FORMAT: HARDCOVER / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 1ST
This first instalment in Francesca Gibbons’ new fantasy trilogy, A Clock of Stars follows Imogen and her little sister Marie. Their own world is full of conflict and impending threat, with arguments between themselves and external threats in the shape of Mum’s new boyfriend, who Imogen stops from needlessly killing a moth in their house. It’s that moth Imogen follows, sensing it’s grateful for the rescue. It leads them to a door to another world. Lost and alone, they are found by young, isolated, and spoilt Prince Miro and learn of his world where threats to identity and family are far more deadly. The girls must overcome struggles between themselves before they can find a way to save his world and return to their own.
The central relationship between Imogen and Marie is touching and truthful, both in the characters’ personalities and how their relationship grows by developing separately. Neglected only child Miro’s harder time learning vulnerability and true strength is as compelling as his parallel world, its magic and its politics. The threat of stepparents, or ‘spare parents’, as invaders is deeply ingrained and takes an interestingly traditional path through the moral twists and turns of beauty, loyalty, love and power. Along with respectful nods to Narnia, we have a kinder moral universe than Pullman’s with a modern sensibility of the pain and panic around missing children, acknowledging we don’t magically get back the time we spend.
