Westmark (Westmark #1) 3Stars

 

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Title: Westmark
Series: Westmark #1
Author: Lloyd Alexander
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: MG Fantasy
Pages: 102
Words: 44K

This is the first in the Westmark Trilogy by Lloyd Alexander, the author of the Prydain Chronicles. I classified it as Fantasy, not because there are magic spells, or talking animals, or even enchanted artifacts but because the world of Westmark is NOT our own. This goes back to the roots of Fantasy, which have been corrupted over the years to mean something quite different than how it started out. I’m quite ok with fantasy incorporating the magical, but the magical shouldn’t BE the defining aspect of Fantasy. So go into this with no expectations of prophecies and curses and you’ll be just fine.

I did not enjoy this as much as the Prydain Chronicles. While both are middle grade, this FELT more middle grade. Problems are solved with the greatest of ease (said the man on the flying trapeze!), which is fine in MG fiction, but sometimes things were just solved a little too easily. The Evil Prime Minister is overthrown with one word from the King, even though the PM has spent years consolidating his power, over the King, over the Nobles, over the entire land. Poof, he’s gone. That’s not a problem for a twelve year old reader and if this were my introduction to Lloyd Alexander, it probably wouldn’t be a problem for me either. But things weren’t quite this simple and simplistic in the Prydain Chronicles, so I as an adult reader KNOW that Alexander can write a more complex situation while still keeping it on the twelve year old’s level.

At its heart, this was a coming of age story mixed with love and adventure. I read it in my tweens and teens and I remember enjoying it quite a bit. Now that I’m re-reading this as an adult, I’m still enjoying it, but I don’t ever see myself reading it again in the future.

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia

It is a complicated and politically dangerous period in Westmark. The country's ruler, King Augustine IV, has slipped into dementia, depression and illness since the supposed death of his only child, Princess Augusta, over six years ago. Despite the efforts of the queen, Caroline, and the court physician, Dr. Torrens, the King is increasingly manipulated by his chief minister, Cabbarus, who has designs on the throne. While the ill king is kept distracted by a series of mystics and charlatans who claim to be able to speak to his dead child, Cabbarus increases his control over Westmark, restricting freedoms and abusing the king's powers.

Young Theo, an orphan, has been raised in a small town, Dorning, by a printer named Anton. After the pair accepts a job from a travelling salesman they are investigated by Cabbarus' men, who declare their job illegal and proceed to destroy their press. In the ensuing scuffle and chase, Theo attacks a soldier and Anton is shot and killed.

With no one else to turn to, Theo takes to the countryside, eventually meeting up with the men who hired him and Anton for the printing job: Count Las Bombas, a con artist, and his dwarf driver/partner Musket. Theo joins up with them, rather reluctantly, and ends up participating in their money-making schemes. They eventually discover a girl named Mickle, a poor street urchin, who has a talent for throwing her voice and mimicry. The count builds a charade around Mickle, dressing her up as the Oracle Priestess and putting her on display, claiming that she can speak to the spirits of the dead.

Theo, despite his growing affection for the bright but vulnerable Mickle, begins to find his new life too dishonest for his tastes and abandons the group, eventually falling in with Florian, an anti-monarchist and rebel who plans revolution with his band of loyal followers whom he calls his "children". Meanwhile, Mickle, Las Bombas, and Musket have been arrested for fraud, Cabbarus has attempted to have Dr. Torrens assassinated and a politically minded journalist, Keller, goes into hiding to save himself from Cabbarus' wrath.

Events come to a head when Theo plots to break his old companions out of prison, with help from Florian and his friends. Their reunion, however, does not last long; Cabbarus has tracked them down and has them all arrested. He brings the group to the Old Juliana, the palace of King Augustine IV and Queen Caroline, where reveals his plans to the group and of how the "Oracle Priestess" will be his pawn to his uprising to the throne. While in Old Juliana, Mickle comes across a trapdoor leading to a water canal, and her memories race in her mind as she remembers her childhood. This leads to her high fever and Theo's worry of her having to act. Cabbarus presents the group to the King and Queen and the courtiers as the Oracle Priestess, and suddenly Mickle's long-repressed childhood memories come to the surface, revealing treason, attempted murder and corruption in the heart of the Westmark government. It is later revealed that Mickle is the long-lost Princess Augusta and that chief minister Cabbarus was responsible for her disappearance.

Eventually, on the subject of Cabbarus's punishment, Theo, on behalf of his conscience, sends him into exile, instead of killing him.