Twelve-year-old Henry York lived a sheltered, smothered life in Boston under the eyes of his parents - or, more often, his nanny. Their
overprotectiveness seems ironic, as they make their living traveling all over the world... which is how they found themselves kidnapped in
Columbia, and why Henry is on his way to Aunt Dotty and Uncle Frank's farm in rural Kansas. Their three girls - nosy young Anastasia, bossy
Penelope, and bold Henrietta - take for granted the sort of liberties Henry never knew existed. First, Henry's afraid, then he's excited. A
town so small that seat belts are optional... an eccentric uncle who buys him his first pocket knife... playing his first-ever game of
baseball... it's almost an adventure. When Henry finds mysterious little cupboard-sized doors behind the plaster of his new attic room, doors
that lead to strange places far beyond Kansas, he learns that not all adventures are child's play - especially adventures where magic is
involved.
Review
This story starts fast, introducing eccentric characters who are rarely as flat or dense as they might seem at first blush. A farmhouse in
a postage stamp of a Kansas town may seem an unlikely setting for a world-hopping magical adventure, but it serves as an excellent, if
unexpected, locale. Henry and Henrietta, his chief sidekick, only scratch the surface of the cupboards' many worlds, but the little they see
only made me more eager to explore further. If anything, the story started moving too fast towards the end, building up the steam that will
catapult it through to the second book... and which, despite the very sorry state of my finances, I expect I'll have to obtain sooner rather
than later. A fun story that reads fast, and if the ending leaves things a bit up in the air, well, I knew it was a multipart series when I
bought it.
And I have to give N. D. Wilson credit; despite the concept and the setting, he keeps the Wizard of Oz references to a very, very
marginal minimum, and nobody ever says "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."
In the short time he's lived with his aunt and uncle in rural Kansas, Henry York has changed in more ways than he could possibly have imagined,
and learned secrets that perhaps should have been left unlearned. Thanks to the magical cupboards in his attic room and his late grandfather's
diaries, Henry and his cousin Henrietta have walked on other worlds... and unwittingly released the undead witch Nimiane from her exile in Endor.
He also discovered that he is not who he always thought he was. Like his uncle Frank before him, Henry was born in another world - but, with his
parents (or the people he always called his parents) home from South America, he's due to be shipped back to Boston, where he'll be smothered by
nannies and boarding schools again. He can't go back to being the sheltered boy he used to be, and he can't let go of the lure of the cupboards and
the mystery of his origins, but his decision to search for his home world may lead to dire consequences. For Nimiane's power is returning, and she
remembers well who bound her in the tomb of Endor... just as she recognizes that man's son, and the untapped power waiting to be awakened in
him.
Review
Just like the first book, Dandelion Fire moves fast and builds to a breakneck climax. Henry's powers, wakened by the titular weed, add a new
dimension to his character, especially since magic in Wilson's universe doesn't come as easily as it does to some young mages. Its waking can be lethal,
and learning to use it is a painful, slow process, known to drive some would-be mages mad. A few characters don't seem to have purposes yet, most
notably the boy Richard (who followed Henry home from one of his first cupboard explorations, and has been little more than a tagalong since), but
there's one more book to go, so maybe they'll come into their own then. (I'm also starting to wonder if Wilson should invest in a good book of names;
Henry and Henrietta aren't the only recycled character names, so unless there's some plot relevence - alternate-world versions of the same soul or some
such thing - I'd advise him to think outside the box the next time he needs to christen a character.) I don't know if I'll be able to wait for the
paperback edition to find out how the story ends.
Henry York Maccabee, reunitied with his family in one of the magical realms beyond the cupboard doors, survived his second confrontation with the
deathless witch Nimiane... but at a cost. A drop of her blood touched his cheek, leaving a spreading scar of death that threatens to consume his
sanity, and his life. His dandelion magic fights the growing chill, but the bond remains, a gray thread by which Nimiane's foul fingerling slaves can
track him across any world, through any cupboard door. His father Mordecai and uncle Caleb travel to the dead realm of Endor, formerly Nimiane's
prison, to search for a cure - hopefully tied to a way to end the immortal witch's life - but time is against them. When the ships of the distant
Emperor attack his family's home, capturing his relatives as bait for the missing Mordecai, Henry realizes that he's sick of running away. He was the
one who inadvertently freed Nimiane from Endor. He is the one who draws danger to his friends and family. So he is the one who must bear his dandelion
fire into the darkness and end her evil... even if it ends his own life.
Review
N. D. Wilson weaves a magical tale full of poetic beauty, ancient lore, and grand destinies. Unfortunately, he weaves it into a knot so tangled it
took me most of the book to work my way back into the universe, full of obscure references and actions dependent on an inpenetrable internal logic that
made most of the dangers and their solutions burst forth seemingly from the blue. The dialog, much like the overall narrative, didn't help by crafting
itself almost exclusively in metaphor. At about the halfway point, I was ready to kill for someone to just spit out what they wanted to say, without
dancing about in Shakespearean obfuscation. Most of the bloated cast never did pull their own weight, and female characters see their roles degenerate
into mere objects that sentimentalize, feel vulnerable, need protection, and - if they're feeling particulary bold - cheer on the boys doing the real
work. Richard, whose presence dropped from an intrigue into a disappointing puzzle in Book 2, proves about as useless as the girls this time out, never
coming through or pulling weight or having any real purpose except to tag along behind Henry like a forgotten footnote stuck to the author's shoe. Having
foundered along in the sinking ship, I was finally rewarded with an ending... but then came an epilogue so pointless that it drug the whole book down
another half-star. (Yes, I was feeling that irked.)
I think I would've rated this book higher had I read it closer to the other two volumes, or had it included a recap - either a summary of the first two
books, or in-story refreshers to help remind me who was who and doing what in which corner of the world - to reorient me. As it was, despite the undeniable
beauty of Wilson's prose, I just could not immerse myself properly to enjoy this book. (And he never does explain why so many names are recycled...)
N. D. Wilson Yearling Fiction, YA Adventure Themes: Lost Worlds, Thieves ***+
Description
Fourteen-year-old Thomas Hammond lives on the outskirts of town with his mother, in an old house chained to the top of a giant boulder. He has
never thought to question it, never thought to wonder about the occasional rumor of tunnels through the nearby mountains and treasure hunters
disappearing; he's more concerned with the willows and the frogs in the creek... and, more recently, with the unsavory man courting his widowed mom.
He knows she deserves some happiness, but that doesn't stop the angry, bad feelings from building up inside. One night, too full of anger to sleep,
he slips out of the house and drifts on a piece of packing foam in the water to clear his head - and finds himself grabbed by the current and pulled
into a mysterious cavern next to a dead body. Thus begins Tom's adventure under the mountain, an adventure that careens from raw survival through
impossible discoveries and the unearthing of long-buried secrets.
Meanwhile, above ground, Tom's mother Elizabeth begins her own journey. Convinced that her son is still alive in the face of all evidence, she starts
down paths nearly as deadly as those faced by Tom.
Review
I read and enjoyed the first two books of Wilson's middle grade 100 Cupboards trilogy (reviewed above), so I thought I'd try this, his
first young adult book. I wasn't as impressed as I'd hoped to be. Tom's adventures strain credibility more than once, and I couldn't help thinking that
part of the story had been trimmed in the speed and neatness of its wrap-up. The premise that ancient civilizations might have made their mark on North
America long before Columbus sailed in 1492 isn't as radical as the characters seem to think, though the level of conspiracy involved and cover-ups
executed by one small town's treasure-hunting society pushes the very limits of one's suspension of disbelief. Wilson has some nicely descriptive prose,
however, and presents several neat scenes for the mind's eye to contemplate. I didn't hate it, but I definitely preferred the 100 Cupboards
trilogy (what I've read of it, at least.)
