By Struan Murray, illustrated by Vivienne To (Puffin, 2024)

It’s felt like a VERY long wait for new Children’s middle grade fiction to appear from Struan Murray, author of the Branford Boase Award winning ‘Orphans of the Tide’ trilogy (which was a 6-figure £ signing by Puffin by the way…. Wowzers… cha-ching!!). The Scottish author (with a PhD in genetics and currently a lecturer in biochemistry at the University of Oxford), has hook, line and sunk me into his otherworldly philosophy wielding Ecsher-esq literary genius for a number of years now. Personally, I need writing like Murray’s for our young people. He balances out the giggly stories, the World War II ball-your-eyes-out stories, the murder mysteries, the historical re-enactments, and the contemporary school life dramas. They are medicine for my intellectual brain… So it is with relief and zero resistance that ‘The Secret of the Moonshard’ made it to the top of my TBR (To Be Read) pile and I zipped eagerly through this serious wedge of a middle grade. Was it everything I hoped for? Let’s see.

While there are many comparisons to draw upon in this new story with the previous trilogy - it is by no means connected by character nor plot. Orphans, an evil despotic regime, immense ultimate being-like magical powers, a world where the reader can imagine themselves within the story yet it is unlike one in waking reality… these are the similarities. However familiar, these elements are nothing to be scoffed at - these are what I love about Murray’s writing! The narrative is enveloped in an alternate humanoid world that could potentially exist, because as children we are more likely to believe, believe that magic is real, that super-human beings exist, that places on Earth or in space are yet to be discovered with people like us who might be just like the people in these wonderful stories (think ‘Tyger’ by SF Said, think ‘The Book of Stolen Dreams’ series by David Farr, think ‘Impossible Creatures’ by Katherine Rundell). The moon really could turn red and start to fall from the sky, causing panic and chaos. Our land also continues to recover after a world war that should have ended all wars, yet still there are those in power today who believer they can secure a safer sense of their position by threatening or waging war once more. And so the wheel of the ‘might is right’ great philosophical debate continues to question the morality of power.

Here’s a random question… What’s your favourite tabletop game to play with family, friends, at school? Are you a fan of a blocking game or a scoring game? What about dominoes, considered a blocking game? I LOVE dominoes, and actually combining my love of music and dominoes have a brand new set - given to me by me for Christmas (discovered in the Canterbury Cathedral gift shop), that I haven’t even opened yet because it’s just too special! Dominoes is a great strategy game to play with children, a fun way to learn numbers and matching too. I digress… what’s the point of all this you ask?! OK - actually it’s 100% really relevant - the protagonist of this story is a young orphaned girl actually called Domino. Her rather unusual name is an absolutely brilliant moniker for a character who becomes the cause and effect of karmic retribution for the ultimate rebalance of power. Ta-daaaa.

The reader’s introduction to Domino is witnessing the first of a chain of events aboard her airborne floating home, the Scientarium Celestis, run by the Science Barons and rulers of Abzalaymon, that triggers the crumbling of the delusions of power as it currently stands. 200 years ago a wizard, the Dark Lord Surphantile, was destroyed, ending the Age of Wizards - magic and the glory of ultimate power and control had led to a cruel war. Magic is no longer trusted. Only logic, science and industry without the aid of any incantation or spiritual intervention is permitted. The wizarding world’s magical and reverent Moonshard monument still exists, but it is located now in Moontown, a no-go area, dangerous and outlawed. The supreme leader of Abzalaymon is Chief-Logistor “a man who probably eats kittens for breakfast” Terronimus, and one of his right hand men is Baron Garballous, the closest Domino has to a parent in the whole wide world, and he’s as slippery as a mechanical genetically modified eel. All her life Domino has been told she’s abandoned by her parents, allergic to magic, poor, sick, troublesome - the other 299 orphans torment her and they’re in the midst of their own tit for tat war within this ‘rigid boarding school’ type environment.

*Words* © *Struan Murray & Illustration* © *Vivienne To*

Domino is quirky, scruffy, black/white in her thinking, pretty witty and a perfect nightmare tweenager heroine. What has life ever given her apart from more and more obstacles to overcome, or pranks to outwit, lessons to get out of? She owes life nothing, and she has no sense of responsibility to anyone or anything whatsoever. She’s lives as though she’s as free as a bird within her own cage. She has an answer for everything and has her own sense of logic personal to her own survival instincts. Her Achilles heel? Wanting to be somewhere she truly belongs - where she is not a target for torture or ridicule - a place where there are others like her. It’s not until a revenge mission goes wrong one day (poor, cuddly Mr Honeywinkle), and a piece of the Moon lands on the Scientarium roof, glowing red, and Domino then touches said mystical object that her life is never the same again.

Whilst hiding in a cupboard, overhearing a government meeting of the Science Barons, Domino and servant, Calvin, are thrown together in a quest to stop the inevitability of another catastrophic war. Maniacal tyrant, Terronimus, is about to dig into his latest ridiculous meal, of a slowly spit-roasted alive Thunder Lizard (think Stegosaurus), when the children break it out of there and escape together with a Wizard (who was in disguise as a Science Baron) down to the city below - Abzalaymon, a place Domino has always wanted to be… “A war - sounds exciting. What about pizza?” - Domino, excited about living in the real world for the first time - gotta love her.

Unlikely friendships can become the most treasured. Domino has never had a friend before. Calvin doesn’t see why he should help Domino, she’s always been such a brat and a nuisance to him, has no idea of the real world, the poverty his family lives in in the city, how his mother slaves away in the factories night and day, the restrictions on society, the fear people feel about magic and Wizards that has been fed to them from propaganda over the past 100 years or so. Yet, it is Calvin’s love of detective work and Domino’s yearning to discover her true origin that leads them to appreciate each other’s qualities, forming an unbreakable bond. A number of Wizards are mysteriously disappearing, kidnapped, nowhere to be found.

The Wizard who helped Domino and Calvin escape the Scientarium is now taking Domino under his wing, showing her his world, training her, taking her and Calvin to the magical traveling home of Wizards and Spirits where the children learn all about the truth, history retold from the side of the oppressed. Domino and Calvin learn of the role they must play in restoring the balance of power, and realise that it is upon their shoulders to both protect and galvanise the people and creatures from both sides into action. First though, they need to find out why Terronimus wants another war, what is he really up to?! Why is Domino so important to the Science Barons?!

There are some incredible fantasy characters in this story - larger than life Spirits who can be in animal or human form representing food, music, forgotten things, even hygiene (meet Betray the penguin spirit). You’ll not want to put down this saga, this battle of maintaining the balance between good and evil, science and magic, logic and spirit. The dinosaur-like genetically cloned ‘Lizard’ creatures are a fun ‘Jurassic Park’ addition to the story, and I adore Oshi - the now loyal and lovable Thunder Lizard, once almost scoffed upon the evil leader’s banquet table - there are some brilliant battle scenes illustrated by Vivienne To!! Once Domino realises (AND I PROMISE YOU IT IS A MEGA PLOT TWIST/REVEAL MOMENT) who she really is, how will Domino come to terms with her destiny? Her only guide is a God-like all seeing living Abzalaymon, all knowing creature who appears to her as part organic, part mechanical tiger (after transfiguring from a clutter of feral cats). She must outwit everyone, she must be prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Heavy (in a good way), complex at times (plot layers keep you on your toes), yet surprisingly witty (LOVE) and with impressive artwork (including a map). This is certainly one for the more advanced middle grade reader who needs a more challenging and lengthier book, but isn’t yet old enough to read the more maturer content teenage/YA books, even though they might be technically able.

Just for a second to bring it all back full circle, ‘The Secret of the Moonshard’ is exactly representative of the cause and effect of ‘domino theory’. Replacing the symbolism, myths and delusions with a humanising symbol proves that the ‘domino effect’ the Science Barons believed in was a total disaster. Luckily of the beings of Abzalaymon, Domino sees the flaws in, and thus outsmarts ‘domino theory’ - now that’s karma! If you want to learn more about it, and the very recent real life example of how very wrong it can go - search up the carnage caused by the America-Vietnam war as a result of the U.S. government adopting ‘domino theory’ to battle communism last century!

I leave you with one of the greatest quotes of all time:

“The greatest victory is that which requires no battle.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Reviewed from digital uncorrected proof.

The Secret of the Moonshard

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