Synopsis:
Max Frei was once a loser. A hardened smoker, glutton, and loafer, one day he gets lucky. He discovers a parallel world where magic is commonplace, and where he fits right in. This is Echo, a place where a social outcast can be remade as "the unequalled Sir Max."
In this upside-down universe, Sir Max's wry humor and newfound talent for magic earn him a place in the secret police - night shift only, of course. With this comes an unusual band of colleagues: the omniscient Sir Juffin Hully, buoyant Sir Melifaro, death-dealing Sir Shurf Lonli-Lokli, bon vivant Sir Kofa Yox, and captivating Lady Melamori Blimm.
Plunging back into the astounding and absurd realm first portrayed in The Stranger, this is a sequel of addictive power, masterfully blending fantasy, horror, philosophy, and comedy. Readers will welcome this "utterly original" (Bookslut) chronicle of new adventures and misadventures of Sir Max in this enchanted and enchanting world.
-from The Overlook Press edition first published in the US in 2011
ISBN 978-1-59020-478-8
Cast of Characters:
Sir Max - our leading man; former resident of our world but now Sir Max of Echo. He has a penchant for food, our world's tobacco rather than that of Echo, and fun adventures (or maybe they're misadventures).
Sir Juffin Hully - Sir Venerable Head of the Department of Public Order and the Secret Investigative Force. He's slowly taking on this role of not only boss to Sir Max, but also a sort of father figure. He always knows what's going on with his team, particularly Max.
Sir Melifaro, Sir Shurf Lonli-Lokli, Sir Kofa Yox, and Lady Melamori Blimm all make their return appearances in this book. For a little more info about them, you can check out my previous blog post about book 1, The Stranger.
Sir Lookfi Pence - Buriwok caretaker. He was chosen by the buriwoks because he was the only one who could tell them all apart. He's in general absentminded except when it comes to the buriwoks and has a penchant for bumping into (and knocking over) chairs.
Buriwoks - Incredibly intelligent birds that memorize facts and are basically record keepers of all occurrences, people, and places in all of Echo. Kurush is Sir Juffin's personal buriwok that hangs out in his office taking notes but also provides valuable information. When I think of buriwoks, I immediately think of the dictabird from The Flintstones live action movie starring John Goodman and Elizabeth Perkins.
Aloxto Allirox - the leader of the Alvaroxians that has come to Echo in search of a gone wrong Alvaroxian. Alvaroxians are in general a very tall and beautiful people. They revere the buriwok above all else and tend to live shorter lives than most others as they have no issue with dying and believe life's ultimate goal and reward is to die. Lady Melamori is instantly taken with Aloxto and he with her - much to the chagrin of Sir Melifaro.
Tekki Shekk - owner of the cafe/tavern Armstrong & Ella (so named after Sir Max's cats); daughter of a wicked magician and quite powerful in her own right; girlfriend of our Sir Max. 💗
Plot Summary
It should come as no surprise that there is no shortage of adventure in this sequel. While this one is a little bit shorter than the first book of the series, it's no less packed with information, adventure, and fun. As before, I'll use the chapter titles to provide a brief summary of what happened but hopefully not give away too much.
1. The Magaxon Foxes
There has been no substantial passage of time from book 1 to book 2 which I can totally get on board with. In this first chapter, we learn from Officers Kamshi and Shixola that something is afoot in the Magaxon forest but it reeks more of magic than something their department should handle. They enlist the help of Sir Max to try and tackle the magic that is underway. Given that Lady Melamori is the foremost tracker, Sir Max requests her assistance in tracking the dark magician responsible for the mayhem occurring. When the group of officers, Sir Max, and Lady Melamori make it to their destination, Sir Max stumbles upon the fact that he too can track people - not just Lady Melamori - which is certainly curious as thus far she is the only one who has been a true master of the craft. Upon finding their target, a swarm of dead men come out of the woodwork with intentions of harming the team. Max uses his newfound trick of a Lethal Sphere to stop them, but it doesn't have the effect he thought it would - rather he gains his own undead army. Continuing on with these themes we saw in the first book, we see Sir Max having this connection with death that others do not. As usual though, the team are able to root out the deadly magician and all's well that ends well - except for the death of an officer.
We also see in this chapter that Sir Max's false backstory is coming back to bite him in the rear - or maybe not since Max has luck unlike anyone I've ever seen. Given that Max comes from a parallel world to that of Echo, his backstory of origin couldn't very well be the truth so Sir Juffin said he came from the County Vook and the Borderlands - mostly because they're so far away and not a lot is actually known about them. When a group of nomads from the Borderlands comes to Echo, Max slips up and tells them his true name is that of a long believed missing king - and the nomads believe him. Through his own blustering, the nomads now believe Max to be their king and that he must return with them in order to rule his people. Max...you and your big mouth. King Gurig VIII of course thinks it's a fabulous idea as he's always wanted to annex the Borderlands into his territory. We see Sir Max change his tune about his position as king by the end of the book. Especially after he is kidnapped by 'his own people' later in the book.
As with book 1, we continue to see this concept of parallel worlds. Max, ever the literal dreamer, goes to sleep one night and stays walking through the corridor of doors to other worlds for quite a lengthy period of time. Sir Juffin and Sir Maba Kalox use his time while he's walking in this parallel corridor to teach him on an almost subconscious level how to navigate these doors and determine what world lies behind each one. When Max makes his way back home to Echo, he thinks he's been asleep for a night, but in reality he's been gone for a whole year. Of course, a cover story is necessary for his absence but it just continues to show that Max has this innate ability and power that even he in unaware of. And one that I keeps astounding Sir Juffin and Sir Maba.
2. The Ship from Alvarox and Other Woes
After Max returns from his jaunt in the doors between worlds, he and Sir Melifaro are tasked with meeting the ship from Alvarox and welcoming the crew to Echo. The Alvaroxians are a tall and beautiful people that pride themselves on honor and specifically dying with honor. Alvarox is also home to many buriwoks which are revered and respected more than any man. It is even believed that when some Alvaroxians die, they possess the power and great fortune to return as a buriwok.
The leader of this band of Alvaroxians is Aloxto Allirox and they are searching for a criminal who fled Alvarox. While it would be incredibly easy to spot an Alvaroxian given how tall they are, there are many in Echo who have the power to glamour people so they look and sound like someone else. The Secret Investigative Force even has a member on its team that holds this power and wields is masterfully - Sir Kofa Yox. Sir Kofa is quite skilled in that his glamours can last for many weeks rather than just a few hours so it is not out of the realm of possibility that the Alvaroxian has had a change in appearance provided to him by only a select few magicians with such power.
The team is on the case to help Aloxto and his companions as they know Echo much better than the Alvaroxians. It is also decided that Aloxto must be guarded by a member of the investigative force so as to protect him should the hidden criminal try to ambush him. Of course, one of the members to agree to this duty first is Lady Melamori. Both she and Aloxto seem taken with one another from the beginning - much to the dismay of Sir Melifaro but happiness of Sir Max. After all, Sir Max is about to meet his girlfriend when he goes to meet Sir Melifaro and Aloxto in a tavern called the Armstrong & Ella (so named after Sir Max's cats - which are the pride of all cats and will soon produce the cats that will belong to the royalty of Echo). Sir Max arrives at the tavern just in time for the proprietor, one Lady Tekki Shekk, to come running into his arms saying everyone has been killed. Of course, our heroes have been unharmed and only those henchmen of the criminal Alvaroxian have been killed. Aloxto departs and Sir Melifaro decides to consume too much alcohol in an attempt to drown his sorrows over Lady Melamori crushing on Aloxto. Meanwhile, Sir Max is doing a little crushing of his own over Tekki. After taking a very inebriated Sir Melifaro home, Sir Max returns to Tekki's tavern where she gives him a bit of love potion - with disastrous results. But of course, our Max is lucky in life and love and he ends up with 2 hearts and 1 girlfriend. And if there's going to be a happy ending in Max's personal life, you know that means the gang solves the case of the Alvaroxian and Aloxto must leave his own lady love to return to Alvarox.
3. The Volunteers of Eternity
Just when things are looking up for Sir Max, Sir Juffin Hully is called away to Xolomi to work some magic on reinforcing the prison. Of course, when Sir Max is alone in charge, things cannot go smoothly. The dead are arising from the graveyard! (Again Sir Max and the dead!) After days of the same dead rising up and days of an exhausted Sir Kofa, Sir Melifaro, and Sir Max putting them back in their graves, Max believes the only way to keep them in their graves is Holy Water - but you cannot get Holy Water in Echo because there aren't any churches there. Max decides to take matters into his own hands, using his knowledge of the doors to other worlds, and return to our world. It is in and of itself quite a confusing time for him - at first he believes he has dreamed the entirety of his life in Echo. During his time, he essentially ends up losing himself along the way -- and there's SO MUCH MORE to this entire part that I just cannot summarize it all in a way that would even begin to make sense or do it justice. You honestly just have to read it. Luckily for Sir Max, he also finds himself - he finds himself when he thinks he hears the laughter of Tekki - only it's not her...or is it? 😯 🤨
Max, blessedly, finds his way back to himself and to Echo - this time he's only been gone for 49 days. And he finds a way to bring a bit of our world magic to Echo - in the form of cartoons.
Review
As with The Stranger, I utterly love and adore this story. Frei just adds on and builds up the relationships between the characters. She expands on new magic that Max is able to accomplish. She also finds just the right number of side characters to bring in to add comedic effect. The way Frei uses these extraneous characters is masterful. You know they may not be in the story for any poignant purpose but you end up not minding them because they show added dimensions to our primary characters who we do care about. And sometimes, they just make you laugh.
Once again, I spent my entire time reading this book with a smile on my face and quite often laughing out loud. I still love the entire storyline and this world of Echo. I'm positively obsessed and cannot recommend this book series enough. It is so full of good stuff. I've clearly left out an abundance of what all happens but you have just got to do yourself a favor and READ THEM! It's all just so dang delightful.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of 5!
Also, I will still fight you if you try to take these books from me!
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