Review by Frank Plowright
You’ll notice Neil Gaiman tops the cover list of creators within. Don’t base your purchase of Moveable Type on that as disappointment will ensue. Gaiman’s written a few pages of the opening story designed to reboot several characters he introduced via Sandman and his world. You’ll recognise the Gaiman-written pages for mentions of mythical creatures like a cockatrice or a hippogriff. You can substitute the names of lesser known British birds like a corncrake or lapwing to similar effect. The only reason this material has been included is to enable Gaiman’s name on the cover, and as it’s of negligible relevance to the story of Tim Hunter and features numerous unresolved situations, it’s best ignored.
Where Gaiman should receive due credit is for creating a bespectacled British schoolboy destined to be a magical great, but currently in need of a lot of advice, guidance and training. No-one can deny that was a viable concept.
When we reach the main content from Kat Howard and Tom Fowler it seems to be a complete reboot ignoring most iterations of the Tim Hunter character other than Gaiman’s original story (see The Books of Magic). Tim has been informed of his destiny, yet there’s very little magic about his world. He’s targetted at school, his father is depressed after Mrs. Hunter’s disappearance, and he can’t read the magical text in the book he’s been given.
There are pros and cons to ignoring the baggage Tim acquired over several series, but there’s nothing startling or original to justify it. Howard seems to see magic as something to be turned on and off like a torch, and beyond dire warnings of consequences that never manifest, the use is all very vague. Moreover items that might pep up the rinse and repeat cycle are puzzlingly glossed over with minimal comment. Given his personality and the dire warnings, one might imagine Tim would be a little more concerned about being interviewed by the police about a murder outside his house, yet a single line of dialogue dispatches that idea.
Tim has a guide in the form of Dr. Rose, a severe new teacher at Tim’s school who we see is more sinister and dangerous than she appears to him, but if her purpose is to guide and protect Tim, she’s under-used, particularly when events move so slowly. Over six chapters the greatest progress is when Tim enters the Dreaming to consult with those within. That’s Fowler’s biggest moment. Until then he’s competently stuck on message by delivering Tim’s ordinary life in an ordinary town, but other than the neat touch of Tim’s magical accessory being a screwdriver rather than a wand it doesn’t give him much of chance to shine. Transferring Tim to a magical realm does, and Fowler delivers, supplying a place both enticing and sinister.
It’s only over the final two chapters the pace picks up, and while they’re an improvement for moving things forward, Howard still glosses over what ought to be consequential events. The entire book turns out to be the prelude to a quest that begins in Second Quarto. The hope is that Howard picks up the pace, or if not manages to interest us more in the challenges facing Tim.
