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A review by saroz162
Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King by Laura Geringer, William Joyce
4.0
The first installment of William Joyce's Guardians of Childhood series is absolutely delightful. Joyce, long a master of the picture book form, has finally turned his talent to early reader novels, with excellent result. The basic idea - a series of stories revolving around the mythological figures of childhood, and their battle against nightmares, is simple, clever and will resonate with many, many children.
In reading this first book (I bought the first four), I was struck how much it reminded me of L. Frank Baum's Oz stories, which were great favorites of my own childhood. The language of Nicholas St. North is a little simpler - befitting the modern age - and the story is a little shorter, but there are some commonalities: a brave female child protagonist; benevolent magic-casters; strange fantasy creatures; and a quest that emphasizes friendship over the occasional bursts of terror and even violence. Crucially, Joyce and his co-author (on this volume only) have chosen to avoid either a full-on fairy tale motif or a sub-Tolkien high fantasy homage, both of which are overly popular today. I would not be at all surprised if the Oz books, which were always lighter and more distinctly American than many trendy series since, were in the back of Joyce's mind.
My only criticisms relate, perhaps over-sensitively, to marketing issues. I'm not an enormous fan of the serialized format that seems to have taken over children's fiction, which instead of gently implying future adventures, screams, "Buy the next one!" I respect that Joyce wants to tell a longer story, but I do like a more distinct ending to each installment. I'm also a little disappointed just by the economic situation in which these books are published. They are lovely little volumes - the covers are beautiful, and Joyce's gentle interior pencil drawings balance the text nicely - but I can't help thinking that, had these been released in the glory publishing days of the '80s or '90s, they would have color plates (or a color frontispiece, at least). The covers are so vivid it just seems a shame there is none of Joyce's trademark color work elsewhere in the books. That's a secondary issue, though - what's here is very nice indeed.
I am looking forward to the next book in the series, which has a delightfully B-movie title. I believe William Joyce has projected six novels in the series, so there's only two to be released yet. I'll certainly be keeping an eye out.
In reading this first book (I bought the first four), I was struck how much it reminded me of L. Frank Baum's Oz stories, which were great favorites of my own childhood. The language of Nicholas St. North is a little simpler - befitting the modern age - and the story is a little shorter, but there are some commonalities: a brave female child protagonist; benevolent magic-casters; strange fantasy creatures; and a quest that emphasizes friendship over the occasional bursts of terror and even violence. Crucially, Joyce and his co-author (on this volume only) have chosen to avoid either a full-on fairy tale motif or a sub-Tolkien high fantasy homage, both of which are overly popular today. I would not be at all surprised if the Oz books, which were always lighter and more distinctly American than many trendy series since, were in the back of Joyce's mind.
My only criticisms relate, perhaps over-sensitively, to marketing issues. I'm not an enormous fan of the serialized format that seems to have taken over children's fiction, which instead of gently implying future adventures, screams, "Buy the next one!" I respect that Joyce wants to tell a longer story, but I do like a more distinct ending to each installment. I'm also a little disappointed just by the economic situation in which these books are published. They are lovely little volumes - the covers are beautiful, and Joyce's gentle interior pencil drawings balance the text nicely - but I can't help thinking that, had these been released in the glory publishing days of the '80s or '90s, they would have color plates (or a color frontispiece, at least). The covers are so vivid it just seems a shame there is none of Joyce's trademark color work elsewhere in the books. That's a secondary issue, though - what's here is very nice indeed.
I am looking forward to the next book in the series, which has a delightfully B-movie title. I believe William Joyce has projected six novels in the series, so there's only two to be released yet. I'll certainly be keeping an eye out.