Authors have a big problem with series.  How do you keep the story dynamic and exciting through a third (or fourth or fifth) episode without actually finishing it?  How do you avoid writing the same story over and over again?

JK Rowlings is facing it with Harry Potter and Garth Nix’s seven part Keys to the Kingdom series has hit the hurdle in a big way with episode 3 – Drowned Wednesday.

The key characters (Arthur, Suzy Turquoise Blue) are the same as before, and the problem they face is the same (find the next fragment of the Will and the third key).  The overall setting of the magic world of the House is still the same.  Having disposed of Monday and Tuesday in style, how does Nix avoid the “Ho-hum, here we go again” feeling?

There is different scenery for a start – this episode is set at sea, with sailing ships, pirates, secret ports and buried treasure.  There are new characters – intelligent rats, accounting clerks turned pirate (but keeping their tea breaks) – and Wednesday, the trustee Arthur must defeat, says she wants to help him. 

But there is still that “Same again, please!” air about how things will turn out as everyone goes through the motions.  Arthur’s situation never really seems as dire as in the first two episodes.  His home in our world is not under threat as before, nor does the race against time seem as desperate. The general feeling is more When and How he will succeed rather than If, though the location of the secret pirate base is rather interesting!

The idea behind the whole series is intriguing, and this episode well written enough to keep it going through to Thursday.  But there will need to be a spark of surprise soon if it is not to fade into predictability.

Other titles in the series:
Mister Monday (Allen & Unwin, 2003)
Grim Tuesday (Allen & Unwin, 2004)

Other books by this author:
Sabriel (Allen & Unwin, 1995)
Lirael (Allen & Unwin, 2001)
Abhorsen (Allen & Unwin, 2003)
Shade's Children (Allen & Unwin, 1997)
Very Clever Baby's first reader: a simple reader for your child featuring Freddy the Fish and easy words (Nix Books, 1997)
Bill the Inventor (Koala Books, 1998)
Blackbread the Pirate (Koala Books, 1999)
The Fall (Scholastic, 2001)

Review by David Beagley

© 2004 David Beagley