| Set in the Edge, a vast land jutting out into empty and uncharted space, this book is highly imaginative, boasting a wide variety of species in addition to its unusual location. The second book in the Edge Chronicles, it picks up several years after Twig found his father, a sky ship (a sailing ship which flies through the air) captain named Cloud Wolf. Now sixteen years old, he serves onboard his father's ship as he makes trading runs to Undertown, a frenzied, overcrowded and badly polluted town home all kinds of creatures and run by a bird-woman named Mother Horsefeather.
Overhead, built on a massive floating rock held to the Edge by a great chain is Sanctaphrax, home to brilliant academics ruled over by the Most High Academe. Unfortunately, the Most High Academe for the past twenty years as been Vilnix Pompolnius, a pompous and corrupt man who has emptied the Sanctaphrax treasury of stormphrax, which is light incarnate left by a Great Storm, in order to maintain his power (stormphrax can be changed to purify the polluted water in Undertown). Stormphrax weighs down Sanctaphrax and keeps it from flying away, but now there is almost none left. Fortunately, such a Great Storm is coming over the Twilight Woods, a forest which can control people's minds so that they wander around in the forest on quests that will never end (which is, in fact, unfortunate). Cloud Wolf is persuaded to lead his sky ship Stormchaser into a Great Storm to collect stormphrax. However, neither the Most High Academe nor his allies, the League of Free Merchants, want Cloud Wolf and his motley crew to succeed in their quest and end their positions of wealth and power. Thus, some of Cloud Wolf's own crew members attempt to wage a mutiny against him, which results in the ship crashing. It is up to Twig to lead his crew out of the Twilight Woods, find the stormphrax and evade their powerful enemies. But how can a boy of sixteen do all that? | ||
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Plot & Themes Tone of book - humorous or laughable FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - fantasy world/fantasy past Coming of age Yes Youngster becomes - great naval officer Is this an adult or child's book? - Kid's book (ages 7-14) Descript. of chases or violence - 20 % planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 30 % Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 20 % Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 30 % Main Character Identity: - Male Profession/status: Age: - a teen Main Adversary Identity: - Male Age: - 40's-50's Profession/status: Eccentric: Yes How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - a moderate amount How sensitive is this character? Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor Intelligence - Very much smarter than other characters Setting Terrain A substantial portion of this book takes place on a non-Earth planetary body: - humans in a primitive/fantasy society Planet outside solar system? Yes Writing Style Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths scientific jargon? (SF only) - a moderate amount of scientific explanation How much dialogue? - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog |
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