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The Divided Realms, Book I: Captured

by Maggie L. Wood

The Divided Realms,Book II: The Darkening

by Maggie L. Wood

Children and teens who discover they’re really from another world – one that is magical and endangered and can only be saved by them – have been around in fiction for generations. It’s a variation on the “lost heir” motif in myth and fairy tale. Willow, the hero of Maggie L. Wood’s Divided Realms series, is an appealing addition to this subgenre of fantasy.

Both books were originally published by Sumach Press – as The Princess Pawn (2003) and The Princess Mage (2006) – but have been revised and given new titles. Further instalments are forthcoming.

Games are a dominant theme in both books. Captured begins with the death of Willow’s supposed grandmother (actually her nurse), who has raised her on Earth. Transported back to Mistolear, she learns she is a princess, and must save two kingdoms forced by Nezeral, an immortal faerie prince, into a cruel chess game with living players.

Although one never feels Willow is really in jeopardy in the first book (her minor enemies are easily overcome until she faces Nezeral), the tension rises in The Darkening. In it, Willow’s lack of caution forces her and her knight Brand, along with Nezeral’s two siblings, to take part in the Goblin’s Gauntlet, which pits them all against the vicious inhabitants of a faerie sub-realm. The dangers Willow confronts become more complex and detailed, giving the story a greater sense of realism and enabling the reader to feel more anxiety about the outcome. The motives of the story’s villain, Nezeral’s father, are not always clear, leaving Willow with much to decipher and at risk of playing right into her enemy’s hands.

Willow is a consistently kind and indomitable hero. She thinks and behaves like a normal contemporary high-school student, reluctant to accept her new reality and stricken with guilt over unresolved matters back home. In the first volume, Willow’s perspective on her new world allows her to question other characters’ assumptions, thereby discovering a way to defeat Nezeral – and even change him. In the second, her reluctance to accept the traditional Mistolearean view on dangerous creatures such as goblins and phookas simultaneously endangers her and provides her with unexpected allies. It also leads her to place her trust in the wrong figures, setting the stage for a third book.

The humour in both books is broad, rooted in the culture clash between Willow’s upbringing and Mistolearean heritage. There is an ongoing romance as well, which by the end of the second book has become dark and tangled, with Willow ensnared by the Unseelie prince Theon, and Theon’s sister Dacia setting out to seduce Brand in his dreams.

Though the magic of the faeries and the concept of several coexisting worlds is well developed and internally consistent, not all the fantastical elements work within the context of the story. The idea of a realm full of cake-mages, seamstress-mages, brewer-mages, etc., who look after all the mundane details of Mistolearian life undermines the impact of the magic overall – it’s the equivalent of those visions of the future in which robots somehow do everything for a human society enjoying eternal leisure, and thus very hard to take seriously in an otherwise serious story. This type of magic belongs to a light, playful, Edwardian fairy tale, and does not sit harmoniously with the rest of Wood’s darker fictional universe.

The series will have its greatest appeal to younger teens, particularly girls wanting a hero who shares the same cultural background and mores. Willow is a lot like the intended readership: an external observer of the fantasy world in which she finds herself. Her unfamiliarity with the various fantastic realms allows her to act as a proxy tour guide, making the books very accessible to casual fantasy readers. Dedicated fans of traditional fantasy, however, may find it a little too breezy. Wood’s series will work best with readers who have recently outgrown Vicki Blum, rather than those already reading Tamora Pierce or classics like Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain.

Though Willow changes little in the first two books, the increasing complexity of the overarching plot will leave readers eager to find out what happens next.

 

Reviewer: K.V. Johansen

Publisher: Lobster Press

DETAILS

Price: $12.95

Page Count: 288 pp

Format: Paper

ISBN: 978-1-77080-071-7

Released: April

Issue Date: 2011-5

Categories: Children and YA Fiction

Age Range: 13+

Reviewer: K.V. Johansen

Publisher: Lobster Press

DETAILS

Price: $12.95

Page Count: 288 pp

Format: Paper

ISBN: 978-1-77080-072-4

Released: April

Issue Date: May 1, 2011

Categories: Children and YA Fiction

Age Range: 13+