The Platinum Key is a series of fantasy sci-fi novels for children. The first two books were published in 2015 and there will be 8 books in total, with the odd numbers in the series being written by Aishwarya Rathod and the evens written by Tejal Patel.
The story follows tween best friends, Aly and Mincy, who discover that they have magical powers and must travel to separate worlds to complete their magic training. The odd numbered books focus on Aly's adventures in Jumboland, while the evens have Mincy travelling to a planet called MagicX. Both worlds, along with their homeworld Earth, are tied together by a mysterious and powerful object, The Platinum Key. Enemies are trying to steal it from all corners and it is up to Aly and Mincy to save the day.
The Platinum Key contains examples of:
- Action Girl: Aly and Mincy, as well as plenty of their friends.
- Aerith and Bob: There are characters with fairly normal names (Alyson, Lydia, Leila) and others with very strange names (Aramincia, Chocolate, Vanilla).
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Aly finds her 4 year old sister Anita to be this.
- Another Dimension: There are several dimensions, or worlds, mentioned. In Jumboland a dimension usually refers to a parallel universe, whereas in MagicX dimension is just another word for world.
- A Wizard Did It: How Jumboland is not a round planet and why people can breathe in space. The reasons have yet to be explained.
- Balance Between Good and Evil: Rhianna cites upholding this as the reason for attacking Tayk Wun.
- Batman Can Breathe in Space: In the Jumbo vortex, somehow people are able to breathe in space.
- Because Destiny Says So: Aly agrees to going on adventures because Merlin told her that the Platinum Key would feature in her future prominently and she assumed it meant that she would do something adventurous.
- Berserk Button: For Laila, calling her a chicken.
- Big Bad:
- TRAPPSTON in the first book.
- Klaxton in the second book.
- Big Fancy House: Vanilla's family owns one.
- Big Ol' Eyebrows: Merlin the Younger has these.
- Brainwashed: It turns out that TRAPPSTON (aka Tom Randy Ton) was hypnotized by Tayk Wun to steal the Platinum Key, and he was not evil on his own accord.
- Character Development: Pinky was originally Aly's enemy, but changed enough to become her friend.
- The Chosen One: Aly and Mincy are both this for their respective worlds.
- City of Adventure: MMMS and Crystal City both count.
- Deadpan Snarker: Many characters, but Mincy and Leila stand out.
- Death from Above: Lydia dies when the Platinum Key's toxic sparks hit her from above.
- Deflector Shields: Amelia the witch can summon force fields, though they drain her energy. She uses one to protect everyone from the falling chandelier.
- Drama Bomb: In the first book, some very laid back chapters are suddenly followed by Ginnery being murdered and TRAPPSTON succeeding in stealing the Platinum Key in quick succession.
- Epistolary Novel:
- The first book is written as Aly's diary (with a guest entry from Chocolate).
- The second book is partially written as Mincy's diary.
- Evil Twin: Klaxton created evil clones of twins to make an army, including Pru and Lily.
- Fantastic Measurement System: Some people in MMMS use "milli-kilometres" (half a kilometre) instead of normal kilometres.
- Flat World: Jumboland is simply a flat landmass.
- Floating Continent: The Sky Kingdom is on the cloud layer above Jumboland.
- Free-Range Children: Aly and her friends wander around MMMS without adult supervision, and Laila even cycles all the way to her hometown of Mizzarin by herself. These characters are roughly 10 or 11 years old.
- Large Ham:
- Tayk Wun when he's destroying Josia Theme Park. Lydia joins in on it.
- TRAPPSTON does this sometimes too.
- Magic Carpet: These are widely used in the Jumbo vortex. The magician school uses them to serve food.
- The Man Behind the Man: Tayk Wun had hypnotized TRAPPSTON into stealing the Platinum Key for him.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted.
- The twins Lily and Prudence both have clones, whose names are also Lily and Prudence.
- Aly and Mincy both have sisters called Anita.
- Chocolate's sisters are called Sugary and Sweet, while her cousin Vanilla's sisters are called Sugar and Sweetie.
- Merlin's son is also called Merlin.
- Aly's mother Helena shares her name with one of the students.
- Aly has a friend called Laila, while Mincy has a friend called Leila.
- Psychic Link: Aly and her mother telepathically communicate with each other when Aly is in TRAPPSTON's lair.
- Random Transportation: Mincy is randomly transported through space and time several times. It turns out to be Tayk Wun trying to stop her from reaching her destination.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Mrs Longwalk believes Aly about Princess Linda being evil.
- Science Fantasy
- Teacher's Pet: Both Aly and Mincy are called this at points by other students, though ultimately neither of them quite fit the trope.
- Teleporters and Transporters: There are different types of teleportation mentioned, such as fixed portals and summoning a temporary portal into one's hat to teleport through.
- Time Travel: Happens to Mincy and Chocolate.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Chocolate's favourite food is, well, chocolate.
- Trapped in the Past: Chocolate gets stuck in the year 1985 when she accidentally time travels.
- 20 Minutes into the Past: The first two books were published in 2015 but take place in 2007.
- Useless Superpowers: Many magician spells are useless, such as being able to make one's nails change colour for some seconds.
