A whole new massivly engrossing world...

I like series, sometimes. In the case of a trilogy I usually own all the books, but will put off reading the third one, possibly forever, because once thats done the trilogy is over. Done with. Finite. But this didn't stop me from mowing through the Narnia Chronicles, or the Dark is Rising series.

And I think I just found something to add to that list.

The first time I ever read a Garth Nix book was at a friend's sleepover. She had the ability to stay awake perhaps until nine PM or so, while I'd be awake until about five AM. When I was younger I suffered from insomnia more than I do now, but this wasn't a problem at her house because she owned EVERY Animorph book ever printed, and I could sometimes read five or six of those in a night. And if not those she had a lot of those R. L. Stein kids horror books. And one day, she pulled out a copy of the then new, Sabriel, by Mr. Nix. She said I had to read it.

I remember liking the book, liking the world, and the people in it, and Mr. Nix's level of craft in world building. But as much as I liked it I found the story kind of sad, and I never really felt the need to pick up the other books set in his "Old Kingdom" series.

Not so with his "Keys of the Kingdom" series, which is what I'm madly reading now. These are the kinds of books you have to read in one sitting. Like I did last night. I read all of Mister Monday in one really awesome sitting. And what a fun read it was.

A crazy world, sort of a King Arthur overtone, add in some Alice in Wonderland, Neil Gaiman at his darkest, spokiest Coraline-iest, and you might start picturing something of the "Keys of the Kingdom" series.

Basically, this lady called the "Architect" created the House as a giant realm withing a realm within a realm, and she built this on top of the Nothing that the universe was then made out of. Then, using the nothing she made all the "Secondary Realms" of which Earth is but one of many. Then, she went away and left a Will, that her seven trustees were supposed to fulfil, but didn't. Instead they tore the Will into seven pieces, and hid each piece somewhere it should never be able to escape from, and then one day, of course, a piece of the Will escapes...

And thats pretty much the end of Arthur Penhaligon's normal life. Literally.

The portion of the Will that escapes commands that Mister Monday, one of the trustees, is to hand over the Keys of the Kingdom to a member of a certain family. Locating a loophole in this process Mister Monday gives the key to Arthur just as he is about to suffer a fatal asthma attack. If Arthur dies, the keys go back to Mister Monday and he had fulfilled the Will's command, without loosing his massive powers for more than a few minutes; the time it will take Arthur to die.

But, being that the Keys are a legendary item granting god-like powers, something like Excalabur or the Witchblade, Arthur does not die. Instead he goes on to fight Mister Monday in and out of the House, attempting to make the Trustee call off his plague causing dog men (who wear Bowler Hats!!!), stop burning down his school Library (acctually this is done on orders of Mister Monday's Noon, who owns a flaming sword and a real silver tongue), and basically a lot of fun adventure stuff that mostly involves bizar fantasy the likes of which I haven't seen or believed in a very, very long time.

I now have Grim Tuesday in my possession, and must go read that. Hopefully no men with dog faces and bowler hats will disturb me.