Book Review: Nightbirds on Nantucket

[osprey_archer]

Near the end of Black Hearts in Battersea, Dido Twite is apparently lost at sea. Sophie says she has a feeling that Dido’s probably all right, and back in 1964 that was where the matter rested for two long years until Nightbirds on Nantucket came out.

Fortunately, littlerhymes and I could simply sail smoothly on to the next book, which begins with Dido asleep on the deck of a whaling boat under a pile of sheepskins. She has been sleeping under these sheepskins, it appears, for ten months, kept alive on a concoction of whale oil and molasses, which is so potent that she has grown six inches.

As our story begins, she awakes, and springs into action none the worse from her coma. Soon she befriends the captain’s shy but extremely stubborn daughter Dutiful Penitence, who locked herself into a closet in the captain’s cabin after her mother died months ago, where she has been living on a diet of beach plum jelly.

(Everyone in this book has a stomach of cast iron. Later on, a donkey inhales a bowl of clam chowder, the self-same captain is soothed in a brain fever by an entire bottle of huckleberries preserved in alcohol, and a whale enjoys a snack of cream buns and corn dogs.)

Naturally Dido manages to coax her out. But it’s when they land on Nantucket that their adventures really begin. Captain Casket rushes off to chase the pink whale with which he is obsessed, leaving the girls in the care of Aunt Tribulation… who is not Aunt Tribulation at all, but our old nemesis Miss Slighcarp, who is part of a Hanoverian plot to assassinate King James III using a very long gun that will shoot all the way across the Atlantic Ocean and hit his palace with pinpoint accuracy!

This is deranged. It makes no sense. I love it. The giant gun was invented by a German scientist named Breadno who can’t quite grasp that shooting a giant gun is a bad idea, especially given that the recoil will push Nantucket into New York harbor. If they can’t shoot at the king in his palace, couldn’t they shoot at the arctic? Or the moon? Or something? “Is not having bigbang?” he begs, but the others are adamant that they do not want Nantucket ripped from its sandy moorings.

Everyone promised me that Joan Aiken would get very weird indeed and I’m so glad to see that they were right. We’re only on book three and it’s already nuts.

***

Next on the docket, we have The Stolen Lake, Limbo Lodge (Dangerous Games in the US, because American publishers love generic titles), and The Cuckoo Tree. Then maybe The Whispering Mountain? Possibly Midnight is a Place? Potentially Dido and Pa? More than any other series we’ve read, the reading order is unclear, although at the same time it also probably matters the least.

Comments

[asakiyume]

Joan Aiken must have had so much fun inventing all those foods of last resort. Whale oil and molasses! Beach plum jelly! huckleberries in alcohol! And the animals getting in on the act with clam chowder and cream buns and corn dogs.

Big gun, big recoil is an awesome threat-plus-problem-with-threat!

[osprey_archer]

Joan Aiken was clearly having a blast every single time she sat down at her writing desk. Other people can worry about things like "does this make sense" and "can whales eat cream buns actually" and "could the recoil of a mile-long gun across push Nantucket off its moorings." Joan Aiken is following her bliss!

[ethelmay]

Beach plum jelly is a real thing, in case anyone doesn't know.

[asakiyume]

(I did know, but good to get it out there generally!)

[luzula]

Königsbang!!

[osprey_archer]

Breadno just wants to get to use his giant gun! ROUGH when the fates contrive to stop a dream from coming true...

[sovay]

More than any other series we’ve read, the reading order is unclear, although at the same time it also probably matters the least.

The Stolen Lake is very high in my ranking of bananapants Arthuriana. I haven't read The Whispering Mountain in years, but remember liking it. I actually never read chronologically past Dido and Pa and Is (U.S. Is Underground), both of which I remember finding really dark, which is why I had to look up Limbo Lodge.

[osprey_archer]

We just got to the bit where they find the sword in the stone in the harbor town. Could this be related in any way... to the character named Holystone? We shall see!!!

[thisbluespirit]

The Stolen Lake is my favourite. I hope you enjoy it! But it is fair to say that in OTT evil Hanoverian plans, the gun across the Atlantic is absolutely the Most OTT, rivalled only by the one in The Cuckoo Tree, although, tbf, this is Joan Aiken, the improbability rates are high and I may just be forgetting something.

[osprey_archer]

We're about three chapters into The Stolen Lake and having a FANTASTIC time. Joan Aiken is following her bliss!

[lokifan]

INCREDIBLE.

[osprey_archer]

Truly the only word to describe the work of Joan Aiken.

[littlerhymes]

Her disregard for conventional world building is so liberating. Other writers might agonise over the clam chowder, let alone the giant gun. She does not worry about such trifles! She says the whale can EAT the trifles and move on.

[osprey_archer]

The pink whale in fact DESERVES to eat a few trifles. Captain Casket should get on that stat.

[nnozomi]

Same as sovay above, I think The Stolen Lake is fantastic, and I seem to have stopped reading midway through the series because they got quite dark. But I am now giving them another try thanks to your posts and openlibrary! (Starting with The Stolen Lake, in fact, because I like Dido better when she's not a small child.) Looking forward to more.
(You might want to save Midnight is a Place for after you've read as much of the Dido series as you feel like, since it's a stand-alone and has a somewhat different feel if my memory is correct?)

[osprey_archer]

Midnight is a Place will probably show up when least expected. We'll have to wait on what we meant to read next for whatever reason and Midnight is a Place will pop up in its stead.