When Lords and Ladies quest for fame
A Beast shall touch the land with flame
The Book of Lies is a children's fantasy trilogy written by James Moloney.A Beast shall touch the land with flame
—The first two lines of the golden verse on the Book of Lies
One stormy night in the Kingdom of Elster, a boy named Marcel is brought to an orphanage near the remote town of Fallside. When he wakes up, he finds that he has no memory of his past. However, an orphan named Bea reveals that she witnessed a sorcerer named Lord Alwyn take Marcel's memory using a tome called the Book of Lies. Joining Marcel and Bea at the orphanage are Nicola, a vain girl older than most of the others, and Fergus, a hot-blooded boy the same age of Marcel. Together, they set off towards the Kingdom's capital of Elstenwyck, on a quest to save the kingdom from evil. On their journeys, the four of them grapple with discoveries about each of their heritages, battle against threats both internal and external to the kingdom and struggle to accept their places in the greater world.
Books in the Trilogy include:
- The Book of Lies (2004)
- Master of the Books (2007)
- The Book from Baden Dark (2009)
The trilogy provides examples of:
- Amnesiac Hero: Marcel wakes up in an orphanage with broken memories that he quickly learns are fake.
- Artifact Alias: Even after Fergus's and Nicola's true names are revealed, both of them still go by the names given to them by Lord Alwyn.
- Artifact of Doom: The Book of Lies is meant to separate lies from truth. However, the book begins to allow Exact Words lies, glowing brighter than when the truth is told. While revealing the truth behind Mortregis, Marcel feels a cruel pleasure radiating from the book.
- Bully Turned Buddy: Initially, Fergus antagonises the other boys, including Marcel. However, after being forced to fight back-to-back with Marcel against a pack of wolves, the two of them become friends.
- Challenging the Bully: After Fergus begins fighting another orphan whose disability he insulted, Marcel offers to fight in the place of the boy. When the other boys point out that Fergus would easily win, he instead challenges Marcel to a steeplechase.
- Chekhov's Boomerang: Marcel escapes from Elstenwick's palace in The Book from Baden Dark through the use of an invisibility spell. Later, in Baden Dark, he uses the spell to hide from Fergus and Bea.
- Chekhov's Gun: The start of The Book from Baden Dark has Marcel uncertain as how to respond to a request for a love spell, and whether the woman requesting it is worthy of her partner's love. Near the end of the book, Marcel casts the spell when he becomes jealous of Bea's trust in Fergus.
- Child of Forbidden Love: Bea is the offspring of an elf and a human, the two races being intensely distrustful of each other.
- The Chosen Many: As heirs to the throne of Elster, Marcel, Nicola and Fergus are the only ones able to break the magic placed on the prison holding Princess Eleanor and Prince Damon.
- The Chosen One: After tiring of life, Gannimere focused the magic in Arminsel into a single child in order for them to take his place, with that child being Marcel.
- Clingy MacGuffin: The ring that Lord Alwyn puts on Marcel is unable to be removed by normal means, and it makes Termagant always know Marcel's location. Marcel takes the ring off by being courageous enough to risk his own finger to remove the ring.
- Distant Prologue: Master of the Books begins with a couple meeting a seer, who foresees the futures of the unborn Marcel and Fergus.
- Drunk with Power: After honing his arcane powers at Noam, Marcel becomes more egocentric, threating others with his magic and recklessly dealing with obstacles without thinking about the consequences.
- Fake Memories: Both Nicola and Fergus have false memories given by the Book of Lies to hide the fact that they are royalty.
- Fast-Forward to Reunion: The Book from Baden Dark ends with Marcel and Bea reuniting a month after Baden Dark is sealed.
- Fisher King: Eleanor comments that, with the corrupt King Pelham on the throne, the land of Elster has begun to die, with droughts and flash hailstorms occurring. It is later revealed that King Pelham is a just ruler, but Lord Alwyn's age has let evil seep into the kingdom.
- Generation Xerox: Just like her mother, Bea struggles with the forbidden love between a human and an elf.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Bea is the offspring of a human father and an elven mother. As such, she inherits the larger stature and more outgoing personality of a human while retaining the hiding abilities of an elf.
- The Lancer: While Marcel is calm, collected, and kind, his Bully Turned Buddy Fergus is hot-blooded, boastful, and reckless.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia:
- The story is kicked off by Marcel, Fergus and Nicola having their memories wiped to stop them from freeing Prince Damon and Princess Eleanor.
- In order to protect Arminsel, Gannimere prepares to have the memories of those who have seen it replaced.
- Last-Minute Hookup: Marcel and Bea only fully confess their love in the epilogue of The Book from Baden Dark.
- Perspective Reversal: In The Book of Lies, Marcel is portrayed as the calm foil to Fergus's hot-headedness. By The Book from Baden Dark, Marcel has become the impulsive one, carelessly using his magic to achieve his goals, while Fergus is his cool-headed counterpart, concerned with the consequences and able to see through Marcel's emotions.
- Put on a Bus: While Nicola and Termagant are main characters in Master of the Books, both of them are left behind at the royal palace while the others go to the Elf Kingdom, with Nicola needing to fulfil her duties and Termagant being a newly made mother.
- Quest for Identity: The driving force behind Marcel leaving the orphanage is his desire to find out about his forgotten past.
- Really Royalty Reveal:
- Marcel, Fergus, and Nicola are revealed to be the rightful heirs to the throne of Elster, with Fergus's and Nicola's true names being Prince Edwin and Princess Catherine.
- After meeting up with Marcel again, Bea reveals that she's the granddaughter of the King of the Elves, Long Beard.
- Refused by the Call: Starkey offers to take Marcel on an adventure to save the kingdom from evil. However, when Marcel reveals that he's been marked by Lord Alwyn, Starkey changes his mind to bring along Fergus and Nicola instead.
- Sadistic Choice: After Marcel pledges to be Arminsel's guardian, Gannimere forces him to either wipe the memories of his friends, or to have them killed, in order to conceal Arminsel's existence.
- Threshold Guardians: After leaving the bounds of the orphanage, Lord Alwyn forces Marcel to put on a magical ring that cannot be removed through normal means and which allows Termagant to track the wearer down. However, Marcel manages to remove the ring by threatening to cut his own finger off, letting him escape.
- Weather Report Opening: The Book of Lies begins with a description of the thunderous night that Marcel is brought in on.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The epilogue of The Book from Baden Dark describes each of the main character's roles during the rest of Queen Nicola's reign of Elster.
