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The Edge Chronicles: Vox
Paul Stewart
Illustrated by Chris Riddell
Fiction (Series)
Ages 12 and up
Random House, 2003, 0-3857-50803-0
When Rook Barkwater embarks on a reconnaissance flight he does not imagine that he is going on one of the most momentous journeys of his life. First Rook crashes into an area known as Screetown. Full of unknown terrors Screetown is a place feared by the people who live on the Edge and Rook wanders if he will ever be able to escape from the dreadful place alive. Thankfully help comes from a very unexpected quarter and Rook thinks that he has a fighting chance to return to his people. Then he is taken prisoner by the goblins who hold the streets of Undertown in their grip. Poor Rook is now a slave and in short order he is sold.
Rook finds himself in the home of Vox Verlix, an enormous man whose great intellect has been twisted by his greed and ambition. Thankfully for the people living in Undertown and for Rook's own people who live in the sewers under Undertown, Rook discovers that Vox is planning to tamper with none other than a great storm. Vox hopes to magnify the power of the storm enough that his enemies will be defeated so that he can once more claim the power that he thinks is his by right.
Rook has very little time to play with before the storm arrives. In the time that he has he sets about warning his friends and the people of Undertown of the impending threat. He also manipulates his enemies, setting one group on the other to keep them busy. Can he do what needs to be done before the storm arrives and will he and the innocent people of the Edge be able to survive the impending cataclysm?
Paul Stewart wraps his readers in a net of intrigue; he takes one to a world where the good are oppressed by many evil forces, and where the good are struggling to survive. Rook is undoubtedly the hero in this tale but he has his faults, he makes mistakes, he feels fear, and he worries about the future. Rook is in short, just like the rest of us, and his courage in the face of his own fears and inexperience makes him impossible not to like and admire. Chris Riddell's cartoon like illustrations bring Rook's terrifying enemies to life, bring forth in the reader feelings of amazement that anyone could create and bring to life such a bizarre world filled with monsters and heroes alike.
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