I love the Edward Gorey cover. Aiken and Gorey go together perfectly well. Aiken and Gorey sounds like the name of some sort of weird and gothic medical drama, sort of like House, if House investigated talking warts and haemogoblins and phantom limbs where you have an extra pair of hands doing unimaginable things you can feel but not see.Is, half-sister of Dido, embarks on an adventure all her own, a particularly dark one as the children of London have been lured to the new kingdom set up in the north of England where they are enslaved and forced to work in mines and foundries, dying, as the book makes clear, at an appalling rate. True to form, the arch-villain turns out to be another Twite, Is' uncle, Roy, who has set himself up as king of an industrial underground nation, busily building up his army so he he can march south and gain more.A lot of this seems oddly archaic nowadays. The heroine is small of stature, barely educated, but smart, indomitable and fundamentally decent - so she doesn't go around kung fu-ing bad guys and dispensing rough justice. There are also quite a few coincidences in the book forwarding the plot, which wouldn't be tolerated in a modern, tightly plotted, everything-must-have-a-reason novel. Aiken is less concerned in the versimilitude of her plot mechanics than in just getting on with the story, and who is to say she's wrong? I noted the coincidences and then moved on because I cared more about the story than the plot, too. I really enjoyed Is, and I know there's another Is book before getting back to Dido and Simon, and I'm very much looking forward to it.Aiken and Gorey. For when your medical problems got problems. Peculiar problems.
A stand-alone continuation of the Wolves Chronicles, this excellent adventure features Dido Twite's younger half-sister, Is. Since the events of Dido & Pa, Is has settled happily with her older sister Penny. Their tranquil existence is interrupted, however, by a chance encouter with an uncle they never knew they had -- an uncle who, as his dying wish, charges Is to find her missing cousing Arun. Like Dido, Is is tough, resourceful, and honors her promises, so she heads off into the north country of England, which has seceded and cut off all communication with the outside world. Once there, Is discovers a dastardly scheme that is luring the children of England to the North and to their doom. As usual, this tale is a perfect blend of wit, danger, and magic.
