I started reading aloud to Jane many, many years ago; and when we had kids I started reading aloud to them; and for the last three years I’ve read to the whole family together every evening. It’s always interesting to come up with something that the whole family will enjoy; and one of the authors we’ve had good luck with is Patricia Wrede. We started with her Enchanted Forest books, a set of fractured fairy tales involving Princess Cimorene, who goes and gets herself captured by a dragon because life in the castle is just too boring; and everybody liked them. Then we read the very different A Matter of Magic, a pair of tales involving sorcery in Regency England that read like a cross between Georgette Heyer and P.G. Wodehouse; and everybody liked them. Then we read the very different Thirteenth Child and its sequel; and everybody liked them. So I went out and found Wrede’s first book, Shadow Magic, the first of the four Lyra novels. And tonight I finished reading it to the family.

And there was great merriment…but alas, a lot of it was at the tale’s expense. I have rarely read such an ineptly put-together fantasy novel. I’m shocked it got published, and I’m amazed at how much better Wrede has gotten.

Mind you, I’m glad to have read it—because as I went along I made mental notes of Things Not To Do That I’m Very Much Afraid That I Might Be Doing, starting with this: just because the characters are well-fleshed-out in my imagination, that doesn’t mean that they are well-fleshed out in the text.

I won’t go into further details, because I don’t like to kick an author when she’s down. But if you’ve ever tried this book and given up on Wrede because of it, give one of her other series a try. You’ll be glad you did.