Along the Saltwise Sea (A. Deborah Baker)

Along the Saltwise Sea
The Up-and-Under series, Book 2
A. Deborah Baker
Tordotcom
Fiction, MG Fantasy
***** (Great)

DESCRIPTION: Adventurous Zib and straight-laced Avery had lived their entire young lives almost as neighbors yet never meeting, her zizgagging off in one direction and him walking in straight lines in the other, until they found themselves facing a wall that couldn't exist, beyond which lay a forest that shouldn't be there. Now the children are unlikely companions in the Up-and-Under, a strange realm ruled by peculiar Kings and Queens, where people are as likely to be made of stone or flocks of birds as ordinary flesh and blood. Their only chance at getting home lies in reaching the Impossible City at the end of the Improbable Road... but you don't follow that road doing anything so mundane (and safe) as simply walking along it. And the Road has its own ideas of what lost children need... especially when the Up-and-Under apparently needs them to be more than just two more lost outsiders. The Queen of Wands, ruler of the Impossible City, has gone missing, and if she's not found soon, the whole of the Up-and-Under may be in danger - and the children may never get home.
After a long and weary trek along the Improbable Road, Zib and Avery and their companions, the drowned girl Niamh and the Crow Girl (who has a habit of bursting into a murder of crows), find their way down a well and to the shore of the vast Saltwise Sea. Here, new adventures and dangers await them, and more conflicts with the land's powerful, inscrutable, and sometimes fickle royalty and their monstrous Page emissaries arise... and here, once again, Zib and Avery are reminded that, unlike what some parents and storybooks like to say, those who wander into strange lands and have strange adventures are by no means guaranteed a happy ending.

REVIEW: Coming off a very impressive first installment brimming with imagination and wonderful turns of phrase and great characters that feel both familiar and original (and a world and adventure that feel likewise), Along the Saltwise Sea had a lot to live up to. Happily, it proved up to the task. There's a brief refresher at the opening to remind readers where Avery and Zib left off (and bring any newcomers roughly up to speed), then it's off and running. Zib and Avery have both been changed by their adventures, slowly coming to grips with the unusual nature of the world they've found themselves in - a world that refuses to be anything so simplistic and safe as a simple fairy tale. The children still clash occasionally, with each other and their traveling companions, with different ideas on how to proceed and what to do and even what their ultimate goals may be. "Baker" (author Seanan McGuire under a pen name) employs some truly great turns of phrase that beg to be quoted and contemplated and reread. It reads both quickly and slowly as a result, but altogether enjoyably. I'm looking forward to grabbing the third installment when my budget allows.

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