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Georgie Tanner #2
The Ancient Machine
Georgie and Thomas are again summoned to Allegoria in a desperate attempt to stop a machine that is ticking down to the end of the world. They enlist the help of a troupe of travelling daredevils, as the mystery lures Georgie into the depths of The Underworld where she will discover the greatest secret of all.
320 pages, Paperback
Published November 10, 2003
24 people want to read
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November 17, 2015
The second book in a trilogy. Georgie Tanner lives in an orphanage. Her one and only friend, Thomas, manages to get trapped with her in a puddle that takes them both to the ‘fair land of Allegoria,’ a name which struck fear into my heart at first. There are centaurs and talking animals and walking trees and an unhappy dragon. Despite the books bearing some comparison with Narnia and C.S Lewis, they could equally be compared with J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter or Jenny Nimmo’s Charlie Bone.
I rarely laugh out loud in books but there are some genuinely funny scenes and even some wit in the last two. Each book features a match of combat croquet, where the only rule seems to be that there are no rules. The villain is always completely obvious, but the villain’s spies are not. The children invariably find they have been enrolled at the castle school which offers everything from Sword-Fighting to Dungeon-Keeping and, in the spirit of free and universal education for all, offers special courses for peasant children in useful arts such as Muck-raking.
The Daredevils – a group of entertainers in The Ancient Machine – are so far and away the best characters that it’s a pity they didn’t get more play time and that they only appeared in the single book. Although each book does feature a special group of talking animals, the Daredevils are a combination of cultivated insouciance and slap-stick humour that actually is funny. I never find slap-stick funny but its mix with dry wit worked well in this instance. The super-sleuth who always comes to the children’s aid is Max Mousewing, a bat who insists on speaking ‘batty latin.’
A fascinating book from an author’s perspective: one of the iron rules of writing is to keep the point of view consistent and tightly controlled. After realising that the books lack this in a big way, I began to wonder why they work so well. I’ve decided the reason is that large parts of the books flit from ‘third person’ not to ‘omniscient’ but to what I can only describe as ‘fixed camera view.’ Interesting technique which probably wouldn’t work elsewhere.
I rarely laugh out loud in books but there are some genuinely funny scenes and even some wit in the last two. Each book features a match of combat croquet, where the only rule seems to be that there are no rules. The villain is always completely obvious, but the villain’s spies are not. The children invariably find they have been enrolled at the castle school which offers everything from Sword-Fighting to Dungeon-Keeping and, in the spirit of free and universal education for all, offers special courses for peasant children in useful arts such as Muck-raking.
The Daredevils – a group of entertainers in The Ancient Machine – are so far and away the best characters that it’s a pity they didn’t get more play time and that they only appeared in the single book. Although each book does feature a special group of talking animals, the Daredevils are a combination of cultivated insouciance and slap-stick humour that actually is funny. I never find slap-stick funny but its mix with dry wit worked well in this instance. The super-sleuth who always comes to the children’s aid is Max Mousewing, a bat who insists on speaking ‘batty latin.’
A fascinating book from an author’s perspective: one of the iron rules of writing is to keep the point of view consistent and tightly controlled. After realising that the books lack this in a big way, I began to wonder why they work so well. I’ve decided the reason is that large parts of the books flit from ‘third person’ not to ‘omniscient’ but to what I can only describe as ‘fixed camera view.’ Interesting technique which probably wouldn’t work elsewhere.
Displaying 1 of 1 review