Zib and Avery lived on the same street in the same town, but in different worlds. Zib was a girl of wild hair and mismatched socks, her
weekends spent catching frogs in the woods. Avery was a boy of pleated pants and shiny shoes who preferred reading or studying for school.
They'd never even met until the day they were both forced to detour on their way to their separate schools... and both found themselves
standing before a wall that they knew they hadn't ever seen in their neighborhood before. On the far side, they find a wild and impossible
woodland stretching as far as the eye can see - and a talking owl who tells them that, like it or not, they're now on an Adventure, one
that can only end once they find the improbable road and follow it all the way to the Impossible City at the heart of the realm known as
the Up-and-Under. As Zib and Avery began their journey together, they must end it together as well... but that's easier said than done,
when they have so little in common, and when the Up-and-Under and the improbable road seem to be doing their level best to tear them
apart.
Review
"A. Deborah Baker" is a pseudonym for popular author Seanan McGuire; this book, her first aimed at younger readers, is actually a spinoff,
referenced as an in-world classic in her dark fantasy Middlegame. (It is not necessary to have read Middlegame first, which
is good as that book is most definitely not for young children; though there are story parallels, the two stand well on their own.) Over
the Woodward Wall is an homage to classic portal fantasies, where children stumble into fantasy worlds and meet many strange characters
in their travels, but it is also its own thing. The Up-and-Under is less friendly than classic Oz-type worlds; to enter is not to simply have
a light afternoon's adventure between teatime and dinner, but to face the very real possibility of losing one's home, one's memory, even
one's heart. The characters likewise are more akin to older fae tales, not always friendly to outsiders; among them, the truth is a slippery
thing, and words have power that the children don't always realize until they've already spoken. Zib and Avery make decent heroes, both young
enough to make mistakes and clever enough to (mostly) learn from them. The whole is a fine adventure with nice mind's-eye-candy and turns of
phrase, though it does not end with a neat wrap-up; it's the first in a series, after all. It's an enjoyable and imaginative tale, one that
can be enjoyed by young and old alike.
Adventurous Zib and straight-laced Avery had lived their entire young lives almost as neighbors yet never meeting, her zizgagging off
in one direction and him walking in straight lines in the other, until they found themselves facing a wall that couldn't exist, beyond
which lay a forest that shouldn't be there. Now the children are unlikely companions in the Up-and-Under, a strange realm ruled by
peculiar Kings and Queens, where people are as likely to be made of stone or flocks of birds as ordinary flesh and blood. Their only
chance at getting home lies in reaching the Impossible City at the end of the Improbable Road... but you don't follow that road doing
anything so mundane (and safe) as simply walking along it. And the Road has its own ideas of what lost children need... especially when
the Up-and-Under apparently needs them to be more than just two more lost outsiders. The Queen of Wands, ruler of the Impossible City,
has gone missing, and if she's not found soon, the whole of the Up-and-Under may be in danger - and the children may never get
home.
After a long and weary trek along the Improbable Road, Zib and Avery and their companions, the drowned girl Niamh and the Crow Girl (who
has a habit of bursting into a murder of crows), find their way down a well and to the shore of the vast Saltwise Sea. Here, new
adventures and dangers await them, and more conflicts with the land's powerful, inscrutable, and sometimes fickle royalty and their
monstrous Page emissaries arise... and here, once again, Zib and Avery are reminded that, unlike what some parents and storybooks like to
say, those who wander into strange lands and have strange adventures are by no means guaranteed a happy ending.
Review
Coming off a very impressive first installment brimming with imagination and wonderful turns of phrase and great characters that feel
both familiar and original (and a world and adventure that feel likewise), Along the Saltwise Sea had a lot to live up to.
Happily, it proved up to the task. There's a brief refresher at the opening to remind readers where Avery and Zib left off (and bring any
newcomers roughly up to speed), then it's off and running. Zib and Avery have both been changed by their adventures, slowly coming to
grips with the unusual nature of the world they've found themselves in - a world that refuses to be anything so simplistic and safe as a
simple fairy tale. The children still clash occasionally, with each other and their traveling companions, with different ideas on how to
proceed and what to do and even what their ultimate goals may be. "Baker" (author Seanan McGuire under a pen name) employs some truly
great turns of phrase that beg to be quoted and contemplated and reread. It reads both quickly and slowly as a result, but altogether
enjoyably. I'm looking forward to grabbing the third installment when my budget allows.
Straight-laced Avery and free-spirited Zib have come a long way, literally and figuratively, since they climbed the wall from their
ordinary neighborhood into the Up-and-Under, a land of strangeness and wonder and danger aplenty. With them now travel Niamh, the drowned
girl, and the Crow Girl who once traded her heart and name to become a murder of crows, which only occasionally comes together to be a
person. Once more, they've found the improbable road, which will lead them to the Impossible City (and, if they can find the lost Queen
of Wands and restore her to the throne, eventually back to the world they came from)... but the road proves as capricious as ever when it
drops them into the Saltwise Sea without so much as a by-your-leave. When they finally end up on land again (courtesy of a kindly
mosasaur), it's in the domain of the Queen of Swords, monarch of Air and creator of monsters. If Zib and Avery have learned nothing else
in the Up-and-Under, it's that royalty are best avoided at all costs, and the Queen of Swords may be one of the most dangerous of the
lot... yet the improbable road leads straight through her castle. They'll need all their wits about them to escape her clutches, but even
then the passage will require sacrifice, for nothing - not even safety - comes without a cost in this land. Something else they have
learned, unfortunately, is that costs are almost always much, much higher than they realize, and bargaining with the Queen of Swords may
cost them more than they can afford to lose if they ever mean to return home.
Review
The third book in the Up-and-Under series maintains the quick pace, wild whimsy, and sometimes surreal aesthetic of the previous
volumes, with some deeper, occasionally cutting undertones and passages. Once again, Zib and Avery find their friendship tested, as Zib's
long-ago trading away of something precious to Avery comes back to haunt them both. Neither are the same children they were at the start
of their adventures, having learned and seen and done much together, but even though they've grown closer, there's still some inherent
friction due to their opposing natures. Their companions also have parts to play and stories to tell, particularly the Crow Girl, who was
long ago turned into what she is by the Queen of Swords. The journey takes several twists and turns, as they pick up a new ally and make
a new enemy (or, rather, deepen an old enemy's ire). Here and there I noted more echoes of the story Middlegame in offhand
passages and comments; the Up-and-Under series started as a spinoff of that book, an in-world beloved children's adventure secretly
written by a dark alchemist encoding secrets of the craft, even though it stands alone fine (and is geared at a significantly younger
audience). These echoes have been present throughout the series, but I noticed them more in this volume for some reason. There were a
few points where things felt just a little too jumbled and convoluted even for the inherently nonsensical adventure, but in general it's
in keeping with the previous two installments, setting up the fourth and (presumably) final volume, due out in October 2023. It made for
a nice change of pace.
When Avery and Zib climbed over the wall that shouldn't have been there into the forest that couldn't exist, they were strangers.
Now, after traveling the bizarre realms of the Up-and-Under along the fickle Improbable Road in search of the Impossible City and
the way home, they have become friends. Together with the one-time Crow Girl (now the near-stranger Soleil since she reclaimed her
name), the drowned girl Niamh, and Jack the boy made of a flock of jackdaws, they have at last arrived at the fiery realm of the
Queen of Wands: the missing queen who should be in the City, but has vanished without a trace, leaving a dangerous power vacuum
that the other realms might go to war to fill. For all the hardships and dangers they've endured, Avery and Zib are still together,
and now they're surely almost to the end of their strange adventures and peculiar trials. Wild-hearted Zib will miss the place and
their new friends, while Avery cannot wait to get back to a world where people don't become flocks of birds and roads stay just
where you left them when you turn away, but both are looking forward to going home to the families that surely miss them. All they
have to do is figure out where the Queen went and get her back to her tower in the City before war comes. Considering what they've
been through to get this far, it should almost be easy. But the Up-and-Under, much like the real world, does not always play fair
or offer happy endings. Just because they've come this far is no guarantee that they will succeed, and just because the two
children arrived together is no guarantee that they'll depart the same way - or at all.
Review
The conclusion to the four-part Up-and-Under series, a spinoff of/tie-in to author Seanan McGuire's horror-tinged alchemical
fantasy Middlegame (once a standalone, now a series) wraps up the story of Avery and Zib's adventures, as well as those
of their traveling companions. As in previous entries, the Up-and-Under is both reminiscent of classic portal fantasy worlds like
Oz or Wonderland and a dark reflection of those worlds. Even the kindest characters they meet almost invariably have hidden
agendas and shadows just beneath the surface, and the world itself contains levels of threat and menace that are never long
forgotten. Every place they've visited, every King and Queen and Page they've encountered, has great power and great capacity to
harm as well as help. When they do prove helpful, it's almost always because doing so helps themselves in some manner. Avery and
Zib, naturally, have had to learn to work together despite their differences, each changed by their journeys... Zib more than
Avery, as the girl openly embraces the slantwise logic of the Up-and-Under. As before, there are strong elements of alchemy and
elemental symbolism, such as that found in Tarot decks, throughout (part of the tie-in features; in the world of
Middlegame, "Baker" was actually a practicing dark alchemist who loaded her popular children's stories with occult
subtexts and hidden codes), as well as marvelous descriptions and turns of phrase that evoke the spirit of old, beloved tales.
With so many adventures and backstories and characters with conflicting motivations from the previous three books, this final
stretch of the journey can feel tangled, especially if it's been a while since one has read the previous three adventures, and a
few elements didn't feel like they paid off like they should have. The very ending felt abrupt, as though the story weren't
quite over yet and rushed to wrap up, while the "author" afterword tied it all back into Middlegame's universe.
Overall, I enjoyed this outing, demonstrating yet again the many talents of prolific author Seanan McGuire.
