The Curse of the Gloamglozer
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The Curse of the Gloamglozer is the beginning book of the trilogy of the Quint Sequence of the Edge Chronicles series, created by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell.
[edit] Synopsis
This book introduces Quint; and Maris; who are Twig's (from the Twig Sequence e.g. Beyond The Deepwoods, Stormchaser and Midnight Over Sanctaphrax) parents and Rook Barkwater's (from the Rook Sequence e.g. The Last of the Sky Pirates, Vox and Freeglader) great grandparents.
Quint is the only remaining son of Wind Jackal (a famous sky pirate) after a fire that killed all of his family but he and his father, he was the youngest of his brothers. There is some confusion as to Quint's age as Quint claims that he is "seventeen next year", but, Wind Jackal explains that Quint is wishing his life away and is, in fact only fourteen years of age. Quint has an amazing head for heights which is matched and opposed by his immense fear of fire. Quint is brave and caring which is demonstrated closer to the end of the book where he sets the Gloamglozer free from its prison, believing that Linius had tortured it and where he goes up onto the roof to seemingly rescue Linius, but was in fact to face the Gloamglozer, causing it to flee from Sanctaphrax and into the Edge-world.
Maris is the only daughter of the Most High Academe - Linius Pallitax. When she is introduced in the Quint Sequence, she is from eleven to thirteen years old, most likely twelve. She is a character of strong will and stubbornness which is not unusual as she is constantly ignored by her father and is worried about him throughout the book for most of the time. Maris soon hates Quint for the simple reason that she is jealous that her father entrusts Quint with tasks, information, and other things. This is because Quint is Linius' Apprentice under an agreement between his father and Maris'. As the book progresses, however, Maris soon finds Quint to be a good friend and when Quint is hurt, she stays by his bed rather than her own father's bed, which shows that she is caring. She also kisses Quint in the Stonecomb when he is unconscious, in the hope he won't die. This seems to start a small relationship between them, proven a lot of times when Quint is always putting his arm around her. It turns into a romantic involvement in "The Clash of the Sky Galleons" When Quint is refusing to abandon Ship, she shares a kiss with him. An illustration of the two kissing is drawn at the end of the book. She has small feelings at the beginning when Quint tries to overcome his fear of fire for her. Since then, his fear of fire has always been of great concern to Maris.
Linius Pallitax is the Most High Academe of Sanctaphrax, but his position in the Sky scholar dominated city is in danger. This is because Linius had always been interested in Earth Studies which had been taken or purged from Sanctaphrax years beforehand, but, as his interest became an obsession, he began to become interested in experiments executed years ago by Earth Scholars in the Ancient Laboratory which resulted in the creation of what became known as the “blood-red glister” which brought Quint and Maris closer as friends. This starts. Because of this, the Ancient Laboratory was closed off, but as Linius became more obsessed, he refused to see the fact that playing God and creating life using a glister away from Riverrise was dangerous. Linius repeated the experiment of previous Earth Scholars, creating the fearsome Gloamglozer; later keeping it locked in the Ancient Laboratory.
As Quint and Maris discovered more and more, they went down into the Stonecomb of Sanctaphrax where the Ancient Laboratory is situated to find the Laboratory. When Maris was injured by the blood-red glister and taken up to Sanctaphrax by Bungus (An Earth Scholar banned from Sanctaphrax and one of Linius’ old friends and tutors), Quint remained behind unknown to his friends. While Maris and Bungus were discovering about Linius’ experiments and about the evil of the Gloamglozer, Quint was in the Ancient Laboratory where he set the Gloamglozer free, not knowing its evil. The Gloamglozer goes after Linius and sets fire to the Palace of Shadows where he lives. The residents of the Palace are saved while Quint confronts the Gloamglozer on the roof of the flaming Palace. Quint succeeds by forcing the Gloamglozer from Sanctaphrax, all though the Gloamglozer curses Quint with the knowledge that he has released the Gloamglozer into the Edge.
The book ends with Maris informing Quint about the Professor of Light’s proposition that Quint enter the Knight’s Academy, the story of which is told in Winter Knights.
