Teenage Tal lives within a sprawling castle in a world of constant darkness. Tal has a lot of problems: his father is missing, his mother is sick, and unknown enemies are trying to destroy his family. Solving these problems will require Tal to venture to the unknown outside world, and his survival will depend on a blood-pact with a girl who wants to kill him. Wacky hijinks ensue.

I really liked Nix's Old Kingdom trilogy, which featured courageous heroines, swashbuckling adventures, and zombies. (I am a sucker for the undead.) So when I found the full set of his Seventh Tower series at my Favorite Used Bookstore, I swooped down on the lot. Unfortunately, The Seventh Tower is obviously written for a very young audience. The writing is deliberately pedestrian; every subtlety is carefully explained in simple sentences and single-syllable words. There's some interesting ideas, especially in service to the light/dark motif -- the Castle's hierarchy is organized into seven levels, from lordly Violet to lowly Red (get it?); the Chosen have magical shape-shifting shadowguards -- and Tal's reluctant Icecarl ally, Milla, is an interesting character ("Tal saw it coming down and closed his eyes. Milla saw, too, but she kept her eyes open. Icecarls believed in facing death." [172]), but it all gets bogged down by the "no nuance left unturned" approach to writing for kids. ( )

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The first volume in a fantasy sequence running to at least five parts. This is not Nix on top form but then it appears to be older than the Old Kingdom books (easily Nix' best work in my view) - it was first published in the USA in 2000 but did not see a British edition until 2007. Part two is now available here, but volumes 3, 4 and 5 are in print in the USA. That said it is intriguing enough to persue and I will probably tackle the second volume soon. ( )