"The Keys to the Kingdom" considered

If you've not read the first four books of Garth Nix's "Keys to Kingdom" series, you may want to avoid the rest of this post, but don't stop reading just yet ! In keeping with the recent spring theme of my Blog, I wanted to mention the music I've been listening to this weekend, when the radio has been off. Despite the lack of spring weather since Friday, I've been trying to keep the "Spring is here" mood going by listening to "Sheep May Safely Graze" - Bach, Symphony No. 6 (The Pastoral) - Beethoven, "The Walk to the Paradise Garden" - Delius, "Concierto de Aranjuez" - Rodrigo (known to all fans of the film Brassed Off as 'The Orange Juice Concerto', and often referred to by me as "aural sunshine"). Sadly it's having no effect on the weather, which persists in being dull, cloudy and cool (for the time of year) ! But if nothing else, I'm enjoying some lovely music !

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I seem to keep coming back to this series in my Blog. I've already posted a review of Sir Thursday this month, and I've already discussed the issue of Arthur Penhaligon not choosing his destiny, and his desire to refuse his destiny, but I make no apology for coming back to this, because I find it interesting and I hope others do too. The more I read of Nix's series, the more do I long to write a paper comparing and contrasting the hero, Arthur Penhaligon, with Harry Potter - and believe me, as soon as the two series are finally completed, I'll do just that ! I've just re-read the entire series-so-far because I found I'd forgotten too many of the little details of the first three books when I first read Sir Thursday three weeks ago. What I keep coming back to is Arthur's continuing resistance to his role as the Rightful Heir of the Architect. He doesn't want this responsibility and he keeps trying to return home. This is in stark contrast to Harry Potter, who couldn't wait to get away from the Dursleys. Of course, Harry was miserable whilst living full time with the Dursleys after his parents were killed, whereas Arthur is quite happy with his adopted family, having also lost his birth parents at a very young age to a very virulent flu epidemic. When Mister Monday is tricked by the first part of the Will of the Architect into choosing Arthur as the Rightful Heir, Arthur finds himself thrust into a situation where he seems to have little choice except to do what's necessary to overcome Mister Monday, and once he does, he is quite explicit that he wants to return to his own Secondary Realm until he's grown up and willing to take on the duties of being the Heir. Unfortunately, his defeat of Mister Monday attracts the attention of the other six Morrow Days (the Trustees of the Will) and he finds he has to keep going back to the House to fight them, to take their Keys from them and release further parts of the Will. But each time he does this, he is forced to use the Keys and doing so makes him a little less human and a little more of a Denizen of the House. By the end of the events of Sir Thursday, he is half human and half Denizen, and he's told that once he's 60% Denizen, he will not be able to reverse the process of becoming a Denizen (until then the changes will wear off provided Arthur refrains from using the Keys for a century). What is interesting, is that in Sir Thursday the Piper, one of the adopted sons of the Architect and the Old One, tries to claim that he is the Rightful Heir and take over Arthur's role. If the Piper did become the Rightful Heir, Arthur would be able to return home permanently. The Piper offers to take from him the four Keys which Arthur has so far acquired - but Arthur refuses to relinquish his role as the Heir. Why ? Well, the Piper refuses to agree to Arthur's terms; he refuses to promise that there will be no more interference with the Secondary Realms, including Earth, if he becomes the Heir. So here Arthur is - he's got the chance to forget about the House, the Will of the Architect and being the Rightful Heir, but he refuses the opportunity, because by now he knows that the Architect's policy of non-interference has been disregarded (including by the Architect herself) and that there can be no peace for his world if that policy continues to be disregarded. It appears that he must do what is necessary, even if that does mean he will eventually be unable to go back to his loving family. I, for one, am curious to see how the series will continue through the next three books.