Review by Frank Plowright

Timothy Hunter has accompanied his new teacher Dr. Rose on a journey across the magical dimensions to locate his missing schoolfriend Ellie. Readers of previous volume Moveable Type have good reason to suspect Dr. Rose is more of a threat than a guide.

What’s instantly apparent here is the change of art, a change as immense as the step from humanity into the lands of Faerie. Tom Fowler had previously supplied both pencils and inks, but for Second Quarto provides layouts for Brian Churilla’s finishes. It’s a beguiling combination shedding the artistic restraint of the first volume in favour of something wilder and more representative of a stranger in a strange land.

The same applies to Kat Howard’s writing. Such is the pace of events, with a significant change almost every chapter, it’s barely credible the same writer is responsible. Movement was at a premium in the first volume, but here the story comes tumbling out. We find out why it is Tim Hunter appears to have forgotten all he learned over previous series, the assorted dangers of visiting Faerie, and the resilience of Ellie, and that doesn’t even take us halfway through.

Toward the end of his previous incarnation Tim was becoming very knowing, and while that opened new doors, it removed the appeal of the uncertain and well intentioned young teenager struggling with a world he didn’t truly understand. Howard effectively restores that mood while touring around relationships between other magical characters, and then delivers an extremely compelling piece of manipulation ensuring Tim renounces magic.

By the time we’re ready to move on to Dwelling in Possibility, there’s been significant and tragic change. Those who believed themselves in control have learned they’re not, there’s been some heavy emotional moments to process, and it looks as if worse is on the horizon. It’s all very satisfying.