The history of the story is told in the first few chapters, giving a foundation upon which the storyline is built. 

It begins when Octavia, a warrior queen in a land far away, has built her empire by conquering seven other countries. Her advisers speak of a land, far across the seas, which she should consider her next conquest and, since her name is Octavia (meaning Eight), she decides that this will be her eighth and final feat. 

The land is inhabited by the El, an enigmatic, magical people, who have actually spread out all over the world and mixed with people of other races. Octavia sets out and conquers this land, allowing her people to populate the land. It is known as 'The land of the El' but over time, is abbreviated to 'Land of El' or 'Landovel'.

Moving forward, over the generations, a massive meteor hits Earth, in the sea, just to the East of Landovel, causing catastrophic damage and separating the land into two islands, creating a channel in the middle, called the "Channel of the Comet".

The King has twin children, a girl and a boy. When they grow up and their father dies, the Crown is handed to the elder girl, born a few minutes before her brother. The new Queen has a vision to create a modern country and forges ahead with her plans for industry and automation. Her brother is not happy with this situation. He wants a life more connected to nature, where there are no machines and everything is done by hand and hard toil. 

He stages a revolution and maintains that it is the Will of the El that things carry on as before and innovations and machines are evil and have to be destroyed. His sister, the Queen, flees for her life, with many of her followers. They cross the Channel of the Comet and set up a new life on the southern island.

These islands are now referred to as True Landovel in the north and Free Landovel in the south. The King in the True Landovel is ruling with an iron fist and an army of redbacks (soldiers). He has banned education, reading and writing, any sort of mechanical instruments or machines. He has also introduced a curfew in the capital city, Scarlet City, from sunset to sunrise. Scarlet City is a walled city and the gates are locked at the beginning of the curfew. A chant which must be recited by everyone square at the beginning and end of curfew. Many of the people are unhappy and living in fear and escaping in the night, by boat, to reach Free Landovel.

The story starts on board one of these boats which has just been attacked by slave-trading pirates, led by an evil man called 'Cram'. His men have killed all those who opposed him and taken the adults to be sold as slaves and the children as his own slaves, who he will use in his disgusting castle on Cram Rock, which is just to the east of the Channel.

He is scouring the boat for anyone he, or his men, may have missed, when he comes upon a young boy, Derry, hiding under a blanket in a bunk in the captain's cabin. 

Derry appears to have a badly injured left arm, so will be of no use to him as a slave on Cram Rock, he is just about to dispatch him to his death, when Cram notices that Derry has an open book against his chest. He commands Derry to read a few lines of the book to confirm he can read and orders him to be Cram's reader (Cram cannot read) of the many books he has stolen from his past acts of piracy. He says this should remain a secret, he does not want anyone to know he likes books. He says that Derry will be known as his 'poison taster', since his last one was poisoned.

Derry is taken to Cram Rock and the story evolves with many twists and turns as he fights for survival in the stinking and rat infested castle.

 All three books continue, at an equally fast pace, through many further adventures, including his rescue, with the other children slaves to Free Landovel. Book Two takes the reader to True Landovel, which has a story that continues to thrill and captivate. Book Three builds to a climax of intrigue and double-cross to the concluding "twist in the tail" at the end.

I would highly recommend this trilogy of books to anyone, not just teens and young adults. It is well written, highly imaginative, gripping, intense and a joy to read. It is presented in a well designed and decorated box, with a 'flip-top' lid at the side, giving access to the books which are numbered on the spine 1,2 and 3.

The Author

Born in Sydney in 1948, Emily Rodda is one of Australia's best-known children's authors. Her first book, Something Special, was published in 1984. Since then, she has written over 100 books for children, including the award-winning Rowan of Rin series and the outstandingly successful Deltora Quest series, which has been translated into 30 languages and sold more than 18 million books. She is also an accomplished crime and thriller writer for adults under her real name.,Jennifer Rowe.  Her books have received many Children's Choice awards, and she has won the Children's Book Council of Australia's Book of the Year (Younger Readers) Award a record six times. In 2019 she was awarded the highest honour in the Australia Day Honours list, Companion of the Order of Australia (AC).

Reviewed by Ken