Mordew (Mordew Trilogy)

This book really reads like a modern-day fairy tale, with a message and a warning to deliver, in this case, the warning and the message about climate change and its potential impacts on the Earth. One of the main points of fairy tales is a tell a message about society and the planet, without directly mentioning the here and now, while at the same time delivering a message that is easy to understand and follow. We follow Nathan Treeves who helps support his family by joining other children in digging out items that can be sold from the Living Mud; these are items that have been discarded from the people living high above, the rich and powerful. Like many desperate families, Nathan is eventually sold to a powerful magician who needs a new assistant; but Nathan has a gift that threatens the master and everything that the master has built. This is not a perfect story, it meanders at times and honestly would have been much better if it was a bit shorter. It just feels overly long for the type of story it is.