The Seventh Tower: Castle

#14
Title: The Seventh Tower: Castle

Author: Garth Nix
Publisher: Scholastic
Year: 2000
Genre: Children’s/Fantasy

215 pages

+ Strong male and female protagonists

- In medias res--can’t stand alone; some POV shifts weaken the tension

This is the second of a 6-book series intended for younger readers. If it is an indication of the next several volumes, they really should be read more as serial installments than as related but separate narratives. I will review them with that assumption unless a different approach is warranted.

Castle continues in a seemingly picaresque style, but as protagonists Tal and Milla progress in their quest, it becomes clear that their personal concerns are embedded in a much larger context of history, politics, and intrigue. These broader elements suggest that what appear to be unrelated plot points will be revealed later as part of a greater pattern. Certainly Tal’s adventures among the Icecarls appear to be more fate than accident from the vantage of the end of Castle. The penetrability of the Castle mirrors the vulnerability of the society of the Chosen. Presumably phenomena such as the Veil, rather than simply serving as a starting point to establish alienness, will ultimately be linked to this world’s history in ways that are not yet evident to Tal and Milla; indeed, they are only at the beginning of their realization that there are questions to be asked.

I would have liked to see more evidence of Ebbitt’s eccentricity and arcane knowledge in The Fall; in retrospect, he seems too sketchily drawn there, even considering Tal’s age and relative lack of interest. I found his role in the Hall of Nightmares completely plausible; his actions related to Tal’s ring much less so. Only another few sentences would have vastly improved this scene and underscored some of the differences between Sunstones; without it, the scene seems deflating. Why do everything Tal has done if the solution to one of his problems is so easy? If it’s so easy, why didn’t we hear from Ebbitt earlier? Alternatively, a sentence or two from Ebbitt about why he was not more forthcoming about his secret knowledge earlier in Tal’s life, or even earlier in his quest, would go a long way toward character continuity.

The mood of Castle is somewhat darker than The Fall, and the shadowguards and Spiritshadows evokes bothPullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy and the demons of Stroud’s Bartimaeus trilogy. Structurally, Castle is a good companion piece to Heinlein’s Orphans of the Sky (sadly, apparently out of print), mirroring many of its events and images. If I were still a high school English teacher I’d use the two as a compare/contrast activity to highlight how “story” may be similar but “plot” different in different narrative frameworks.