Dragon’s Green

Euphemia Truelove, granddaughter of the legendary magician Griffin Truelove, lives in a post-technology world. When her grandfather dies in mysterious circumstances, Effie vows to protect his magical books from the evil book dealer that wants to buy them all, and in doing so, journeys through a book into the magical Otherworld.

With the help of Max and Wolf, who also attend the Tusitala School for the Gifted, Troubled and Strange (and with the help of some magical boons that give magical powers to the children), Effie must battle dragons, steal books, outwit dungeons and travel through portals in bun shops to save the day and battle the Diberi, whose secret plans threaten the universe. It’s also, ultimately, a story about getting lost in books, and the power of reading and stories.

This is an utterly tremendous start to what promises to be an epic, intelligent and classic fantasy series, combining the mythic resonance and intellectual reach of His Dark Materials with the nostalgic Britishness of Harry Potter and Neil Gaiman’s balance of humour and magic. There’s a strong feminist thread in the story too, where Effie battles a misogynistic princess-sacrificing dragon tradition that exists in the Otherworld – and Effie herself is the kind of warrior-magician that readers will want to follow into more adventures.