Literature (first book review) Charming little adventure
William ends up with a model castle in his attic, which is given to him by his elderly caretaker as a going-away present. And inside that model castle, is a knight - an actual flesh and blood living knight, Sir Simon, who was but a mere toy before William picked him up and unknowingly undid the curse that had turned Simon into lead.
This book is essentially divided into three acts.
First, after William discovers that there's a real, miniature knight living in the model castle, he sneaks away to hang out with him. The two talk a lot, and William sneaks food into the attic and a lamp so Simon will have some light. There's a lot of fun culture clash as Simon is unfamiliar with the modern world, and he also believes William to be a giant. This is the most charming part of the book, I'd have to say.
William later pulls a major What The Hell Hero, and soon realizes his mistake, when he stupidly shrinks his caretaker in a last-ditch effort to prevent her from leaving the house. He places her down in the castle to live with Simon, and Simon informs William that far from being happy, his caretaker is getting sadder and weaker by the day. Furthermore, the only way to reverse the spell and bring her back to normal size is to get the amulet that was used to shrink her in the first place. So William will have to be shrunken down, enter the world, and go on a quest to kill the wizard who had stolen the original amulet.
And that's where the second half of the book takes place and the genre changes to straight-up fantasy adventure. Once in the magical world, William is assaulted by random magical tests of character - all curses cast by the evil wizard that he has to deal with - and sadly, there doesn't seem to be a Magic A Is Magic A ruleset or anything to have it make sense. But once that's over and William is inside the wizard's own castle, things begin to make sense again and the quest hits its stride. The actual experience of living with the enemy while secretly plotting to kill him is tense, and the sort of thing I'd love to have seen more of.
There's a couple flaws in my opinion: besides the random trials William goes through once in the fantasy world, there's also the fact that William is a bit too wise to be totally believable at some points. Still, if you look past the flaws and see the charm, this is a pretty nice book.
Literature (second book review - Battle for the Castle) More conventional story, but also more exciting and fun
While the first book was pretty much about how William encountered a toy knight that came to life, got to hang out with him, and eventually went on an adventure in his world, this book is pretty much straight-up adventure. Only a few chapters after it starts, William introduces his friend Jason to the medieval fantasy world, the two make plans to bring both their bicycles and backpacks full of stuff with them, and the adventures soon begin.
While Battle for the Castle is more directly adventure-based than the first book, many of the first book's charms carry over. The culture clash between the two modern day boys and the world they've transported to is fun to read. Tolliver, a young boy from the first book, becomes excited about learning how to ride a bicycle, and Gudrin, a girl who helps the heroes, finds simple joy in turning a flashlight on and off and making light circles in the night sky. Deegan, a jester, refers to Jason as "Boy-who-looks-through-windows" in reference to his glasses. It's light-hearted and cute.
The story moves pretty quickly, too. Not once was I bored, not even in the opening chapters before the adventure. Even the details of simple life in the castle were neat, as the story kept moving at a good clip, character interactions remained fun, and interesting events kept occurring. When the ghost ship finally shows up and the first hint of true adventure begins, the story wastes no time in getting exciting, then staying that way.
This adventure feels less random than the first, considering that William's initial entry into the fantasy world had him under assault by random magical trials. Here, the events make a lot more sense and flow naturally from what we know. Okay, a ghost ship and an army of mind-controlled rats — the two are connected — are a rather random set of concepts to put together in the same story, but the flow of events has a Magic A Is Magic A sort of consistency, making it much more plausible. The events are handled very well and are played believably.
Ultimately, this is a straightforward fantasy adventure kid novel, and essentially a genre change from the first book. But while it lacks the first book's imagination in some ways, I think overall, it's a better-told story, and I found it more enjoyable in its own right.