Drowned Wednesday (2005)

The same general likes and dislikes from Mister Monday and Grim Tuesday apply here. It's interesting to see that the formula of the plot has been disrupted, though -- Drowned Wednesday doesn't behave in the same way as Monday and Tuesday at all.

It's also great that Leaf gets to play a greater part in this book, giving Arthur not one but two strong female characters at his side, at least for now. I'm not counting the Will here, of course, since the parts on their own are presented as male, as least so far. I hope Leaf has more to do, since despite her being swept off to have adventures with Arthur, a lot of the book was spent away from him.

Edit -- I forgot to mention this at first, but I also loved the very brief reference to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Blink and you'd miss it, but given my interests, I wasn't likely to miss it... ( )

Part 3 of the Keys to the Kingdom series. As the narrative continues, Arthur builds more alliances. Unlike the previous two denizens Arthur has vanquished, Drowned Wednesday promises to abdicate in exchange for his help. More of the broader backstory is filled in and the reader learns more about the Architect and her family, as well as the Raised Rats. Meanwhile, the threats in Arthur's own world increase. The speed picks up in this volume, which is a mercy. ( )

Episode three of the series, in which Arthur ventures into the watery realm of Drowned Wednesday, mistress of the Border Sea. Its a fun one, full of pirates and the greatest of the great white whales and the Pied Piper's rats operating steamships! ( )

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. ( )

Arthur's back, and this time...in the middle of the ocean on a hospital bed. He meets new quirky Denizens of the House and goes on an amazing adventure across and under the Border Sea, complete with pirates and giant sea creatures!

I really did enjoy Drowned Wednesday more than Grim Tuesday. The adventure was so much fun, as were the characters. The Raised Rats are some of my favorite characters in the whole series, and who doesn't love a good secret passage? It got harder and harder to put down as I continued reading. ( )