Chris Riddell

When the boy-emperor of Absurdia awakens to the sounds of sky fish nibbling on umbrella trees, he falls out of bed, and into the arms of his Wardrobe Monster. Unfortunately, although his woolly hat, crumply coat, and jingle-jangle socks are soon located, the emperor's snuggly scarf is nowhere to be found! So begins this delightfully bizarre adventure, in which the young emperor ranges over the aptly named land of Absurdia, questing after his scarf, and barely escaping from the clutches of a show more mother dragon. Exhausted after a busy day, the emperor goes to sleep, awakening... but that's another story!

A delightfully imaginative romp through a dreamlike landscape, The Emperor of Absurdia is the kind of surreal adventure that will appeal to young Seuss lovers. Chris Riddell - who contributed his fabulous illustrations to Paul Stewart's fantasy series, The Edge Chronicles - is at his creepy best here. Expressive, bizarre, and somehow just right, his artwork manages to be simultaneously endearing and disturbing. This is one picture-book that young fans of the bizarre - or of Riddell - will not want to miss! show less

Long review but worth it:
Top 5 favorite book series!
Growing up, I 'accidentally' got into this series because the bookstore was out of The Spiderwick Chronicles books, and it was a recent release and claimed to be just as promising.
It's rare to find other people who knew of these books and even rarer for those who had read them growing up- everyone was more laser-focused on the more popular Harry Potter titles and the like.
It never fails- every time I read one of these books, they cast a show more spell over me. It is way more challenging to put it down. It's easy to read and written just seriously enough that it radiates more intelligence and passion in a single chapter than most books would dream of having in a library.
Full of high fantasy logic & lifestyle, it will even have you reaching for a dictionary infrequently because it does have some vocabulary and diction that can expand your personal lexicon. The writing style is likeable and the plot/course of events always manages some kind of hook. The Edge Chronicles is its own thing, but if you want to compare and find some way to describe it to outside readers- it has heavy Alice in Wonderland vibes mixed with Lord of the Rings with maybe a distant flair of the Dark Crystal.
Perfect for any fantasy fan, but there is some graphic scenes in there containing creature violence and battle scenes that describe the wounds in detail. Younger audiences can enjoy this but probably best to be mature and not too squeamish (even then, these descriptions aren't so common and aren't insanely detailed in description but are definitely present). That said, this is further evidence that older adults can enjoy this book with little trouble. Don't be that person that shelters their kid from a fantastic series just because a little blood is present- that's stupid.

This is important to note about the series as a whole. I actually did not know this until recently- but the series has a chronological order and has 'trilogies' within the series regarding a certain character. Each saga focuses on a different character per inner trilogy, and documents that character's story/journey as a central focus. (Think of these as 'sub series', similar to how Terry Pratchett structured his novels )

THE QUINT SAGA
#4 The Curse of the Gloamglozer
#8 The Winter Knights
#5 Clash of the Sky Galleons

THE TWIG SAGA
#1 Beyond the Deepwoods
#2 Stormchaser
#3 Midnight over Sanctaphrax

THE ROOK SAGA
#5 The Last of the Sky Pirates
#6 Vox
#7 Freeglader

THE NATE SAGA
#10 The Immortals (2009)

(This series isn't of the main core books but is rather takes place after the events of the main series)
THE CADE SAGA
The Nameless One (2014)
Doombringer (2015)
The Descenders (2019)

However! Please don't let this seemingly cattywampus reading order throw you off. The publisher and author both agree and publically go on record to say that the order in which they were written and published works fine. Each book is stand-alone and does a superb job of keeping the reader up to speed, no matter where you start. Reading them in normal chronological order does just a good a job as any and in some cases, works the best.
Me? I started book #1 and chose to go in publisher chronological order- it's what works best for me. (That is- the Twig saga was my starting point, and then carried on chronologically 4, 5, 6, etc as expected traditionally)
The reason this series has this sort of structured order is because when The Twig saga was first written in the 90s, it was intended to be a single novel- but the author had so much fun writing it, that he just kept going with it.
The history of these books is pretty intriguing:
http://www.edgechronicles.co.uk/edge-chronicles-book-order/

This book series would be and could be used for an epic D&D campaign. In fact, I encourage it. I wish there was a published, canon version that could come packaged and ready to play. Packed to the gills with original high-fantasy creatures (a few examples: Rotsuckers, Banderbears, Venomous hover-worms, Prowlgrins, Caterbirds etc) and a diversity of races just as original (Slaughterers, Shrykes, Termagant Trogs, Hammerhead goblins etc.) it really stands out and is a cut above the rest with imagination. This is the only series you will find with these unique named creatures- no other series contains them. Each novel is satisfying and provides its own justice, cliffhangers, and rich development. Sometimes, you feel as though you are a historian of this fantasy rather than a casual reader. It's definitely a series that takes commitment if you want to see it entirely through- so it's great for people that want to pick a series and stick with it and have plenty of reading material. It's also excellent for people who maybe tired of the usual fantasy trope with dragons and wizards. It will impress with its character development and break from the more common fantastical creatures.

I started the series shortly after it was published, and I haven't finished the series yet (I'm on book #6) but I have enjoyed this amazing and memorable series over my 25+ years of growing with it. This is an underappreciated series as a whole, and it bothers me only slightly so many people sleep on this series.

Verdict: READ IT! show less

This is certainly the strongest book of the three, although part of that is it paying off all sorts of karmic debt built up over the previous two books. Twig suffered enormously, lurching haplessly from adventure to adventure, most of them horrendous and horrible, then when finally things seem to go his way, he contributes, unwittingly, to disaster and the loss or death of most of the existing supporting cast. No sooner is book three underway than it all goes horribly wrong again, but this show more time Twig has experience, determination, agency! Off he goes heedless of the odds or the impossibility of the task to recover his scattered crew and restore his lost memory and save the world! It's all quite thrilling, while the trademark horrors and nastiness are all present and correct, this time we have a protagonist equipped to cope with them and maybe even triumph. He's even got a sidekick as callow and green as he once was and through whose eyes we see most of the action. The mild distancing effect does wonders for Twig's personality: characters on the Edge are boldly drawn but they're not exactly complex or popping off the page.

I enjoyed it very much, all told, but I was slightly put out by the female characters, of which there are few. Sympathetic female characters do exist, but they are scarce, only one rises to the height of an actual supporting character. Two female-dominated species are, er, hair raising in their depiction of femininity, though of course most of the species on the Edge have hair-raising aspects. Still: Shrikes and Termagents? Really?

I do not, oddly enough, expect things to improve noticeably in future volumes, but hopefully it won't detract from my enjoyment. show less

It's been a good while since I read the first book in this series, but I didn't have too many difficulties picking things up. This really is the far side of the world from Alan Garner's increasingly atmospheric and enigmatic style of fantasy. This is a sturdy, intricate piece of world-building, fully grounded and downright anti-romantic in its, for a narrow sense of the word, realism. There's the geography, all connected, the flora, the fauna, the city, the academic extension to the city, show more the economics, the politics, the corruption and crime and bustling throng of diverse species, there the mad science that's indistinguishable from magic and here's danger, madness and death - often hideous and bloody - around every corner: basically it's Fritz Lieber's Lankhmar and Jack Vance's Dying Earth and you could probably talk knowingly about George RR Martin for kids if you really wanted to.

Some really quite amazingly horrible stuff happens in the course of this adventure. There's is intrigue and betrayal, but there are deaths and murders and mutilations that were either shocking or gratifying in a book for children, I'm not sure which, and it's probably both. The writing makes sure it all goes down easily, however - a tad too easily, perhaps. One is invested in the world and in the story, but never quite the characters. The kind of smooth clarity of the prose that explains complex ideas and gruesome deaths with deceptive simplicity tends to describe characters and their emotions and personalities without ever quite making them really come alive to the reader.

Not that that'll stop me sailing off into the next one. show less