Title: The Magic Word
Author: Jennifer Fallon
Series: Hythrun Chronicles #9
In: Legends of Australian Fantasy (Jack Dann & Jonathan Strahan)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Australian authors, Medieval fantasy
Pace: Fast
Format: Novella
Publisher: Harper Collins Australia
Year: 2010
5th sentence, 74th page: I mean… he may not even be aware of what’s going on.

A fabulous story of what happens when certain worlds collide! Princess Adrina, Damin Wolfblade, the High Prince of Hythria, and Tarja, the Lord Defender seem to be experiencing a time loop … reliving the same day constantly. In the dungeons being held prisoner is a young man by the name of Dirk Provin from the world of Ranadon … he has an alarming message about the breakdown of the veil between their worlds. And when they set off to find the truth, they also find a crashed machine and Tide Lords … and a leipreachan. All they have to do to make everything right is find the ‘magic word’ …

Have you ever wondered what happens to the characters when you close the pages of a beloved book? I always imagine them living their happily ever afters, going on more adventures and just generally enjoying the life that they’ve been granted. But, what if it isn’t like that? The Magic Word is Fallon’s way of looking at what happens to the characters after you turn the last page of the book, after the author stops writing their story.

I loved the concept of this story, and even the way it was told, but some of the repetition throughout it got to be a little tedious. Although, I think that that was kind of the point of the storyline. I felt that it was a little boring just reading it, imagine living the same introduction to your day again and again and again!

This novella took me nowhere that I expected to go. And for that I’m grateful. It also made me think about all of the many, many literary characters I have loved over the years and question what could have become of them (in the imaginative sense).

Image source: Harper Collins NZ