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War is coming in the fourth entry of The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica. The Winter Kings Shadow is using the Spear of Destiny to make a shadow army in the Archipelago of Dreams, while World War II looms in the real world. As the Caretakers of the Imaginarium Geographica meet with past legendary Caretakers, the Grail Child and her companions search for a mythic sword. The literary allusions are still clever and the story imaginative, but the pacing suffers from heavy exposition, much of it given in endless group conversations, and the conclusion is anticlimactic. This entry is purely for series fans. Grades 8-11. --Krista Hutley
Product Description
The Caretakers of the Imaginarium Geographica are at war. The Imperial Cartological Society, led by Richard Burton, have collected all of the doors from the Keep of Time, and are building a new tower in our world at the request of an old enemy: The Winter Kings Shadow. He has a terrible weapon The Spear of Destiny that can be used to command the shadows of anyone it touchesincluding the protectors of the Archipelago, the dragons. With a ship called The Iron Dragon, the Shadow King regains passage to the Archipelago where he uses the power of the Spear and the portals of Time to enlist an unstoppable army of Dragon Shadows. And after the Archipelago falls, he intends to betray the Allies in our world but not to align himself with the opposition. The Shadow King intends to use the turmoil of WWII to take over BOTH worlds.
All the legendary Caretakers, past and present, come together on a great island in the northermost part of the Archipelago to decide the ultimate fate of the Imaginarium Geographica, as a terrible battle ravages the lands around them. And their only hope lies with a small group of companions who are on the quest for the broken sword Caliburn: the Grail Child Rose Dyson; her mechanical companion, the owl Archie; a mouse with an attitude; a dead Professor of Ancient Literature; and the mythical knight, Don Quixote.
They must sail beyond the ends of the Archipelago in search of the sword, and the only being alive who can repair it: a scholar, who, once upon a time, was called Madoc.