Lord Sunday

‘Aye,’ says one of the characters towards the end of Garth Nix’s Lord Sunday. ‘I thought it might come to this. But then all journeys must end somewhere, sometime. Lead on.’ Well, for Arthur Penhaligon, the asthmatic orphan hero of Nix’s septet, ‘The Keys to the Kingdom’, the end of the road has now been reached and the numerous twists and turns which have characterised these fantasy narratives give way to a denouement likely to please many of the books’ fans. It must be said, however, that the appeal of this concluding volume will be considerably diminished for readers unfamiliar with its six predecessors: the plotting is, in places, dense and convoluted, the characterisation and settings not always immediately lucid. But for those caught up in the previous volumes in such matters as the House, the Keys, the Will and the Incomparable Gardens and in young Arthur’s succession of adventures within and across them, Lord Sunday offers much more of the same, with at least three interweaving stories simultaneously demanding the reader’s attention. Loyalty, heroism and humanity itself are inventively tested, often with welcome touches of humour to illuminate the many moments of darkness. The series is, overall, an impressive and imaginative achievement, best read in its Monday to Sunday order of publication.