When Lords and Ladies quest for fame
A Beast shall touch the land with flame
The Book of Lies is the first book of a children's fantasy trilogy written by James Moloney. Published in 2004, its sequels, Master of the Books and The Book from Baden Dark were published in 2007 and 2009 respectively.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.
The trilogy provides examples of:
- 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 condone Exact Words lies, its highlights glowing a brighter gold than when telling the truth. 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 quickly 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, before the challenge is eventually shifted into a steeplechase.
- 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. Later, after returning to the castle, he casts an invisibility spell in order to slip away. Near the end of the book, Marcel casts both spells in Baden Dark.
- 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.
- 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. Double Subverted with the reveal that King Pelham is a just ruler, but Lord Alwyn's age has caused him to let evil seep into the kingdom.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
