Dangerous Games

In my opinion Dangerous Games is Joan Aiken's best piece of writing. It is action packed and stuffed with adventure! Once you start reading, you can't put the book down. Dangerous Games is about a crew of sailors in search for Lord Herodsfoot, a kind nobleman, needed back in London. Dido Twite's search brought her and the crew to the island of Aratu. After finding Lord Herodsfoot, Dido discovered a plot to over through the king of the island. Through dangerous forests and caves they must travel. Can they reach him in time? This book will send you over the edge! If you can get in to a breakneck plot and interesting characters, you will love this book!

I make a point of not reading the plot synopsis of a book before I read the book itself. When you pick up a novel and read the back or inside cover of it you might discover things that the author would really rather you find out within the context of the story and not via a fifty-word synopsis. So I didn't read the synopsis of "Dangerous Games" until after I read the book. Under normal circumstances, this rarely causes any problems. In this case, however, I discovered that I had unknowingly read this book out of order. You see, "Dangerous Games" is one of the books in the "Wolves Chronicles", which began with "The Wolves of Willoughby Chase". And Dido Twite, the heroine of this tale, began in those books. Not knowing this, I read this story without any idea that it was a sequel or continuing saga of some sort. And you know what? It didn't matter. "Dangerous Games" is so fast-paced, amusing, and intelligent that you needn't read any of its predecessors to appreciate it fully. Part "Treasure Island" part "Below the Root", the story is a comment on colonialism and how conquering a land does no good to either the conquerors or the conquered. It may seem like a wild goose chase, but Dido Twite has been hunting down a ridiculously difficult prey for quite some time and thus far has had no luck. When the British King Jamie comes down with a cold (he's just a kid, you know), he insists that the only thing that will save him are some new and interesting games brought via Lord Herodsfoot. Herodsfoot studies games and his latest finds have taken him to the mysterious island of Aratu. Now Dido must find the man and bring him back to England, but not before she comes to know the lay of the land a little better. In Aratu you have native forest dwellers, called the Dilendi, and the colonizing Angrians. Once arrived, Dido finds herself caught in a war between a king and his brother, befriending a lost princess, speaking with ghosts, avoiding sting monkeys, creating rain itself, and all in all having a really grand adventure. The book says some absolutely lovely things about the innate ridiculousness that comes when Europeans found colonies on already existing native populations. In this case, the Angrians settled on Aratu and began destroying the forest for further plantations. When the Dilendi cursed the Angrians with a deep abiding homesickness for their native lands, the population either emigrated or became peculiar. As a result, the remaining Europeans are a sorry crew. True, they control much of the island by force, but internally they've responded by oppressing their women, establishing rigid class systems, and generally disapproving of any and all fun. They're like puritans without the whimsy. Aiken does a find job of never relegating a person to a distinct personality simply due to their skin color. I find it interesting that other reviewers of this book have accused it of racism when no one is a certain way solely because o

Fans of Aiken's Wolves chronicles will not be disappointed. Dangerous Games is a dizzy, delightful adventure that yet again posits Dido Twite as the most tested and triumphant heroine in all of children's literature. While the sinister edge that colored Miss Twite's previous outings is a little muted here (and the cover art, alas, is not by Edward Gorey--a sad absense) there are more than enough thrills to make up for it. And the ending, in typical Aiken fashion, sends tingles up your spine. She's that good--one of the best writers on this planet. (I only hope Dido gets back to Battersea soon!)