The Raven Mysteries, #1 Flood and Fang

By Marcus Sedgwick

#1 First Published in 2009 by Orion

Ooooh, The Raven Mysteries. I love it when you discover a terrific kids series. This one’s been out for a couple of years now but it’s only just recently been on my radar – a series of books narrated by a cranky raven? Yeah, I’m down for that. An ancient, gothic-style castle? Defs. And an assortment of oddballs, lunatics and fruitcakes that inhabit this castle? Totally. And the first book, Flood and Fang, was a fun, easy and quirky, with gorgeous illustrations perfectly suited to the tone of the book. There is great delight taken in the silly and the ridiculous, turning oddity and quite often stupidity into one big, enjoyable laugh.

The real drawcard is Edgar, the Raven, who is lovely and funny and bitter and arrogant in all the right amounts, although I do have a soft spot for cranktastic ravens, having written a novel about one myself. His voice and narration gives Flood and Fang a great novelty factor – I’m not sure if it would lose some of its charm further into the series, but for the moment take great pleasure in his witty asides and comical derring-do. Of course Edgar is the hero of the book, as he should be, but he does it all with a great deal of irony and world-weary air. If I was Solstice, I would totally fall for his postures of noble pain.

The only real thing lacking in Flood and Fang was a sense of emotional attachment – this is a great read – fun and funny – but it is all so breezy nothing deeper ever really sinks in. But for this series, I don’t think it has to. The focus is on the humour and the adventure and the oddities in and around the castle. Maybe as the series develops it becomes easier to understand and even get attached to the Otherhand family, but to begin with, as we view them through Edgar’s already familiar and slightly distasteful eye, they are really just a set of characters whose self-centeredness and stupidity are really just there for Edgar’s discriminating judgement.

But you know what – this is the Edgar show, and read these books for him. If I was a lady raven, he would totally be to die for ;) A fun and fabulous read with adventure for the kids and more than a few sly, knowing asides for the adults.

The Keepers: Museum of Thieves, by Lian Tanner

Published in hardcover by Allen & Unwin, 2010.

Three things attracted me to Museum of Thieves: the cover, which I think promises just the right amount of adventure and intrigue; the concept (a fantasy adventure set in an ancient museum? Amazing!); and the fact that Lian Tanner is from Tasmania. Originally hailing from this beautiful state myself, I always feel a little surge of pride over anything vaguely creative-artsy and Tasmanian. So I really wanted to like this book.

The story centres around Goldie Roth, who lives in the repressive city of Jewel and runs away on Separation Day. She takes refuge in the mysterious Museum of Dunt and is taken under the wing of Olga Ciavolga and Sinew, the Keepers of it, and initially scorned by Toadspit, a fiery little boy who lives there with them. They train Goldie to be a ‘Thief’, and her training begins to come in handy when the Museum encounters the corruption of The Fugleman, and his plans to use the evil forces of the Museum to invade Jewel.

First of all, I absolutely love that the story is centered around a museum. The Museum of Dunt in has layers and layers to it, is stuffed with thousands of lost and forgotten things, has a will of its own and is dominated by an eerie, menacing presence. Tanner uses it to create a great sense of adventure and discovery. Goldie and Toadspit are proactive, clever protagonists and once the action picks up about halfway through, the story rollicks along at a nice pace.

It didn’t quite win me over, though. A few of the plot points and lines of dialogue I felt I had read many times before, and a few of Goldie’s moments of self-discovery were a bit forced. At times I didn’t really feel emotionally invested in the story. That being said, I do recognise the fact that I am an older reader, and can appreciate that the story will have different resonances with a younger audience.

There seems to also be quite a lot of death, or promise of it, in this book. It feels slightly out of sync with the rest of the story, maybe because it doesn’t really seem to have a large impact on everyone who witnesses it, which is strange as Jewel is set up as a very subdued, safe city. This may be what causes the lack of emotional investment that I mentioned before.

There is certainly loads of adventure to be had, though. And it makes me want to live in a museum. I think the series has promise, and am interested to see how Tanner will advance Goldie’s story in the coming books.

"Go home and be good?" She grinned at Toadspit, and shook her head. "I've barely begun."