Emily Rodda is a well known and much loved Australian author of award winning books such as the Rowan of Rin series, His Name Was Walter, Eliza Vanda’s Button Box, The Shop at Hooper’s Bend and Landovel. I have just listed some of my favourites out of the more than 100 books that she has written.
She is a firm believer ‘that books stimulate the imagination and teach logic and empathy in a way that games and movies can’t… in order to develop reading stamina, and thus gain the tools to move on to more complex books, children need a good supply of fast-moving, entertaining stories that will grip their attention and make them want to read on,’ (http://www.emilyrodda.com/) a view I heartily endorse.
Here she has done it in spades, creating a fast-moving, action-packed, fantasy adventure, full of suspense, heartache and heartbreak, with a winning hero, diverse friends and many disparate and engaging characters. Britta’s dream is to be a sea trader, like her father. Her father’s last voyage ended in disgrace forcing the family into hiding, and his ship – the Star of Deltora – forfeited into the hands of the powerful trader, Mab who is now looking for her successor. Britta enters the competition to become Mab’s apprentice in disguise, an added difficulty when she also has to compete with three rivals- Jewel, Sky and Vashti – one of whom is a ruthless enemy who will stop at nothing to best her. As the trials increase in difficulty, darker forces haunt the crew’s every harbour. Soon enough, these sinister tendrils draw the ship to the cursed Isle of Tier – the site of Britta’s father’s undoing …
This long complicated story is classic Rodda, with many twists and turns, an imaginative fantasy set in the world of Deltora. It is actually a publication in one volume of Shadows of the Master, Two Moons, The Towers of Illica and Hungry Isle, which were first released as individual books in 2015-2016 coming to a massive 659 pages. In Landovel, another very long adventure, she told a similar complex story where the main protagonist suffers and struggles, learns and develops through trials and challenges. In Star of Deltora it is Britta, a young teenager, who grabs and holds your interest as she faces and overcomes challenges at times bizarre but always compelling.
It is a book that requires the reader to accept the measured pace, there is plenty of action but also careful description revealing more and more about Deltora. Readers who have read her other books set in this world will enjoy discovering more and readers new to this world will equally revel in the careful world building. This tale is satisfying on many levels; themes of friendship, family, betrayal, discovery, adventure underpin the complex emotions of the rich variety of characters with many unexpected reveals and reversals. It leaves you wanting more, so it is fortunate Emily Rodda has written so many other wonderful novels to enjoy.
