Sequels are a real problem.  If an author does really well with the first, will the second be a disappointment?  Will it live up to the excitement of the first or will it drag the story out too far?  Look at Harry Potter – each new book getting longer, darker and heavier going.

Garth Nix’s “Keys to the Kingdom” series began last year well enough with young Arthur Penhaligon trying to save the universe from the days of the week.  He succeeded with Mister Monday, but would Grim Tuesday be too much?

Thankfully no, because Nix is too good a writer to fall into the trap of just telling the same story again.  While it has the same key characters and situation, “Grim Tuesday” is a totally new fantasy world with new rules and new dangers.

But there are no swords’n’sorcery in Tuesday’s world. Arthur finds himself trapped in the back-breaking, mind-numbing prison of polluted mines and factories.  Descending into the immense, days-deep pit that provides Grim Tuesday with the raw materials for his manufactures, Arthur joins the mass of slave workers slowly being drained of their lives.

In his quest to find the next fragment of the scattered Will of the Great Architect, he must use the tools available, the machines and gadgets of an industrial world.

Garth Nix shows the range of his skills in the creation of that world.  The characters are realistic and obvious products of their situations, strange though some of them may be.  While Arthur gets a little help from his Monday success, he must still rely on his own resources and choices to deal with Tuesday.

I had some doubts after “Mister Monday” whether Nix could maintain this story through seven parts, especially after the tight brilliance of his “Sabriel” trilogy.  There is still a puzzle over the name Arthur Penhaligon - whether Nix is going to make anything of its obvious connections to the King Arthur legends.  Nothing, so far!

However, “Grim Tuesday” has settled the immediate problem of a sequel – it is a very clever and well-written story, and Wednesday cannot come quickly enough.

Other titles in the series:
Mister Monday (Allen & Unwin, 2003)
Drowned Wednesday (Allen & Unwin, 2005)

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