Somehow time has slipped past and it's May 2011, the month of the release of Garth Nix' new children's fantasy series with Sean Williams, Troubletwisters.

The Australian website has an excerpt from the first book, among other goodies.

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I have to admit, I still can't believe they literally called it 'the evil.'

As part of three_weeks_for_dw, I thought I should try to give this community a kick in the pants. So! I'm curious, is anyone planning to read this series? I read The Seventh Tower years ago, and enjoyed it (for reference, I was in college at the time), but as good as Nix undeniably is at series fantasy, The Keys to the Kingdom have somewhat soured for me since I finished Lord Sunday last year, and I'm not feeling any particular urge to check out Troubletwisters immediately. But then, I've also never read any of Sean Williams' books. Am I making a mistake by not being the first to line up in the middle-grade section? 

Garth Nix announced on his Facebook page a couple days ago that he and fellow Australian writer Sean Williams will be collaborating on a new children's book series for Scholastic (US), Egmont (UK) and Allen & Unwin (Australia). It will be called Troubletwisters, and will follow two siblings who move from the city to the country to live with their grandmother, getting mixed up in the age-old fight against The Evil in the process.

More info on Nix' FB page here.

(Irreverent comment: The Evil? Seriously?)

Given that the book has been out for three weeks, I'm curious to see what everyone who read The Keys to the Kingdom thought of the final book.

First I have a general question: Arthur's country reads as pretty much Australia to me, a U.S.-ian, for various reasons; what do Australians and other readers from the English-language market think?

I also think, given that the book is dedicated to Roger Zelazny and Philip Jose Farmer, that I am possibly missing resonances throughout the series by not having read either author. Has anyone here read either author? If you did, are there any similarities, would you say? 

I was going to put spoilers under a cut, but I think I can get by without spoilers (though I imagine comments will have them): basically, I liked the ending. I thought it was a good way to resolve the various dilemmas and did a decent amount of justice to all the plot threads Nix had running. I was highly disappointed in the ending to Superior Saturday, but Lord Sunday was much more satisfying.

So, what did everyone else think? 

Also, I have a more extended review here at my journal.

Also, I ♥ Suzy Blue. I think I need that on a bumper sticker or something.

According to Garth Nix, "To Hold the Bridge" will be coming out later this year in an anthology edited by Jack Dann and Jonathan Strahan.

ETA: And Nix will be at the Emirates International Festival of Literature in Dubai next month.

In case anyone was wondering, Google's search-within-websites function doesn't find Facebook status updates. Despite that, however, I have extricated all the bits of Lord Sunday that Garth Nix has posted to his Facebook page since he announced the book's release...which is two months from today, 16 March 2010, in the States, and in two weeks, 1 February 2010, in Australia. \0/

In honor of which, I am not only reposting all of those same bits, as well as this link to an interview Nix did with Tor.com last November. It contains further information about Imperial Galaxy and its accompanying novel, as well as lots of Nix's thoughts on writing for various age groups and a little bit of information about his future projects.

The Australian cover, with synopsis visible, can be viewed here. (The bits below are in reverse chronological order: earliest last.)


( Let the Will be done.  )