What a delightful experience.

This is where my knowledge of the books tends to wane, there parts of this I didn't remember in any fashion. And since it is a Keys to the Kingdom book it gets five stars from me. I'll review the whole series in the Lord Sunday review. Spoilers for the whole book beware.

As a part of the series

Drowned Wednesday is an interesting part of the series, as it is somewhat self-contained as all the stories are, as the premise sort of prevents overly complex interactions from throughout the house and the "trustee's". However this does present some interesting intrigue and world-building, that supports the whole story. Establishing Superior Saturday as a primary antagonist, and Lord Sunday as the effective ruler of everything, but they have "higher" matters to deal with.

The changes to the lower house, and the far reaches are especially significant here and it's interesting to see that the changes made in the previous book have visible repercussions here. I think an interesting turning point here is that this where Arthur can no longer deny that he has to deal with this if he even wants a chance at living any semblance of a normal life.

But, due to the standalone nature of the book, and the self-contained nature of the Border Sea, that's all I feel I have to say about this book as it is.

As a standalone book

What a fun book, I am a sucker for naval themes, and set-dressing. And seeing "Sorcery Navigatiors" and the mysterious border sea, is absolutely delightful.

Also seeing the Tragedy of Drowned Wednesday, is a very nice pivot from Mister Monday and Grim Tuesday, where they felt like relatively straight forward villain's. Lady Wednesday, showed regret and growth. And all her appearances where very funny, and intense.

This book also had so many delightful characters, from The Raised Rats, to crew of the Moth, and Wednesday's Dawn, it was quite delightful to see all of the interactions of the characters.

This world is so intensely fun, and imaginative, I can't get the world building out of my head.

I do have some criticisms. There is a relative lack of character development, and Arthur tends to lack a lot of agency in the plot. But to me those are less criticisms and more expectations of something it isn't. The character development exists on the longer term of the series, and each "episode" of this series is a fun imaginative adventure.

I will be interested to do a review once I have finished the series.

cardboard_belt's review

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4.0

it’s lovely to revisit this series I read so many years ago

zurpel's review against another edition

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4.0

This is the third volume in Garth Nix’ series about Arthur and his adventures. Arthur has already defeated Monday and Tuesday, which brought him two of the seven keys. Now he has to face Wednesday. Wednesday governs the large sea of the House that can even be expanded to reach into the human worlds. Arthur learns this the hard way when his hospital room is suddenly flooded. He and his friend Leaf are drawn into the world of the House, in the middle of the ocean, where they have only Arthur’s hospital bed to prevent them from drowning. But the bed won’t stay above water for long.
In comparison to Nix’ other series I’ve read, the Abhorsen books, this series is aimed at a younger audience. Having read it so far, however, I think that those books belong to those that can be read and enjoyed by all ages. Nix creates a vivid world with wonderful characters. They can be funny, scary, sympathetic or just plain disagreeable.
In this respect Drowned Wednesday didn’t disappoint. After having already read two books in the series that had the same basis: Arthur has to go into the House to find the ruler of the part of the House that is the current topic of the book. In this book Nix introduces a slightly varied background in this respect and I really enjoyed that. I also liked to see old characters return (especially Susi).
I listened to the German audiobook read by Oliver Rohrbeck. Rohrbeck is a great narrator and gives life to those books. As such those audiobooks are highly recommendable for Germans. The only downside of the audiobook is the fact that it is an abridged production. I got the audiobook from the library, which is the only reason I listened to this abridged production (I refuse to buy any abridged audiobooks). Considering that the books aren’t that long in the first place the abridgment is probably not as severe as in other books. Not having read the books before listening to the audiobook I can’t say whether the abridgment affects important parts of the books. At least there weren’t any abrupt changes or scenes where I thought there was something missing.
The books only exist as an English audiobook production, which as far as I can tell is unabridged, but not having listened to that, I can’t say anything on its quality.

villianess's review

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4.0

This book didn't have as much adventure as the previous ones but it was again very entertaining reading. The characters were simple. It did make me think of what a little bit of power can do and how good it is to have friends to ground us. Also how sometimes you can save a person but not their soul.
Quite a cliff hanger at the end. I'm glad I have the next book to start today.

latetocall's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

bookhamster88's review

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adventurous challenging hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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