Readers who have followed Dido Twite's escapades in BLACK HEARTS IN BATTERSEA and NIGHTBIRDS ON NANTUCKET will welcome her return in her wildest adventure yet.

A dazzling piece of dramatic, snowballing adventure, THE STOLEN LAKE is full of fantastical details: revolving palaces, witches who are also court dressmakers, an apocalyptic volcanic eruption, and an infernal country with a noticeable lack of female children. On her way back to London aboard the British man-of-war Thrush, twelve-year-old Dido Twite finds herself and the crew summoned to the aid of the tyrannical queen of New Cumbria. A neighboring king has stolen the queen's lake and is holding it for ransom, and it's up to Dido and the crew to face fire, flood, execution, and wild beasts to get the lake back -- or else.

One of my favourites. A proper picaresque tale with Dido, the hero, living on her wits as she travels through through fictitious South American countries, watching fellow travellers being hunted to death, torn apart by aurocs, or eaten to death in seconds by piranhas. The book ends surprisingly sadly for a children's book and you have to take a deep breath (with Dido) and turn to an uncertain future where things might, or might not work out. ( )

So inventive! What an imagination she has ... it was a pleasure to read an installment set in a very different country than one is used to encountering in fantasy fiction (a South America colonized by the British very, very, early on, rather than the Spanish or Portuguese later). Compared to the last one I'd read (The Whispering Mountain) which seemed rather diffuse, the perspective was largely Dido's (and she made a worthy protagonist) with occasional forays elsewhere, but not too often, and I preferred this more focused approach.

(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve! ( )

In comparison to the previous books in this series, this one is definitely unique. While this novel continues in the style of alternate history, we also see unique fantasy and mythology elements. Once again, we see Dido as the star of the show. Her humor and quick wit save her time and again. I actually loved the adult characters that were introduced here as Dido's companions; unlike the other books, most of them were quite ready to follow Dido's directives and were a great asset to her! The plot, while not related to anything Hanoverian, was still delightfully sinister, and the evil characters were quite well drawn up! There are certain things that I found weren't addressed fully in the book, but apart from that, this novel was just as fun and amazing as every other book in the series! I think this may be one of my favorite stories about Dido so far, but I'm going to read the next one to see if it can top this!

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It is 1835 and Dido Twite is heading back to England from Nantucket Island on board HMS Thrush. Or so she thinks: she has been at sea for most of the 18 months since she was shipwrecked in the North Sea at the end of 1833, and can't wait to get back to London and her friend Simon. But things aren't going to plan. First pirates and a rebel ship have to be dealt with, and then she finds that the naval vessel has been sent two thousand miles down the eastern coast of South America to go to the aid of Britain's oldest ally. And her real troubles start just as soon as she sets foot in New Cumbria.

New Cumbria? This is not a country known in our world, but it does exist in the alternate world of the Wolves Chronicles, Joan Aiken's highly idiosyncratic series set in a world where Victoria didn't rule in Britain but where the Stuart king James III did. We have to sweep away all that we thought we knew about the 19th century -- and indeed previous history -- and accept that we are in a parallel existence where, instead of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Peru, we hear of Biru, Hy Brasil, Lyonesse and New Cumbria.

On arrival in the sleepy port of Tenby Dido gets scrobbled (and not for the last time), escapes, travels up the River Severn on a tidal bore, takes a rack-and-pinion railway up past a series of cataracts before arriving at Bath Regis, a town ringed by twelve volcanoes. Here she gets to meet the monstrous Queen Ginevra in her revolving palace before embarking on more escapades to rescue a princess and help restore the rightful king to his throne. And that's merely the half of it: we have yet to understand the mystery of the lake that's been stolen, why no children exist in this realm, and who the sinister trio of seamstresses are that bedevil Dido's life.

Joan Aiken has imaginatively amalgamated aspects of disparate traditions, cultures that ought to clash, to create her fantastic and yet consistent world. There is Arthurian legend of course (Malory's Morte Darthur is wantonly plundered for the names of volcanoes, for example, for motifs like Excalibur and the myth of Arthur's return); Celtic culture (inspired no doubt by the historical Welsh influx into Patagonia); Inca history and lore (names from the eve of Pizarro's conquest of Peru are purloined, and the belief that the outline of Lake Titicaca resembles a native big cat); a hint of Jane Austen (Bath is routinely referenced, and also Tenby which appears in her juvenilia); and perhaps hints of explorations such as those by Sir Walter Raleigh, Percy Fawcett and the fictional Professor Challenger for lost cities like El Dorado.

If Dido Twite is the glue that binds the convoluted plot of The Stolen Lake, then South America itself -- under the guise of Roman America -- is the undoubted canvas on which Aiken paints this tall tale full of conspiracies and narrative twists. Not only do we have the full range of flora and fauna filling its teeming jungles and arid plains but a host of additional life-forms to inhabit them. Aiken has borrowed profusely from all over the continent's geography to create her imaginary lands: mountain ranges and volcanoes, rivers and waterfalls, deserts and lakes, jungles and glaciers. It's possible to suggest many of the real natural features that inspired her, though she has freely moved them around her landscape and telescoped huge distances.

Finally, though Dido is our constant companion throughout, we come across many another strange character who not only linger in our memories but also put in an appearance in later novels. Sadly, some individuals meet very gruesome ends, for whom we feel very sorry indeed, but you will be glad to know -- if you hadn't guessed already -- that Dido survives. Well, she has to: Aiken had already resuscitated her once before in response to appeals.

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