Well hello Lord Sunday!

What do you know? I bumped into Garth Nix's Lord Sunday (2010) so unexpectedly today. This book concludes the Keys to the Kingdom series which began with Mr. Monday.

The series is the story of 12-year-old Arthur Penhaligon and his adventures in saving the House and his own world. At the beginning of the story, he was pulled into the Kingdom at a critical point in his life. Arthur was asthmatic and  frail and he was about to die. One could say that his being pulled into the Kingdom was godsend: he became stronger physically. Also, as the Heir, he became the wielder of powers via the different Keys. Of course, the downside was that he became less human and more of a Denizen with each use of his power. Indeed, by the time the story reached the end of Superior Saturday, Arthur has become too far gone to return to being just a mortal.

The books in the series are named after days because these represent the seven Trustees assigned by the Architect to do her Will. They are collectively known as the Morrow Days. Each has been assigned a Key which has unique powers. When the Morrow days rebelled against the Architect, it was revealed that each has taken on anaspect of the seven Mortal Sins,  i.e. greed, pride, envy, etc. Each Trustee rules on the day that bears his or her name, and so the start of the books usually begins on the midnight when the power of the next Trustee takes effect. So to my mind, Arthur has to be one of the most hard-pressed and hard-working heroes ever because his headaches have barely passed when the next set appears.

Naughty me has actually read the resolution of the series in Wikipedia. But that will not stop me from reading the book from start to finish. Good thing, too, that my memory tends to conveniently forget key parts of the plot which means that I'll be able to thoroughly enjoy this last book.

*****
(2 days after inhaling the book, and after our internet connection was restored, AND when B. finally relinquished his spot in front of my laptop...)

And enjoy it I did. Unlike the previous books when a lot of things seem to be happening at once, and when the sub-plots were distracting (and frustrating me) me from the main storyline, Lord Sunday was an easy straightforward read. I also loved the way Garth Nix concluded Arthur's story. He is one of those authors who just knows how tie up loose ends. Still, I could see some possibilities of a sequel.

Keys to the Kingdom is on a different level from The Abhorsen series in terms of character development, but it is no less rich and thought-provoking. I wouldn't mind re-reading the entire series over again. I give the book  3.5 out of 5 stars, and the series 4 out of 5 stars.