Product Description

Since his childhood in the DeepWoods, young Twig has always longed to soar above the forest canopy and explore the sky. Now a crew member on his father’s sky pirate ship, the Stormchaser, his dream seems fulfilled. But a much higher destiny awaits Twig. The lofty city of Sanctaphrax—built on a giant rock, floating high in the sky—is at the point of disaster. The city’s future is dependent on stormphrax—a valuable substance available only from the heart of a Great Storm. And only the Stormchaser, with Twig onboard, could risk entering a storm. . . .


From the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #229229 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-13
• Released on: 2008-05-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Gr. 4-6. The second volume in the Edge Chronicles series, Stormchaser is a rousing adventure tale with a story that's more complex and satisfying than its predecessor, Beyond the Deepwoods [BKL Jl 2004]. Sanctophrax, a city of academics that floats in the air above Undertown, threatens to break from its mooring and drift away because the corrupt Most High Academe has been selling off the rare, valuable, and strangely heavy substance called stormphrax. Although forbidden to accompany his father on a mission to secure more stormphrax, Twig stows away aboard his father's sky pirate ship and takes a pivotal role in completing the mission. With a murderous villain who slices off his dead victims' toes, the story is not for the fainthearted, but many young readers who crave action and enjoy long books will find it a riveting tale. Stewart manages the many characters and the frequent shifts of scene well, driving the story at full throttle toward its inevitable climax. Reminiscent of the ink drawings of illustrators from Pauline Baynes to Robert Lawson to Dr. Seuss, Riddell's wonderfully detailed art appears throughout the book to help readers envision this inventive fantasy world and the many strange creatures that inhabit it. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
PRAISE FOR THE EDGE CHRONICLES:

?Stunningly original.??The Guardian (UK)

?A richly inventive fantasy . . . one of the most exciting collaborations between a writer and illustrator for a long time.??The Literary Review (UK) -- Review

Review
PRAISE FOR THE EDGE CHRONICLES:

"Sure to please the Potter fans."
–Detroit Free Press

"The narrative will cast a spell over readers from the beginning with its utterly odd, off-kilter sense of logic and a vocabulary that is equal parts Dr. Seuss and Lewis Carroll."
–Publishers Weekly

"Good fun." –Kirkus Reviews

“Stunningly original.”—The Guardian (UK)

“A richly inventive fantasy . . . one of the most exciting collaborations between a writer and illustrator for a long time.”—The Literary Review (UK)

Customer Reviews

The most memorable, but also most brutally violent book in the series
Book 2 is where the Edge Chronicles really takes off. The sky pirate adventures finally begin after the rough start of the first book. Before going any further, potential readers should be warned that this is by far the most disturbing book in the Edge Chronicles. In fact, I have not read many children's books that contain such extreme levels of carnage. Just a few of the topics touched upon in this book are death (don't get too attached to many of the characters), torture, maiming, and a serial killer who takes and displays certain body parts of his victims. At times you get the feeling that the author enjoys tormenting his characters, but I guess it just drives home the point that the Edge is a dangerous place.

Violence aside, "Stormchaser" is probably the most memorable book in the series so far (we're up to Book 7 as of this review). If you want sky pirate action, this book certainly delivers. As always, the writing is clever and the descriptions rich and detailed (not to mention the wonderfully grim illustrations as well). It is amazing how much story the author is able to cram into such a small space. We get the main story arc, plus multiple side stories that all tie into the main plotline. Unlike the first book, all of the events in this story have significance and help to advance the plot. Readers of Book 1 will be pleased to find that the author brings relevance to the events of that story as well (although it may come too late for readers who were put off by the lack of direction found in the first book).

Overall, Book 2 of the Edge Chronicles is a well written adventure that is certainly memorable, although not necessarily "fun," due to the exceessive violence. Readers who are left with a bad taste in their mouth after this book should still continue with the series, as it hits its stride and settles down after this installment.

Up, up and away
Picking up from where "Beyond the Deepwoods" left off, Twig fortuitously rescues his friend Caterbird from Undertown, and manages to glean some very important information about the floating city of Sanctaphrax, his father, and the amazing power of stormphrax, which comes from a single lightning bolt during the Great Storm.

It seems that there's a by-product of stormphrax, named phraxdust that can instantly purify the foulest of water, and therefore is of vital commercial importance to all the inhabitants of The Edge.

Unfortunately, the conversion of stormphrax to phraxdust is a pursuit fraught with danger, and many poor souls have perished trying to discover the perplexing secret.

Back on the sky ship Stormchaser, Twig erases any Brownie points he has previously notched by losing a valuable cargo, forcing his cash-strapped father to go storm chasing, in a quest to bring back some precious stormphrax and pay off his debts.

His father refuses to take him along, but Twig allows himself to be talked into stowing away, and in doing so, unwittingly reveals one of his father's most precious secrets.

A terrific adventure follows, but unfortunately, not according to plan, and Twig finds himself leading a motley crew through the maddening Twilight Forest and the perilous mire.

Learning the secret of phraxdust, Twig uses it to manipulate the political powers to his advantage, and bargains his way back to the skies, after engineering a coup in the floating city, and distributing the balance of power in Undertown.

Dark, gruesome, disgusting and exciting, this installment has more adventure than the first, but adds politics, greed, deception and treachery to the mix.

Amanda Richards, January 17, 2005

large improvement over the first book
Stormchaser is the second book of the Edge series and it is a vast improvement over book one--Beyond the Deepwoods. The book picks up a few years after Twig's adventures in Deepwoods. He is now sailing aboard the skyship of his recently-discovered sky-pirate father and has exchanged the monster-horrors of the Deepwoods with the more human horrors of city-life, pollution, and corruption (though monsters still make the occasional appearance).
Whereas Beyond the Deepwoods suffered from being overly episodic, plunging Twig into one-unrelated confrontation after another, Stormchaser is much more focused and has a much better sense of narrative. The famed sky city Sanctaphrax is at risk of breaking its mooring and taking off forever unless it manages to replenish the rare substance that keeps it from sailing away. The same substance, in a mysterious alternative form, has also kept the waters that feed Undertown drinkable and the shortage is leading to an ecological and social disaster. For various reasons, Twig's father is the one sent out on a quest for this rare material and various adventures ensue.
While there is still an episodic sense to the story, it's mostly confined to the book's second half when Twig and others are forced to march through the Twilight Woods and the Mire. Even here though, the encounters are still related to the overall arc of the story, making each encounter more significant and more memorable in comparison to Twig's one-monster-after-another adventures in book one.
The plot is also improved by the move away from conflict based simply on threatened violence (usually in the form of being eaten) to one based on politics, corruption, and intrigue among all types of characters (though being eaten remains a threat now and then).
Characters are also delved into more deeply. We learn more about Twig's father--what forced him into becoming a pirate, why he refuses to acknowledge himself as Twig's father publicly, more about his motivations and personality traits. Twig is given more opportunities to grow, but these seem a bit contrived and, as in the first one, somewhat formulaic and unearned at times, though not as baldly as in Deepwoods. A few of the side characters have moments of depth, but overall remain shallow figures.
There is a lot of death in this one, some of it quite grisly, though it is never lingered on, having more the feel of an uncensored Brothers Grimm tale rather than a modern-day slasher flick.
Overall, while Stormchaser still suffers from a few of the first book's flaws, mainly some shallow characterization and some formulaic coming-of-age "growth" events, it is a major improvement on the first and bodes well for the rest of the series.