AND PUT AWAY CHILDISH TINGS - Adrian Tchaikovsky

"All roads lead to Underhill, where it's always winter, and never nice."

Felix "Harry" Bodie, a struggling presenter of children's television, is the grandson of the famous Magda "Mary" Bodie - author of the beloved Underhill series of children's books. Harry has been living in Underhill's shadow his entire life and finally takes the time to look into it.

Underhill, it turns out, is not a made up land, but an actual place. His grandmother wasn't inventing something - she was telling about a place she'd actually been to. But Underhill is not a nice place, and the citizens of this land have grown tired of waiting for the promised child to come to them and they've taken things into their own hands.

I haven't read a lot by Adrian Tchaikovsky, but I've been wanting to turn that around, and this looked right up my alley.

Harry is an unusual protagonist - his age (middle age), his accomplishments (none?), his drive (non-existent?) target him as the reluctant hero, but he's never a hero here ... he's just reluctant. But the situation that he's in proves to be an interesting.

For the most part, this is a nod or an homage to some of the classic children's stories of yesteryear.  The similarity to C. S. Lewis's Narnia is most obvious with the use of a wardrobe (note the cover), but I also noticed some significant nods to Edith Nesbit and many of her books. There were other moments that felt like it was probably a nod to a book or series that I wasn't familiar with (or at least couldn't make the association).

All in all, a fun, short read that didn't feel 100% original.

Looking for a good book? And Put Away Childish Things by Adrian Tchaikovsky is a quick-read novella that nods and skewers the fantasies that many of us grew up reading.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

3-1/2 stars

* * * * * *

And Put Away Childish Things

author: Adrian Tchaikovsky

publisher: Solaris

ISBN: 9781786188793

hardcover, 208 pages

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

VINYL RESTING PLACE - Olivia Blacke

Image
 Juni Jessup and her two sister, Tansy and Maggie, have gone into business together in their hometown of Cedar River, Texas, opening a combination record store and coffee shop. Vinyl LPs are making a comeback after all, despite critics thinking the medium was dead.  But speaking of 'dead' ... finding a dead body in the supply closet just as they are looking to have a grand opening is not part of the plan.  Juni's life gets more complicated when their uncle, Calvin, already a suspect in the murder, disappears. And the police officer leading the investigation is Juni's EX-boyfriend (who passive-aggressively keeps putting himself back into her life). Convinced that her uncle would never murder anyone, Juni sets out to prove his innocence - which isn't easy since he's making himself look guilty - because Calvin is family and family is EVERYthing to Juni. As readers of my blog know, I'm not a big fan of most cozy mysteries, but the setting caught my eye and my in...
Read more

THE WALLED CITY - Ryan Graudin

Image
  Jin and her sister, Mei Yee, were taken and sold and then sent to the lawless Walled City to serve as prostitutes or slaves to anyone willing to pay. Jin managed to escape her captivity, but not the Walled City and she now lurks about, disguised as a boy and is trying to track down the brothel where her sister is still captive. Jin will work odd delivery jobs to earn a small bit of money and hopefully have a legitimate means of coming in contact with her sister's captors.  This is how she meets up with Dai, a mysterious boy who has somehow managed to avoid running with any of the gangs in the city but he seems to have his own unusual connections, which Jon could desperately use if she has any hope of finding Mei Yee. But Dai has his own desperate needs.  The story is told from the different perspectives of each character and we do bounce around quite a bit as the chapters are generally short. This never bothered me, which is slightly unusual as often I find this techni...
Read more

THE RAVEN THIEF - Gigi Pandian

Image
 With Tempest Raj now a member of the company, Secret Staircase Construction (a company who, as their title suggests, builds mystery-themed, secret rooms inside homes) has finished their first job. Their client now wants to celebrate to kick off her new beginning - new home and new life now that she's divorced from her cheating ex-husband, famous mystery author Corbin Colt. First up, a mock séance to remove any trace of Corbin from the property, led by Tempest's friend, Sanjay.   But during that séance, while all those gathered sat in a dark room holding hands, Corbin's dead body crashes the party, falling across the table in front of everyone. There were eight people in the room, and they were all holding hands, but all the evidence points to one of them being the murderer.  Suspicions point to Ash, Tempest's grandfather, because he was the only one with Corbin's blood on him. Of course, as a doctor, he was also the only one who checked on the body - ...
Read more