Sir Thursday
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Sir Thursday | |
 |
|
| Author | Garth Nix |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Sandra Nobes/Hofstede Design (paperback, Allen & Unwin) |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Series | Keys to the Kingdom |
| Genre(s) | Young adult |
| Publisher | Scholastic Paperbacks |
| Publication date | March 1, 2006 |
| Media type | Print (paperback & hardcover) |
| Pages | 344 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0439700876 |
| Preceded by | Drowned Wednesday |
| Followed by | Lady Friday |
Sir Thursday is a fantasy novel by Garth Nix, released in March, 2006. Sir Thursday is afflicted with the deadly sin of wrath.
[edit] Plot summary
The book begins with Arthur Penhaligon and Leaf attempting to return to Earth after their adventures in the Border Sea. It becomes apparent that there is a doppelganger of Arthur roaming around in their world, called the Skinless Boy.
By the presence of his double, whose contact with him would destroy both of them, Arthur is forced to stay in the Lower House. Dame Primus brings him bad news: Mister Monday and Grim Tuesday have both been assassinated. This frightens Arthur greatly as he knows it is quite difficult to kill a denizen, much more so one as powerful as a Trustee. Moments later, he is drafted into Sir Thursday's Glorious Army of the Architect, which is based in the chessboard-like demesne called the Great Maze. Everyone living in the House has to serve at some time and it can't be refused. TheArthur joins several other recruits, among whom he later becomes an informal leader, and makes a new friend, Fred Initial Numbers Gold.
Sir Thursday's key is a sword/baton; the Will is a snake; and his enemy is the Piper, who is the Architect's rebellious third son. Arthur Penhaligon is soon mistaken for a Piper's child, and therefore is washed between the ears (brainwashed). He is then known as Ray Green, an Ink-Filler from the Lower House. He does not remember anything, except basic knowledge such as speech and mobility. He desperately tries to remember who, on Earth, he is, but it is at least a month before he succeeds. In the first battle against the Piper's New Nithings, Arthur throws his power-spear, which sparks a flash of memory, causing him to remember his name. Much later, when he overhears a Troop Lieutenant (an officer of the Army's pseudo-Mongol division, which is known as the "Horde") he remembers who he was, why he was there, and what a threatening letter from Superior Saturday meant.
On Earth, the Skinless Boy, disguised as Arthur, has thrown the hospital into a panic by infecting staff and patients with a fungoid, extra-terrestrial life-form, symbiotic with him, which allows him to read (and, after it has grown sufficiently, control) their thoughts and memories. This mold, nicknamed Grayspot for its symptoms, is mistaken for a terrorist's biological weapon, whereupon the hospital is put into quarantine under the Creighton Act. Leaf, infiltrating the hospital, seeks and eventually obtains the magical object used to create the Skinless Boy; a pocket torn from one of Arthur's shirts, which had been contaminated by House sorcery. She then leaves the hospital, only to find that the House has appeared above it and cannot be reached from ground floor. Hoping to summon help from the House, she enlists the aid of an ex-pharmacist named Sylvie, who frightens two ambulance operators into taking Leaf to Arthur's house. There, Leaf telephones Arthur's assistants — staff of the Lower House Sneezer the Butler and Tierce Suzy Turquoise Blue — and informs them of her progress. By now, the Grayspot has so much contaminated Leaf that she is barely coherent and has lost control of her body.
Fortunately, Suzy Turquoise Blue arrives and takes the pocket to the House. There, she finds Arthur and Fred, and joins them in a raid led by Sir Thursday to find and destroy the New Nithlings' weapon, a large spike made of Nothing, which is preventing the mechanical floor of the Great Maze from shifting and thereby enabling the New Nithlings to stay in one place. Arthur destroys it by throwing the pocket into it, destroying the Skinless Boy. After the spike is destroyed, everyone except Arthur and Thursday are captured by the Piper, who desires to become Master of the House. During their escape, Arthur distracts Thursday long enough for the Will to break free, making Arthur Bearer of the Fourth Key and Commander of the Glorious Army of the Architect. He attempts to reason with the Piper, but fails, and the Will wounds Piper enough that he cannot command the New Nithlings. With help from Dame Primus and all of the Denizens of the demesnes hitherto annexed from the Trustees, Arthur defeats the New Nithlings, although he allows many to escape.
On Earth, Leaf wakes up in a hospital a week after the Skinless Boy was defeated, learning from a nurse that the Grayspot has ceased to exert effect. A Doctor nicknamed 'Lady Friday' arrives, whereupon the book ends suddenly.
|
||||||||||||||
