Spoiler Alert – Book 3 in the Runcible Jones series.
(Ian's bio details are at the end as I did that part after reading the book and I suspect that was a good thing or I may not have finished the book in disgust!)
Yeah, book three. The reason I have only this title is because it was going cheap at a Penguin sale and I’d heard good things about Ian and wanted to have a gander.
So.
Wow – there’s a REMARKABLE RESEMBLANCE TO A CERTAIN SEVEN PART SERIES about a BOY WIZARD that sold a couple of copies recently. Nuff said.
Actually, not enough said. Come on, Ian. Get some originality here – and I have just checked and the first one came out in 2006. When you have a large and hairy character in your book named Rhagrid (or along those lines), regardless if he is evil, you’re just begging for HP comparisons really.
I wasn’t a big fan of this book. Maybe it’s because I came in at book 3 and didn’t have the emotional links to the main characters that reading the previous 2 would have created.
There are some elements I just wasn’t comfortable with.
Firstly, this book is about a 13 year old wizard whose name is Runcible. Why are people calling him ‘Runcie’? And why is he letting them get away with it? If anyone had added ‘ie’ to the end of my name when I was older than 7, I would have been really pissed at them. Why not just call him ‘Runcie-poos’?
Secondly, the four main characters (all children) are a touch too quick to be viciously mean to one another and then just forget all about it ten minutes later. Maybe I’m just totally out of touch with the younger generation...
Thirdly, the prime baddie, (the Voldemort of the series, if you will) is named ‘Shambles’. Again, I just don’t know about the ‘gravity’ of this name for your average dark lord. I just kept picturing a doddering old fella in a really messy room. Or as someone who messes up all the time – in fact, someone who makes a bit of a ‘shambles’ of things, if you will.
The Macquarie Dictionary gives three definitions of shambles:
1. slaughterhouse
2. any place of carnage.
3. any place or thing in confusion or disorder.
The first two definitions fit in wonderfully with the image of a dark lord, but in my ignorant opinion, the third definition is the most popular in public usage and that is what kids are going to see it as also.
Fourthly, the character Sleeth, a fellow magician who bears a grudge against Runcie. Again, remarkable resemblance to an enemy-character in a certain HP series. But it don’t stop there, at the end of this book, once Runcie discovers the burden Sleeth has placed upon himself to save his father, well, all enmity ceases and there is grudging respect on both sides. Is this familiar to anyone out there at all??? I know that both JK and Ian have made use of classic archetype characters, but come on Ian, couldn’t you have even changed the sex around a bit more? Admittedly the head good wizard is female and apparently rather attractive – which works.
He also seems to have echoes of another highly original series by a Mr Pullman. The natives of Ilium have mindsakes, animals that they can commune with mentally.
The entire book feels a bit rushed. They have quite a few adventures in the 13 days or so they have to make it to Shambles’ hideout to stop him. There’s a lot going on and we are shoved through the land of Ilium without much time to stop and smell the roses. In this time, the characters argue, bitch, self-deprecate and win the day, discovering how to be true to themselves and their past.
There are six books planned for this series – maybe the kids who read this are the type of kids who grow up to love Dan Brown when they get older. I just dunno.
Maybe I’ll get round to reading the first one to see if it irons out the problems with this book. But it definitely won’t be until after this project is finished.
Ian Irvine Bio
Australian and has a PhD in marine science.
He is an expert in the contamination of marine sediments. As a result of his work, he has travelled to virtually every island paradise planet Earth has to offer.
He’s written at least 20 young adult fantasy/sci fi books/futurist eco-thrillers. He started his first series as an escape from a thesis (something I totally relate to as I have homework sitting in my room, glaring at me as I type). He has used some of his experiences in his books – although not the paradise part as a lot of the books seem to be dystopian.
It’s very interesting that number 1 on Ian’s ‘How to succeed in fiction-writing’ list on his website is: Be original but not TOO original.
Hmm, something to think about...
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