If you read Stormchaser, the previous book in The Edge Chronicles as well as The Twig Trilogy, you will already know that Twig's first command as a sky pirate captain didn't end happily for most of his crew. Nevertheless, he brought home the stormphrax that saved the scholars' floating city of Sanctaphrax and guaranteed clean water for all the poor goblins, trolls, elves, and whatnot of the industrialized Undertown. Things turned out so well that Twig got a new skyship, a new crew, and a new mission: to find his father, lost in a storm. But this means going where no one has ever gone and returned: over the Edge, into the infinite mists beyond.

You'll want to read what I said about Beyond the Deepwoods and Stormchaser to get most of that. But once you've read those books, it's a gimme that you'll read this too. Paul Stewart's writing is crammed with inventive imagery and tightly-wound urgency; Chris Riddell's illustrations are simultaneously charming, weird, scary, and expressive; and when Twig's new mission and crew are blown to pieces even faster than the last time, you'll know you are in for a thrilling quest into the heart of a highly original fantasy world. This chapter offers all the sensory noise of a busy slave market and its cruel games, a wide-open menagerie of threatening and fascinating creatures, the unlikely friendship between a swashbuckling hero and a scholarly apprentice, and the suspense of knowing that a whole world depends on the hero's getting to one end of his world by a given date while he travels, ignorant of what fate holds in store, all the way to the other end. And it weaves all these things into a mythopoeic account of a unique world's cycle of death and rebirth.

It would be awesome enough without Riddell's irreplaceable pictures. The frontispiece's map of the Edge alone is certain to inspire wonder and fanciful contemplation. It is no wonder the Stewart-Riddell team can't seem to stop crafting new stories about this world, including The Curse of the Gloamglozer, The Last of the Sky Pirates, Clash of the Sky Galleons, and others. Plus, they are also the creators of the Far-Flung Adventures, beginning with the book Fergus Crane. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for the paperbacks. You'll hear more from me about these terrific ink-and-paper entertainers.

Robbie Fischer
USA

Recommended Age: 10+

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