The Book of Dead Days

Rating:
Summary: Richie's Picks: THE BOOK OF DEAD DAYS
Review: "Offstage, Boy pushed the lid of the cabinet up with his head until there was enough space to lift it with his hands.
" 'Out you come, then,' said a stagehand. Boy took the man's hand gratefully..."

THE BOOK OF DEAD DAYS has nothing whatsoever to do with Jerry Garcia. Nevertheless, you'll find yourself tiptoeing amidst a rather healthy crop of skeletons if you dare to follow a pair of young orphans, and a magician on his last legs, as they race the clock through the dark recesses of a fantastical old European city in the final, frigid days of a year set on the verge of the modern scientific era.

"He climbed out and stood for a moment in the wings, rubbing his sore calves and watching as Valerian began his grand finale.
"The Fairyland Vanishing Illusion.
"Boy was not needed for this part of the act. He watched Valerian from the side of the stage.
"How many times has he done this? Boy wondered. He had forgotten how long he had been working for Valerian, but it was years. Boy could only guess at how many thousand times he had hidden in boxes, pulled levers, set off thunder flashes and opened trapdoors. He helped Valerian with trick after trick, week after week in the Great Theater, which was as much of a home as anywhere to Boy."

The "dead days" of the title are those five or so days of the year that mess up what would otherwise be a neat and orderly calendar of twelve 30-day months. Both the ancient Egyptians and the Aztecs shoved those leftover days into an ominous no-man's land at the end of their calendar year.

THE BOOK OF DEAD DAYS is a tense drama in which Valerian seeks to save himself in those last days before the tolling of the new year, by tracking down a powerful old book that is somewhere hidden away. In the process, we are led through the underseams of some of the most claustrophobic settings that I've encountered.

It was, in fact, from a rather small hiding place that the orphan, known only as Boy, had fallen many years earlier when he first came eye to eye with the magician:

"Small, cramped dark spaces had filled Boy's life. Long ago, he had even been hiding in one the day he was found by Valerian in an old church, St. Colette's. Boy had crammed his narrow frame into a space at the top of a pillar in the nave...
"Even then Valerian looked haggard and pale. His nose, long and fine, twitched in the dusty atmosphere of the old church. His skin was gray, so was his hair. He looked like a dead man walking. But his blue eyes were full of life, and his gaze roamed the dark spaces around him.
"Then Boy had heard his midnight rumble of a voice, so deep the stone he was clinging to shivered with it.
" 'The doctor,' intoned Valerian, 'pronounced me either dangerously sick or dead.'
"It was while trying to understand the strangeness of those words that Boy lost his grip and plummeted to the flag floor of the church, where he lay looking up at Valerian, scratching his nose nervously, his short-cropped black hair sticking up at interesting angles the way it always did.
" 'O-ho!' Valerian had said. 'What have we here?' "

Now this unusual pair embark on a life-and-death search through, beneath, and around the outskirts of that City. Accompanied by Willow, an assertive young woman who falls in with them during these Dead Days, they are alternately aided and impeded by Kepler, a brilliant inventor who has been an acquaintance of Valerian's since their years together at the Academy, The unceasing echo of the clock ticking dictates that false moves be avoided, and that the horrors encountered be taken in stride.

"He looked down at what lay within, and his jaw dropped. He had listened intently to what the old woman in the pillar had said about the Master of Burials and his animals, but nothing could have prepared him for what he saw now."

THE BOOK OF DEAD DAYS will leave you bent over breathless and back aching as you try to adjust to the light in hopes of determining just where you are now. And once you catch your wind and your bearings, you'll be wondering impatiently just how long the wait is before we get to return to the City in Book Two.



Rating:
Summary: Disappointingly Bland
Review: I'm going to go against the popular consesus here and say that this book is one I now somewhat regret buying.

It's not that it was a particularly bad book. However the characters seemed flat - Willow, the girl, served little purpose aside from asking endless questions that were more annoying then helpful, and Boy came across as fairly pathetic. The twist, when it came, was so predictable that it took me several pages to even realise there had even been one. All in all, whilst it was a readable enough book and there was adventure, it did not particularly engross me and I was not too perturbed about the fates of the characters.

It has been described as "atmospheric" and "haunting" and "dark". However, those reviewers have clearly never read Chris Wooding! His stories leave this one for dead.

Rating:
Summary: A dark novel that explores the grim side of fate!
Review: Marcus Sedgwicks' novel, The Book of Dead Days, was a very interesting read that I throughouly enjoyed. The novel is set in an eerie setting of a decaying city where civilized life is uncommon and mystery is abound. Sedgwick amazingly conveys the dark, unsettling tone and medieval setting of the city. Through beatuiful language, he creates a dark world where you have the feeling that something unsettling always lurks in the deepest corners of an unexplored alleyway. The three main characters were vividly imagined, the most complex being the unpleasant magician Valerian, who's mysterious past and deal with evil keeps you reading impatiently till the middle of the book. Boy, Valerian's servant, is a boy with no name, history or past, but his purpose to Valerian is revealed in the end and his true feelings that he's been hiding for years emerges in the final climax. Willow on the other hand, the young girl who befriends boy in the beginning after her terrifying experience in the theatre, was somewhat unenjoyable. Sedgwick used her to ask way, and I mean, way too many questions which reveal the bulk of the mystery. When she wasn't asking questions and you get a view into her past, Willow does become somewhat believable and you find yourself becoming sympathetic. Overall, this book was an amazing read that transports you to some of the deepest, decaying parts of your imagination. My only disappointment were all the questions left unanswered which I hope will be answered in book 2. The fact of the phantom, Korp and Green's murders, and who did kill them for what reasons were all left unsolved but were all brought up in the end which gives me hope and anticipation for book 2.

Rating:
Summary: V V good actually
Review: THE BOOK OF DEAD DAYS is about a magician called Valerian who is desperately trying to save his own life from an evil he made a pact with 15 years before, with two teenagers Willow and Boy aiding him on his struggles they start the search through the dark and haunting city to find the book that could save Valerian from his fate.

Written in short chapters, sometimes of only a page or two, the book is kept fast paced and interesting. Although I expected the short chapters to be tiring after a while I found they kept the book moving and the suspense always at a high, right until the end.

The writing style is simple but elegant and sets the mood for the dark story, however the book is not actually that heavy going or depressing, despite the nature of the storyline.

A refreshing and interesting dark tale full of suspense and melodrama. Quick and simple but extremely enjoyable!


Rating:
Summary: dark and enjoyable
Review: This book takes place in a series of dark scenes as two young people try to save a magician from a deal he has made earlier, although he is not highly deserving of their loyalty or help. The characters are not deeply developed but this didn't really bother me, since the book was more intent on creating a mood of gloom and strangeness. The ending didn't answer all questions, so I'm hoping for a sequel. I would recommend this to people who liked Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast novels and Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Likewise, if you liked this, you might want to try those authors.

Rating:
Summary: great read
Review: This is a very fast paced, well crafted novel. It is written with beauty by it's use of lanuage , reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe. Keep the dictionary handy. I am an adult who loves children's literature, and I would recommended it to my children age 6-11.