The Indigo King (Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica Series #3) »

James A. Owen is the author and illustrator of the Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica. He is founder and executive director of Coppervale International, an art and design studio that also publishes the periodicals International Studio and Argosy Quarterly, develops television and film projects, and is redesigning an entire town, among other ventures. James has written and illustrated two dozen Starchild comics, the Mythworld series of novels (published in Germany and France), and more. He lives in Arizona.

On a September evening in 1931, John and Jack, two of the Caretakers of the Imaginarium Geographica, discover a cryptic warning on a medieval manuscript — which is not only addressed to them but seems to have been written by their friend, Hugo Dyson! But before they can discover the origin of the strange book, Hugo walks through a door in time — and vanishes into the past.

And in that moment, the world begins to change.

The Frontier, which separates our world from the Archipelago of Dreams, has fallen. Dark and terrible beasts roam throughout England. No one can be summoned from the Archipelago. And both worlds have fallen into darkness under the reign of a cruel and terrible king.

The only hope to restore the proper order of things lies on a forgotten island at the edge of the Archipelago, where a time travel device left by Jules Verne must be used to race through history itself — from the Bronze Age to ancient Alexandria and the founding of the Silver Throne — in one night. And in that single night, John and Jack will find that the only way to save their friend and stop the chaos destroying the world is to solve a 2,000-year-old mystery: Who is the Cartographer?

KLIATT

Jack and John, Caretakers of the Imaginarium Geographica, are in trouble up to their necks. Their friend Hugo has disappeared behind a door marked with the Holy Grail, and suddenly Britain has turned into a grim, almost lifeless wasteland ruled by Mordred. Along with an alternate-world version of their friend Chaz and two brave talking badgers, they race to find the exact time in which everything went wrong. A lively jaunt through Arthurian legend, from Malory to Mark Twain, ensues. This series started strong and just keeps getting stronger, with clever reworkings of classic fantasy stories and complex, flawed protagonists. Essential for libraries that already own the other two books, and the series itself is highly recommended for all libraries. Reviewer: Deirdre Root

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Prologue

Part One: The Mythopoeia

Chapter One:

The Booke of Dayes

Chapter Two:

The Door in the Wood

Chapter Three:

The Royal Animal Rescue Squad

Chapter Four:

The Unhistory

Part Two: Fractured Albion

Chapter Five:

Tatterdemalion

Chapter Six:

The Serendipity Box

Chapter Seven:

Noble's Isle

Chapter Eight:

The Infernal Device

Part Three: After the Age of Fable

Chapter Nine:

The Storyteller

Chapter Ten:

The Shipwreck

Chapter Eleven:

The Grail

Chapter Twelve:

Imaginary Geographies

Part Four: The Iron Crown

Chapter Thirteen:

Betrayal

Chapter Fourteen:

The Sword of Aeneas

Chapter Fifteen:

The Stripling Warrior

Chapter Sixteen:

The Crucible

Part Five: The Isle of Glass

Chapter Seventeen:

Animal Logic

Chapter Eighteen:

The Sacrifice

Chapter Nineteen:

The Enchantresses

Chapter Twenty:

The Good Knight

Part Six: The Silver Throne

Chapter Twenty-one:

The Fallen

Chapter Twenty-two:

Exiled

Chapter Twenty-three:

Restoration

Chapter Twenty-four:

The Bird and Baby

Epilogue

Author's Note