Series Review: Keys to the Kingdom by Garth Nix

So part of what I was doing while I was away was reading my way through a couple of  YA series. I have to admit, I am becoming an unmitigated Garth Nix fan. Mostly, Nix writes middle readers and YA fantasy, but some of it, as I've mentioned in previous posts, qualifies nicely as adult genre fantasy lit.

This is YA that grows somewhat with its audience. The protagonist, Arthur starts out as a 12 year old asthmatic human. During a particularly severe asthma attack, Arthur is chosen by the Will of the Architect (manifested by a green jade frog) thus saving his life and thrusting him into a crazy inheritance.

So to be clear, the Architect is kind of like God, otherwise know as the creator of the universe, and for some reason she disappeared 10.000 years ago. Things fell into disrepair and the trustees who were supposed to keep things going rebelled. Enter Arthur.

The series is in seven parts for seven keys and seven pieces of the will. This is an excellent adventure series aimed at a middle school audience of either gender. While it's initially aimed at the 6th grade audience, it does grow in sophistication over the course of the story. I particularly liked the growth in Arthur's character as his adventures and involvement with the supernatural change him. This is an excellent series.