The Frozen Sea

The Frozen Sea - Piers Torday

(Release date: 5th September 2019)

Having loved The Last Magician, and waited (not so) patiently for the next instalment, it's fair to say that there was a huge amount of excitement in our house when an ARC of The Frozen Sea arrived in the post; even more so that it arrived just as we were venturing to France so it meant we could take it with us!

Jewel is Patricia's daughter, a lover of books and a girl who is picked on at school for being clever.  One day, whilst hiding from the bullies, she stumbles into a bookshop and unwittingly ends up in Folio, forty years after Simon, Patricia, Evelyn and Larry were last there.  It is her mission to find her missing Aunt Evelyn and, along with only her hamster, Fizz, and Pandora the robot, she must venture to the Frozen Sea and encounter dangers that will make her question everything she thinks she is.  Can she find her aunt and rescue her before it's too late?

K's opinion:

It was just wonderful to return to Folio again and I very quickly grew fond of the new characters, as well as being reacquainted with some familiar characters from The Lost Magician.  Jewel is a clever young lady who lives to read and certainly knows how to think for herself.  She knows she's different and doesn't particularly like this as it is why she is picked on at school, but it soon becomes her greatest asset.  

Fizz, meanwhile, is a hamster who is full of sarcasm and a feisty attitude, that's apparent from the start but he really comes into his own as a character once they enter Folio and Jewel can understand everything he is saying ... I loved him!  I also liked Pandora who showed us that everybody (even robots) think they have flaws.

Being born and brought up in Newcastle (& still a resident Geordie), I was thrilled that the book is initially set in Newcastle and (I'm going to show my age here!) the fact that it was set in the 1980s took me back to my youth (blimey I sound old!): mention of Casio watches, Our Price and Wimpy took me back to Northumberland Street many a year ago!  It also lead to the tentative ideas of computers controlling everything; everything being on the sandstone and people becoming reliant on them … it made me think of Ipads and our current technology … perhaps a lesson for us!

This was an exciting plot that had me gripped from the very start. I very quickly found myself rooting for Jewel and her companions, and literally couldn't put the book down (instead of people-watching whilst having a drink in Café de Paris in Monaco, I was firmly back in Folio!).  The links with The Lost Magician were clever (particularly the extra content in the paperback!) and I thoroughly recommend it.  The Frozen Sea is a fitting sequel to The Lost Magician and I cannot wait to share it with my class!

O's opinion:

When I finished The Lost Magician, I asked myself, "What's next for these adventurers?" The answer arrived in the post a couple of weeks ago! The Frozen Sea has everything in it: robots, trolls, gods, even a bookstore in Newcastle! Somehow, Piers has managed to fit them all together in a land of amazingness called Folio (obviously, the bookstore is in Newcastle, not Folio). I loved how Jewel always searched for a logical explanation for everything, even though in many cases there isn't one - for example, a talking bear ruling a country of robots and story characters.

I have always loved Piers' books, and this is his best yet! However, there is only one pressing question: will there be a book 3???