Maddigan's Fantasia - Margaret Mahy

Margaret Mahy's Maddigan's Fantasia is a tie-in book for the TV series Maddigan's Quest, which has aired worldwide.

The story is set in a future time when a colourful group of travellers brave the twisting, unpredictable landscape of a world that is trying to remake itself several years after near-destruction. The travellers are the trapeze artists, clowns, magicians, tumblers, knife throwers and musicians of Maddigan's Fantasia, who are healing the damaged land with wonder and laughter. Garland Maddigan, is the 12-almost-13 year old daughter of the Fantasia's ringmaster, Ferdy. She has been on many journeys with the Fantasia before; it's her life. But she soon realises that this journey is going to be a very different one when three mysterious children join the Fantasia - the children have uncanny abilities and a secret past. And they bring with them powerful enemies who will stop at nothing to hunt them down and take them back to wherever it is they have come from. Garland soon finds herself embroiled in a series of terrifying adventures that will take her through perilous underground tunnels, through the land of the Witch-Finder, and eventually across time itself.

I have to confess to finding this book rather slow-going until nearly the end. It seemed very episodic and to not flow well, which was a surprise after reading Mahy's The Changeover. Despite that, it's an interesting tale and Garland is an intriguing character, as are Eden and Timon, the two older children who join the Fantasia with their baby sister, Jewel.