made me sad to see the lieutenant go (and a bit of trivia, the pronunciation is "lef-tenant")
- Arthur is no longer human at the end of the book...and makes decisions that are hard for him because he knows it makes him less human. How many children's books do you know that don't end with a happy ending?
The hard push:
- Again, I expect that when Arthur defeats the trustees of the will that is the end of the story, but it isn't. In the first book, after Arthur defeated the trustee and gained the key and the first part of the will, he still had to go back to his world because they were affected by a plague that made them sleep. He had to go and revive them and remove the sleepy plague. I am not sure there are many authors who would continue to press their heroes and have them give that last push beyond the showdown with the villain. And Arthur has to do it time and time again.
- Arthur constantly fights against his desire to give up and leave everything behind and go back to his world.
- He also has to keep fighting against the arrogance that grows the longer he holds the keys.
The symbolism
- In the scene where Arthur is getting washed between the ears, robed figures place something like a crown on his head.
- Lord Sunday lives in the incomparable gardens and just to be clear, Lord Sunday is the 7th trustee who has the 7th key and the 7th part of the will.
- Who is the mysterious Architect?
- The first trustee allowed his realm to become dilapidated through inactivity and ...sloth. Lady Wednesday was afflicted in such a way that she constantly ate.
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