THE DREAM AND THE MUSE

In this fantasy adventure, a young woman explores her true potential while aiding a thief with otherworldly powers.

Madarena Rua, who is “young enough to be tried as a juvenile,” can’t sleep. Despite her father’s snoring, she hears flower pots breaking in the garden. From the doorway, she sees what must be a cat—yet it’s walking on hind legs. She chases it into the bushes only to discover that her quarry is a small, bald man. His name is Apophax, and he seems grateful for help getting out of the bushes. Madarena assumes she’s dreaming. When Apophax asks where a nearby cemetery is, she walks him there. He lends her his coat of hedgehog quills to keep her warm. Even more strangely, he then begins to fade away into the moonlight. As she tries to remove the coat, a creature that looks like a living statue of Anubis approaches. It says: “Apophax. You have broken the laws of Triskadeka Fair.” The dog-headed enforcer then takes her up a stairway of light to a court that’s bound to find her guilty. So begins Madarena’s entanglement with the trickster Apophax, who has a plan to steal the Aoede statuette from the Night Mayor of Triskadeka Fair. Once the Moirai Sisters Clothiers dresses Madarena in “Potential,” her real adventure kicks into gear. Burnett harbors a deep love for the absurd, using his imaginative skills to the hilt, as did L. Frank Baum in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Madarena’s ability to drive her own story begins when she’s in prison and draws a face in chalk on the floor. She then convinces the talking cell to release her. Such unexpected cleverness continues to gush like a geyser as the tale proceeds. The author’s appealing hero loves the dictionary and has a “deep fear of ennui,” which produces lots of wordplay. The Thanatons, for example—named after the Greek god of death—are a race of monsters that includes zombies and wights. Trying to find the person or thing that is named Aoede gives emotional stakes to a narrative that might have easily drowned in silliness. Madarena’s hatred of boredom could provide fuel for a sequel exploring the “quaquaverse.”

A bonkers fantasy that retains a sweetly human center.