An unusual murder brings together three strangers, John, Jack, and Charles, on a rainy night in London during the first World War. An eccentric little man called Bert tells them that they are now the caretakers of the Imaginarium Geographica -- an atlas of all the lands that have ever existed in myth and legend, fable and fairy tale. These lands, Bert claims, can be traveled to in his ship the "Indigo Dragon," one of only seven vessels that is able to cross the Frontier between worlds into the Archipelago of Dreams.
Pursued by strange and terrifying creatures, the companions flee London aboard the Dragonship. Traveling to the very realm of the imagination itself, they must learn to overcome their fears and trust in one another if they are to defeat the dark forces that threaten the destiny of two worlds. And in the process, they will share a great adventure filled with clues that lead readers to the surprise revelation of the legendary storytellers these men will one day become.
It has been nine years since John, Jack, and Charles had their great adventure in the Archipelago of Dreams and became the Caretakers of the Imaginarium Geographica. Now they have been brought together again to solve a mystery: Someone is kidnapping the children of the Archipelago. And their only clue is a mysterious message delivered by a strange girl with artificial wings: "The Crusade has begun." Worse, they discover that all of the legendary Dragonships have disappeared as well.
The only chance they have to save the world from a centuries-old plot is to seek out the last of the Dragonships -- the Red Dragon -- in a spectacular journey that takes them from Sir James Barrie's Kensington Gardens to the Underneath of the Greek Titans of myth. With friends both familiar and new, they will travel through an extraordinary landscape where history, myth, and fable blend together to tell the oldest story in the world. And along the way, the Caretakers of the Geographica will discover that great deeds alone do not make heroes, and that growing up may be unavoidable...but growing old doesn't have to be.
John and Jack are mystified when they discover a cryptic warning on a medieval manuscript—a warning that is not only addressed to them, but seems to have been written by their friend, Hugo Dyson. But before they can discover the origins of the book, Hugo walks through a door in time—and vanishes into the past.
In that moment, the world begins to change. Now, the Archipelago of Dreams and our world both suffer under the reign of the cruel and terrible Winter King. Dark beasts roam the countryside, and terror rules the land.
Seven years after the events of The Shadow Dragons, John, Jack, and Charles are finally able to return to their beloved Archipelago of Dreams. But even as old friends celebrate their return, new concerns shadow the reunion: the threat of Ecthroi, primordial Shadow. And perhaps even worse, the apparent splintering of Time itself.
Now the Caretakers must fight against their most fearsome enemy ever and attempt to restore Time, journeying through a forgotten Door from the destroyed Keep of Time in order to seek out the Dragon’s Apprentice. Failure will mean the end of both of the worlds. But success will carry its own price—a price that may be too high even for the Caretakers to bear.
The Caretakers are at war. The Archipelago of Dreams has fallen to the Echthroi, and the link to the Summer Country has been lost. The Keep of Time must be rebuilt, and the secret lies somewhere in Deep Time at the beginnings of the World, when the Summer Country and the Archipelago were one and the same. Fortunately, there is still hope: the Grail child, Rose Dyson, and the new Cartographer Edmund McGee have learned how to map time, and through a precarious balance of travel to the past and the future, they have a chance of repairing the present.
Rife with allusions to history’s great literary figures and personalities, from Gilgamesh and Medea to Edgar Allan Poe and H.G. Wells, this absorbing adventure, the sixth in the Imaginarium Geographica series, leads its heroes to a land where all secrets may be found: Known at the beginning of time as the City of Jade, history came to call it Atlantis. And it is there that the Architect of the Keep may have trained the young angel who built the city—an angel named Samaranth.
An unusual murder brings together three strangers, John, Jack, and Charles, on a rainy night in London during the first World War. An eccentric little man called Bert tells them that they are now the caretakers of the Imaginarium Geographica -- an atlas of all the lands that have ever existed in myth and legend, fable and fairy tale. These lands, Bert claims, can be traveled to in his ship the "Indigo Dragon," one of only seven vessels that is able to cross the Frontier between worlds into the Archipelago of Dreams.
Pursued by strange and terrifying creatures, the companions flee London aboard the Dragonship. Traveling to the very realm of the imagination itself, they must learn to overcome their fears and trust in one another if they are to defeat the dark forces that threaten the destiny of two worlds. And in the process, they will share a great adventure filled with clues that lead readers to the surprise revelation of the legendary storytellers these men will one day become.
John and Jack are mystified when they discover a cryptic warning on a medieval manuscript—a warning that is not only addressed to them, but seems to have been written by their friend, Hugo Dyson. But before they can discover the origins of the book, Hugo walks through a door in time—and vanishes into the past.
In that moment, the world begins to change. Now, the Archipelago of Dreams and our world both suffer under the reign of the cruel and terrible Winter King. Dark beasts roam the countryside, and terror rules the land.
John and Jack must travel back in time—from the Bronze Age to the library in ancient Alexandria to the founding of the Silver Throne—to find the only thing that can save their friend and restore both words. The solution lies in the answer to a 2,000-year-old mystery: Who is the Cartographer?
Seven years after the events of The Shadow Dragons, John, Jack, and Charles are finally able to return to their beloved Archipelago of Dreams. But even as old friends celebrate their return, new concerns shadow the reunion: the threat of Ecthroi, primordial Shadow. And perhaps even worse, the apparent splintering of Time itself.
Now the Caretakers must fight against their most fearsome enemy ever and attempt to restore Time, journeying through a forgotten Door from the destroyed Keep of Time in order to seek out the Dragon’s Apprentice. Failure will mean the end of both of the worlds. But success will carry its own price—a price that may be too high even for the Caretakers to bear.
The Caretakers are at war. The Archipelago of Dreams has fallen to the Echthroi, and the link to the Summer Country has been lost. The Keep of Time must be rebuilt, and the secret lies somewhere in Deep Time at the beginnings of the World, when the Summer Country and the Archipelago were one and the same. Fortunately, there is still hope: the Grail child, Rose Dyson, and the new Cartographer Edmund McGee have learned how to map time, and through a precarious balance of travel to the past and the future, they have a chance of repairing the present.
Rife with allusions to history’s great literary figures and personalities, from Gilgamesh and Medea to Edgar Allan Poe and H.G. Wells, this absorbing adventure, the sixth in the Imaginarium Geographica series, leads its heroes to a land where all secrets may be found: Known at the beginning of time as the City of Jade, history came to call it Atlantis. And it is there that the Architect of the Keep may have trained the young angel who built the city—an angel named Samaranth.
