BOOK BLURB:
The Caretakers of the Imaginarium Geographica are at war. The last stones from the Keep of Time are falling, and, at the request of an old enemy, a new tower is being built in our world. The old enemy is the Winter King's Shadow, and he wields a terrible weapon - the Spear of Destiny - which can be used to command the shadows of anyone it touches...including the protectors of the Archipelago, the dragons. The Shadow King returns to the Archipelago using the ship, the Iron Dragon, and enlists an unstoppable army of Dragon Shadows...While WWII rages in our world, all the caretakers, both past and present, must come together to save the Archipelago. All hope lies with a small group of companions, along with mythical knight, Don Quixote, who must sail beyond the very ends of the Archipelago in search of a broken sword, and the only being alive who can repair it: a scholar, who, once upon a time, was called Madoc.
REVIEW:
OK, I can’t help it, I’m a big fan of James Owens stories featuring characters and authors well known to the modern reader. The tales are not only imaginative but leap from the page in such a way that you just can’t help but be sucked into the world in which he’s woven. Its classical world building, the characters are fully formed and unlikely friendships come together within these offerings as they each seek to thwart a disaster to not only the world of imagination but to the human world as well. Its good solid fun, it’s a series that I’m saving especially for the my nephews to enjoy at just the right time and one that will help them bridge the gap to enjoying some adult fiction as well as some of the other stories from the characters within.
BOOK BLURB:
On a September evening in 1931, John and Jack, two of the Caretakers of the Imaginarium Geographica, discover a plea for help on an ancient medieval parchment. It seems to have been written by their friend, Hugo Dyson! But when they rush to warn him, they find that Hugo has already been abducted by fierce creatures called the Un-Men, who have mistaken him for the third Caretaker, Charles. And in that moment, the world begins to change...The Frontier which separates our world from the Archipelago of Dreams has fallen. Dark and terrible beasts roam throughout England. No one can be summoned from the Archipelago. And worse, their mentor and ally Bert seems to have forgotten them entirely! The only hope of restoring order from the chaos lies on a forgotten island - where a time travel device left by Jules Verne must be used to race through history itself - from the Bronze Age, to the fall of Troy and the founding of the Silver Throne. And in that single night, John and Jack discover that the only way to save their friend and stop the chaos destroying the world is to solve a two-thousand year-old mystery: Who is the Cartographer?
REVIEW:
I’ve absolutely loved this series by James Owen since its original release so when a new offering lands, you can be pretty damn sure that it flies to the top of my TBR pile. Here the characters seek to put right what’s gone wrong and whilst favourite characters from children’s tales abound, it’s the novel way that James blends them, along with authors of our own time that makes this series so compelling. Never one to miss a trick this really is a series for the YA reader with twists and turns and powerful characters that will speak to the YA psyche.
BOOK BLURB:
