The Wishstone and the Wonderworkers

By Hugh Cook

Chegory Guy never asked to save an island - but when a catastrophic energy drain sweeps across Untunchilamon, he becomes the one person who must uncover its cause.

Shabble. In appearance, a miniature sun, though coloration tends to be changeable and idiosyncratic. In voice eccentric, speaking at will in any of the accents heard ever on Untunchilamon, even those unplaceable foreign accents otherwise voiced only by the conjuror Odolo. In behaviour feckless, for Shabble has scant regard for consequences. That is Shabble.

While Shabble is still hanging there in the air, a massive energy drain affects all of Injiltaprajura. Lights darken. Fires go out. Candles die. Then, to Shabble's horror, Shabble feels Something trying to seize Shabble's own energy. Shabble squeals in fright and flees down the nearest drainpipe. The drainpipe (naturally) leads Downstairs. Downstairs There is horror down there, and Shabble fears it greatly. Yet the alternative is death.

What has caused this massive energy drain? It is left to Chegory Guy, an Ebrell Islander, to find out. This is unfortunate as his chief skills are as a knifefighter and a rock-gardener. And yet it is he who finally holds the future of the entire, equatorial island of Untunchilamon in his hands.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1963191110
• ISBN13: 9781963191110
• Release Date: May 1990
• Publisher: Zenphos Press
• Length: 440 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Demented

The first five books in Hugh Cook's Chronicles of an Age of Darkness series were largely focussed on the fall of Argan to the Swarms. This instalment is set some 20 years before those events, on a tropical island far away from Argan. Although some of the characters in the Wishstone and the Wonderworkers have previously featured in the Chronicles, you'd be forgiven for wondering what's going on. Sadly, you'll have to keep wondering until you've read Book 10. The Wishstone and the Wonderworkers tells the story of bizarre events that happen on the Island of Injiltaprajura when a demon comes to town. Cook amuses himself (and those who share his sense of humour) by presenting the novel as a history written by a madman (sort of Herodotus with tertiary syphilis). To compound things, the text is annotated by commentators (from the same world as the story is set) who generally miss the point and even scrap with one another. It's a post modern literary conceit that Cook used to demonstrate that he's more sophisticated than David Eddings. Or perhaps he was getting bored after churning out five novels and wanted to try something new. This book is great; a sort of fantasy farce. The only real criticism I have is that if Cook had pursued the main plot arc more assiduously, rather than indulging himself the way he does here (see also the Beowulf homage that is Book 8), his publishers might not have deserted him after Book 10.