Lindsey's Library

Critique

There’s certainly one thing to be said about everything Nix writes, and that is that it’s rife with original creativity and completely new fantasy stories. However, sometimes the books themselves, although phenomenally imaginative, are hit or miss depending on how much Nix is able to flesh out the story. The Seventh Tower series, for instance, is deftly imagined, a two worlds drawn together through light and shadow, and the ability to use colored gemstones to create light beams that can do all sorts of interesting things. Unfortunately for whatever reason, Nix doesn’t explore the world and the story enough. It’s much more like eating watery soup than it is like consuming a good meal.

The Abhorsen Trilogy, on the other hand, is a great work, and although it’s not a classic literature sort of story, the world itself is fleshed out well, so that the reader can really imagine the world and lose themselves in it. I feel like the Keys to the Kingdom series is a mixture of both, and I’d love to see the world more fully explored. The first book, especially, seems to move toward that path, but as the books progress, they seem to become more and more formulaic and lacking in substance. Ultimately, Nix’s imagination seems to know no bounds, but if he would slow down and put more life into these books, I think they would be much better. Not to say that the books aren’t fun to read, but I believe they could be fun to read and rich. Hopefully his next fantasy series will be more like The Abhorsen Trilogy.

The other books in this series are Mister Monday (book 1), Drowned Wednesday (book 3), Sir Thursday (book 4), Lady Friday (book 5), Superior Saturday (book 6), and Lord Sunday (book 7), which is soon to come.