MMGM: The Ashtown Burials, by N. D. Wilson

Nooooo! It's not a trilogy. You can't leave me hanging like that!

I picked up The Dragon's Tooth at my library after loving Wilson's 100 Cupboards trilogy.  I devoured Dragon's Tooth and couldn't wait until the library opened again to get The Drowned Vault and Empire of Bones, so I bought them on Kindle. Then I got to the end of Empire of Bones and . . . the story's not over, and the next book isn't out yet! *Insert appropriate devastated GIF*

The Ashtown Burials series is what you'd get if H.G. Wells, Mary Shelly, and Jules Verne traveled forward in time (because they could do that) and collaborated on writing a cross between Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. With consulting help from Neil Gaiman and Garth Nix. Have we invented a genre name yet for steampunk based on 1920s technology and aesthetics? That's what this is. Percy Jackson meets Indiana Jones is a pretty good tagline. (Also some homage to Robert Louis Stevenson.)

Are you intrigued yet?

Wilson is awesome at creating detailed, grounded real-world settings and then springboarding out of them into vast imaginative landscapes. The Dragon's Tooth starts in a dingy motel in the middle of nowhere, MidWest USA. We meet Cyrus, Antigone and Daniel Smith, siblings trying to hold it together after the death of their father while their mother is in a coma. We spend just enough time to start really caring about these people when Boom! (literally) we're off on a mad chase to get to the Ashtown Estate, where Cyrus and Antigone have to join an ancient order of explorers who are their only hope of saving Daniel, who was kidnapped by some seriously strange henchmen (they have gills). And it just gets crazier from there.

There's so much to say about these books I don't even know where to start. They are stuffed full of action, danger, cool settings, weird magical powers, ancient monsters, secret inheritances, creepy villains, colorful characters of all sorts, even mythological ones (he uses a lot of Jewish mythology, which is fun and different).  Each book is a roller-coaster ride (sometimes literally) of fast-paced adventure, but there is depth to the characters, an underlying theme or moral centre grounding all the excitement.

I cared deeply about Cyrus and his family. I loved the relationship between Cyrus and Antigone, and the loyal band of friends that joins them. Cyrus has a pretty serious hero's journey to go through; there are times when I didn't quite believe in the sheer intensity of what he has to face. But his companions are always there to make a wisecrack and pick up the pieces, bringing it back to the real. Lots of sometimes painful explorations of trust and loyalty, and in the end love is the only reason that makes sense, the reason Cyrus gets through.

Not unscathed, however. These are quite dark, fairly violent books. People die, sometimes in quite horrible ways. I would still call it middle-grade, but definitely the upper range. The villain of the third book is horrible in a particularly grotesque way. Wilson keeps upping the stakes, and I have no idea what he's going to do to top that nastiness!

I can't find any information on when the next book will be out. There will be a next book, won't there? Because these three were published 2011, 2012, 2013, and then in 2014 he put out Boys of Blur, which is not related. He can't possibly think it's okay to leave Cyrus and his friends where they were at the end of Empire of Bones!!

Ahem. I'm fine. But seriously . . .

These books are a smorgasbord, a cornucopia, a feast of all the things you can think of, like the buffet at Club Med!

For more marvelous middle-grade suggestions, visit Shannon Messenger's blog every Monday.

N. D. Wilson, Dandelion Fire and The Chestnut King

Wow. The story just gets better and better. These are the sequels (and the conclusion to the trilogy) of 100 Cupboards, and they get richer and deeper and more complicated, and all the intriguing ideas in the first book blossom into fully developed worlds and plots and characters. (And don't you just love the covers? Absolutely perfect.)

100 Cupboards takes place in Kansas, and hints at other places that can be reached through the magical cupboards in Henry's bedroom wall. Dandelion Fire awakens our hero's magical potential and sends him through the cupboards on a quest to find his family and foil a wizard.

I loved the magic; loved how it was brought to life, loved the dangers and limitations of it, loved how Henry had to figure it out as he went along. Absolutely loved how dandelions worked as metaphors for Henry's particular strengths.

Younger cousin Henrietta gets more of a starring role, and I love Henrietta, with all her annoying, bossy, bull-headed bravado. The story gets more epic because Henry and Henrietta each have their own quests, as does uncle Frank (yay Frank!). Henry's friend Zeke is back, too. The narration follows everyone in turn as they lose each other and wander around several new fantasy landscapes (not 100, though!) meeting a whole cast of new characters. I loved the faeren; very funny.

I wasn't particularly enthralled by the villain of Dandelion Fire, but I can't tell you why without giving things away. And . . . nope, can't actually say anything more about him. But nonetheless there's lots of tension and the stakes get very high. It's a darker, more mature book than 100 Cupboards; HP and the Half-Blood Prince compared to Prisoner of Azkaban. Great climactic fight scene; everyone gets their hero moment.

The Chestnut King is an intense, page-turning conclusion, even darker and scarier. Henry now knows who he is and has so much more to lose. I loved the family dynamics and Henry's developing relationships with the new characters introduced in Dandelion. There's more magic—I loved the ingenious things Henry figures out how to do with it. More dandelions. Frank Fat-Fairy is a great character with his own little arc (yay Frank!*); I also liked the Chestnut King: he's an interesting new twist to the story, but grounded in old myths so it doesn't feel like he came out of nowhere. The villain is suitably creepy and nasty (and weird). (The scar on Henry's chin is one of the most disturbing things I've ever read about. And those minions: eeww!)

When fantasies get as epic as this**, with so many characters and plot threads, they often get a little bit out of hand, and I will say the ending felt a little tangled—almost anticlimactic. But that's just a pacing quibble, and character-wise, theme-wise, plot-wise the big battle was intense and satisfying. I loved the denouement and epilogue; very fitting. (Since I'm quibbling, I will say that there were a few minor unresolved matters that bugged me a bit.***)

Wilson can write. His sentences are lovely; his characters are complex, messy individuals who grab you and make you love them; his fantasy world is magical and worth returning to. When I saw the first book of his Ashtown Burials series at my library I snapped it up. I think he may become an auto-buy author.

I wouldn't necessarily say that books 2 and 3 are middle-grade; I noticed a lot of reviews saying they were confusing and hard to follow (I didn't think so at all, but I'm not ten), and there were some pretty scary bits, so I suppose it depends on the reader.

I'm trying to think of a food equivalent to the brilliant dandelion magic that infuses these two books (and no, dandelion salad is not the answer!). Something simple, common, but completely transcendent. Sun-warmed, perfectly ripe berries (whatever's in season: there are a few late strawberries in my garden right now), picked and eaten one at a time to savour that burst of sour-edged sweetness on the tongue.

* Um, so I'm sure Wilson is doing something symbolic with all these repeated names; maybe I'll figure it out next time I read it! (Also, some reviewers mentioned overt Christian symbolism, which I have to admit went right over my head (and I'm a Christian!).)

** Okay, we're not talking Wheel of Time or anything, but for a supposed middle-grade fantasy things are pretty polyphonic.

*** Spoiler alert:

MMGM: 100 Cupboards, by N. D. Wilson

Marvellous, fantastical, quirky, moving, funny. 100 Cupboards is another book to clutch to my chest and think, This is why I read.

N. D. Wilson is a magical writer; he uses words like a wizard himself, so when he describes wizardry it sounds eminently believable. And what wizardry! A wall in the attic full of cupboards that all lead to different places, not all of which are in our world. However, they're too small to get through, unless you're a cat, or a letter. Then there's the door to Grandfather's room, that's been locked ever since he died two years ago, and will not open to anything. And there's a cupboard that has a key in it.

Exciting premise, right? Echoes of Narnia, Oz, Wonderland. I love me a good gateway to another world story. But I love that 100 Cupboards is really a book about Henry, a boy who has never done anything dangerous, who ends up in Henry, Kansas, a place for lost things, a place that doesn't flinch. It's also about Henry's cousin Henrietta, who will not ever do what she's told, and his uncle Frank, who seems thin, but isn't, if you know how to look. I loved all of the characters, but I particularly loved Frank. And Henrietta and her sisters are so authentically squabbly and bratty, they were brilliant.

The fantasy elements are developed slowly, with excellent mystery and suspense. Henry stumbles into courage reluctantly, hopefully, sometimes resentfully when Henrietta drags him into it. All along he has his own self-depreciating way of looking at things that's endearing and funny.

I wouldn't call 100 Cupboards a humorous book—it can be quite dark and occasionally scary—but I was smiling a lot while I read it. Wilson made me laugh out loud sometimes just because of how aptly he describes things. And Frank: everything Frank says or does is completely hilarious, because it's so unexpected.

100 Cupboards has been out for a while, thank goodness. It ends with a lot of unanswered and very intriguing questions, and I'm am delighted to know that the two sequels are written, printed and on my library shelves. I will be fetching them forthwith.

Apple blackberry pie.

Shannon Messenger collects Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday posts on her blog every week; be sure to check out everyone else's recommendations.