A review by ailsaod
The Curse of the Gloamglozer by Paul Stewart, Chris Riddell

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

 Reread. This was one of my favourite series when I was younger but I have never particularly liked this book. If you are starting this series people usually advise starting here but I would argue that 'Beyond the deepwoods' (book 1 of the Twig trilogy and the actual first book written in this universe) or 'The last of the sky pirates' (book 1 of the Rook trilogy) as better alternatives. I personally started on Stormchaser (Twig trilogy book 2) and I read them all horribly out of order and it was still great - though I would say that from 'The Immortals' and after you should maybe read them in order.

If you aren't familiar with the edge chronicles then this is a story taking place over hundreds of years following Quint Verginix (the protagonist of this book) and his descendants through the ages. This sounds potentially quite dry but the world of the edge is full of floating rocks and trees (and as a result ships and cities), fantastical creatures, hostile environments and many different peoples, all of which is illustrated in great detail by Chris Riddell. The worldbuilding is great and changes as time passes.

'The curse of the gloamglozer' is fine as an opening book of a trilogy but I would argue that the whole Quint trilogy feels a lot like prequels to the rest of the series. The deepwoods are such an integral part of the Edge Chronicles but they are only mentioned in this book, this book is focused exclusively on the floating city of Sanctaphrax and in particular on the Most High Academe, Linius Pallitax. Linius has been acting strangely and it is up to Quint (his new apprentice) and Maris (his neglected daughter) to figure what he's up to. This is all well and good but all the characters are so mean to each other? For the whole first half Maris and Quint are at odds (

Maris makes fun of Quint for being scared of fire when she KNOWS he almost burned to death when he was small and lost most his family. Are you laughing because I'm not?!

) and only join forces out of necessity and their fathers are both flaming disasters and this is before I get to the majority of the population of Sanctaphrax!

I'm not sure if Stewart & Riddell set out to create a Frankenstein retelling but they kind of did? I wasn't too keen on this part but it sets up for stuff much later in the series.