Impossible Creatures

This author could be one of the great hopes of future children’s literature. Scholarly over wide areas, prolific and at home with young or adult audiences, there seems nothing in the writing world she can’t do or won’t try. Which is why this current children’s novel is ultimately something of a come-down. For while the limits of her creative imagination seem almost endless, the actual plots she chooses wherein to display this talent have already cropped up in so many other recent fantasy stories.

In this latest novel, for example, Mal and Christopher, a young adolescent girl and boy, set out to save the world threatened by the gradual disappearance of glimt, a magical substance that supports all creative life. They are supported by a couple of admiring older figures as they sail in to battle. Also on their side: a knife that cuts through everything and a magic magnet that shows them the way. Their long journey is regularly interrupted by near-escapes from different mythical beasts, all of whom speak perfect English and are often given to sarcasm. Evil is represented by a single villain out for universal domination, disputes are settled mainly by violence and the slow growth of young love is cut short at the end. So no real surprises then, particularly for any Philip Pullman fans.

There are incidental riches. The book starts with a fascinating Bestiary of those otherwise lost imaginary creatures who inhabit the story, beautifully illustrated by Tomislav Tomic. And the concept of an archipelago magically hidden from the human world where they still live and thrive is an engaging one. But once the children’s quest to retrieve a vital magic potion has started the narrative enters the literary doldrums. Rundell has the capacity to move children’s literature into exciting new grounds, just as major children’s writers did in the 1960s. But this current novel simply marks time.  Let’s hope the next two stories in this planned trilogy will be more truly ambitious while also less disappointingly familiar.