A long-eared guardian with a corps of fierce, chocolate warriors helps to rescue the kidnapped children of Santoff Claussen village in this sequel to Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King (2011).
When Pitch, the Nightmare King, sweeps all of the village’s children away to his lair at the Earth’s center, Cossack/mage Nicholas and his intrepid sidekick Katherine hie off to (where else?) Easter Island. There they solicit aid in their recovery from Bunnymund, last of the ageless Pookan Brotherhood and keeper of the second of the five Relics that must be gathered to ensure Pitch’s final defeat. Standing tall in designer shades and richly patterned robes, the “very egg-centric” but powerful lagomorph (inventor of Spring, jokes, chocolate and Australia) hops to. This sets the stage for a rousing subterranean dustup and, for Pitch, another hasty escape. As in the previous episode, Joyce mines common European cultural motifs and lays clever twists and resonances on the result, for a tale as stylized and baroque as the occasional illustrations.
You could cut the preciousness with a knife. Next up: Toothiana, Queen of the Tooth Fairy armies. (Fantasy. 9-11)
