The third installment of the series The Keys to the Kingdom. Here there be pirates, the Third Key and The Carp. Another wild adventure for Arthur.

Arthur Penhaligon is summoned from his hospital bed by Lady Wednesday, who has metamorphosed into a 126-mile-long whale. Burdened with asthma, a broken leg, and still-fresh shock at how inextricably his fate is tied to the House (the "epicenter of the Universe"), Arthur plies the Border Sea in search of the Third Part of the Will. The conclusion melds Pinocchio and 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, bringing into play a fearsome pirate, mercenary rats, a ship incompetently crewed by accountants, and allies old and new, human and otherworldly

This is was the most interesting book for me in the series so far. It takes a little bit of a different plot course then the other books. In this book Arthur has broken his leg and is in the hospital. He is waiting for Drowned Wednesday to attack like the other Morrow days. Instead of Wednesday attacking Arthur he is invited to have lunch with her. Wednesday gets Arthur into the house by connecting the border sea, where she resides to Arthur’s hospital room. This makes Arthurs room flood with water and he is swept into the house on his bed which acts like a boat. As I said before this is my favorite book and for me it seems that the further I read in the series the better it gets. Tom

The third book in Garth Nix's The Keys to the Kingdom series deepens the scope of hero Arthur's adventures while setting the stage for what promises to be a wild ride through the Upper House.

Drowned Wednesday is typical Nix, chock-full of more intriguing concepts, excellent writing, and real dilemmas than most writers produce in three books. This one presents a bit of a change of pace from the first two. Instead of having to fight the holder of the Key for its possession, Lady Wednesday (or Drowned Wednesday, as she's now known) would be happy to give both the Key and her portion of the Will to Arthur. The only problem is, the other Days tricked and trapped her thousands of years ago and she has no idea where the Will is hidden now.

And that's the challenge - Arthur has to track down the Will and free it, but this time he doesn't have a trace of the power from either Monday or Tuesday's Keys to help him out. He's on his own. Arthur can’t rely on his magic this time around, only on himself and how clever he could be in a given situation. By the end, he has realised he’s in way over his head, and that he can't possibly be that clever or lucky all the time. He has to carry at least one of the Keys now, otherwise the next time he and people he cares about could be killed.

Arthur is growing up, far faster than any kid should have too. At least he's willing to learn, though. He does spend a little too much time on the "why me?" in this book, but it seemed at the end that he'd gotten that out of his system. He begins to take proactive rather than reactive action and is starting to accept that he must do something, rather than waiting for his enemies to do things to him. Good for him. Nix also offers up enough information about the Morrow Days to leave us wondering what their game is; whether they are in league together and, if so, what their purpose is; and, most of all, what is Drowned Wednesday's exact relationship to them? Is Arthur being double- or triple-crossed? Only time will tell.

I can't wait for Sir Thursday. ( )

Another splendid instalment, this time on the watery surface of the Border Seas.
I'm glad that Leaf has a larger role here, and I'm sorry we didn't get to see more of her travels, but I enjoyed the new characters that we met here.
Onwards to Thursday... ( )