Another Review at MyShelf.Com

Publisher: Doubleday (Random House)
Release Date: September 2002
ISBN: 0385602006
Awards:
Format Reviewed: Hardcover
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Genre: Fantasy / Juvenile
Reviewer: Rachel A Hyde
Reviewer Notes:


The Last of the Sky Pirates
The Edge Chronicles
By Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell

     Apart from Harry Potter, I do not normally read juvenile fiction. However, following being given the first Edge Chronicles novel to read, I have ensured that I have read and reviewed every single subsequent book, and look forward to their appearance. Set about thirty years after the last book, stone sickness has put an end not only to the floating city of Sanctaphrax, but also to sky travel and the days of the sky pirates and league ships are long gone. Now what remains of the great library lies in the sewers beneath Undertown and young Rook Barkwater dreams of traveling to the Deepwoods to study banderbears. But he is too lowly to be chosen as a librarian knight - or is he? When the unthinkable happens, he sets forth on an amazing adventure that will bring him face to face with many terrors and wonders, as well as a chance at putting right some wrongs and meeting more than one living legend.

     Stewart and Riddell do it again! Once more I marvel at a story for children that has plenty to recommend it to adults as well and wonder why they aren't making films of these books instead of just Harry Potter. Girls play more of a part in this story, but with all the horrible monsters and hairy goings on (and I don't just mean the wig-wigs) any boy can be caught reading this without fear of being labeled a sissy! Although you really need to have read the earlier four novels (plenty of tie-ins with former tales), each novel is a separate story in itself, and each story has plenty to recommend it and set it apart from the others. Profusely illustrated by Chris Riddell, as always with a picture on nearly every page, this is a rare gem of modern juvenile literature; a thrilling and robust series that ought to appeal to a very large range of people. When is the next one coming out?

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