Borderland

The ‘Borderland’ of Lassiter’s title – the first in a projected trilogy – is an imaginary city state known as Shattershard, ruled by a boy king called Kal. Although the territory enjoys a measure of independence, it is really part of the Tetrarchate Empire, the rulers of which decide to send in their troops and eventually impose martial law when a nomadic band of warriors, the Hajhim, seems to be threatening attack. Into this parallel world come, at different states and in different circumstances, four Weybridge teenagers, via a Door (always capitalised) in one of their gardens: maybe, as Zoë, the most recent entrant reflects at one point, ‘you found a Door into another world because you weren’t properly fixed in this one.’ Whatever the explanation, in this particular case the four young people are soon involved in the power struggles and machinations which characterise the ‘uncertain times’ of the landscape beyond the Door. There are colourful and dramatic moments as we watch the young people’s assorted loyalties being increasingly put to the test, but the details of the narrative are unnecessarily convoluted and the worlds of magic and reality do not convincingly interact.