Lost in the imagination: A journey through nine worlds in nine nights by Hiawyn Oram, illustrated by David Wyatt

 I knew this was unlikely to be the kind of thing one added to a library - it's from Candlewick Studio, which created the Ology books and is categorized as a gift book. I just wanted to read it, it looked so cool!

It opens with a note to the reader, saying that Candlewick Studio was given a collection of notes, stories, and drawings by Emily Furness, niece of "the late prize-winning theoretical physicist and professor Dawn Gable." The framing story is that Dawn Gable, estranged from her brother due to her obsession with science and neglect of the magic they shared as a child, is gifted a book by her niece and nephew on her birthday. Annoyed, she tosses it into the fire where, instead of burning, it glows and somehow produces a dragon-like creature named Hyllvar, who claims to be a descendant of Nidhogg.

Against her better judgment, Dawn accompanies the dragon through nine magical worlds, each described in magical detail in her collected papers and stories, and although she is at first frightened and angry, she eventually comes to appreciate the magic and beauty of the worlds she is privileged to visit. The story ends with a note from Professor Dawn D. Gable, talking about the wonders of magic and how her magical journey changed her life. On the last page, a newspaper clipping recognizes "Maria Knowles" for winning a literary prize for fantasy established by Dawn Gable, who also wrote fantasy novels under the pseudonym of Hyllvar Hunt.

The pages of this oversized volume are rimmed in dark blues, making the sketches and images stand out strikingly from the page. There are sketches of Hyllvar's strange machine, notes of adventures, and then the worlds themselves. Each "world" has a page introducing it, with a detailed sketch of the area, a larger artistic picture, and then a drawing of Gable's encounters and adventures there. She travels to the lost city of Kor, an ancient ruin in Uganda, where she encounters "Princess Ayesha" who has magical powers and dwells in the Fire of Eternal Youth and Beauty. The next world is imaginary, Mecanopolis, where all life has become extinct and sentient machines have created their own utopia. Frightened of being trapped in their museum of humans, Gable flees and finds herself next in Camelot. An intricate drawing of the Round Table and descriptions of its knights are included here. She next visits Hyllvar's own world, Wyvern Abbey and the Dimskye Mountains where dragons, wyverns, griffons, unicorns, chimeras, and many other dangerous "monsters" dwell. Here Hyllvar leaves her, telling her she must make the choice to continue her journey with the machine alone.

Notes on Kor

She then visits Atlantis, as seen through Captain Nemo's submarine, and escapes just in time to enter the worlds of Swift's imagination, Lilliput and Laputa. The last two worlds she visited are drawn from myth, Buyan, the first island, from Slavic mythology where she sees a variety of mythological creatures and deities, from a gamayun to Koschei the deathless and Valhalla in Asgard. As she enters Valhalla, the machine fails and she makes a leap of faith to trust Hyllvar to carry her to the ninth world. There she admits to a traumatic childhood experience when her brother nearly fell to his death from a roller coaster. In her final letter, opening herself up to imagination and magic again, there is a background that features artifacts from each of the worlds she has visited.

I didn't care for the framing story. I don't know that kids will particularly relate to the idea of a middle-aged woman who has lost her capacity for imagination and frankly it irritated me. To paraphrase Justine Larbalestier, there's no moral superiority in reading fiction. From an adult perspective, to castigate a woman trying to succeed in the sciences, a heavily male-dominated profession, for not enjoying magic and fantasy like she did as a child is just... wrong. You can be a perfectly wonderful person and still not want to celebrate your birthday, travel to magical worlds and nearly get killed, or somehow manage to become a prize-winning physicist, write a series of wildly popular fantasy novels, and yet still be called "professor" rather than "doctor" which jumped out at me. Ahem.

However! Frankly, I doubt that most kids will even bother to read the framing story and if they do will quickly forget it. The important thing here is the lovingly detailed drawings of various imaginary and mythical worlds and this is what fantasy fans are going to be absorbed in. How I wish this book had been around when I had an Atlantis-obsessed fan! Kids can spend hours absorbed in the details of the worlds and will doubtless be inspired to draw, write, and create their own worlds, made-up or based on other stories they've read.

Verdict: Unlike the Ology books, there are no little pieces to be lost, but as a gift book this is both a little oversized (13" high) and with a fragile spine and paper-over-board construction. While it would do fine in a library, it will probably be quickly read to pieces. Ideally, it would be a gift to any fantasy fan who loves imagining and creating worlds. Pair with books on creating your own fantasy maps or suggest to a fan of RPG and you're sure to have a happy reader.

ISBN: 9781536210736; Published October 2020 by Candlewick Studio; Review copy provided by publisher; Donated to the library as a prize.