Embedded Files
Peter Dickinson
What I loved about this book was its originality. Reading the blurb and hearing of an England reverted to the Middle Ages with children racing across the country in a veteran Rolls Royce to put things right was immediately exciting. There were times in the first half of the book where I thought it wouldn’t live up to this promise. It starts very much in the thick of things, with a character who has lost their memory. This didn’t quite work for me as I was too caught up in trying to make sense of the very different world to properly empathise with the characters’ escape and a little frustrated at that disconnect. I can see that the duality of the character’s confusion and the reader’s was a good way to introduce a strange world but it didn’t suit me. This speaks to what a complicated thing reading and writing is, so many people will have different ways of acclimatising themselves to the world of a book and often the process of starting a book will be a process of finding a compromise between the way of the reader and the way of the writer.
It wasn’t too long before I was more comfortable in the world, when the characters travel to France and meet the General I enjoyed the realisation that this was not just some magically changed world existing in a vacuum and the process of starting to explore the ripple effects of such a change on the rest of the world. This made me trust more that the change wasn’t just a quirk and novel story setting but something that would have a reason and an explanation, it drew me into the mystery.
As the journey started across England in the Rolls Royce I enjoyed it at first, the novelty and the contrast was engaging and it was good to see Geoffrey and Sally growing into their roll. Quickly though the connection with the unusual world weakened. The Rolls outdrove, and deterred, any attempts at conversation and that meant that the points of contact between the modern and medieval worlds were as something to be overcome rather than something that helped learn about the changed world. During this time I did enjoy Geoffrey’s growing suspicion and wariness of the General and his ends justify the means attitude, a theme throughout the book.
Where I moved from being interested and engaged to being enthralled was the second half of the book, it started with increased non-conflict contact between the two worlds which allowed for more exploration and nuance but it continued with what is one of the most staggeringly original and cohesive twists I have seen in a book, something that I can’t really discuss without spoilers but which makes me fascinated to see where the series will go next.
I also loved the character of Sally, her compassion, curiosity and general openness made her a wonderful character. The General very much sets her up as a sidekick to Geoffrey, and his age sometimes leads her to defer to him, but they are equally the heroes of the story. There are also lots of points where the story is funny or touching, it delivers on the promise of a madcap adventure while also exploring some dark and weighty topics.
Written by Jack.
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