The Great Grand Robin Jarvis Reread is on official hiatus until the publication of the final book in the Witching Legacy Quartet. For active discussion of all things Robin Jarvis, chat to the author on twitter @RobinJarvis1963 or have a listen to @StillScaredPod, who have just finished a series on the Deptford Mice trilogy.
What is this blog?
We’re huge fans of Robin Jarvis and his books and so we’re going to read and blog through his entire published canon chapter by chapter. We’ll aim to blog through one book a month, starting in January 2017, so it should take us around two years to complete the full project. We’re working through them in the order the books were published.
How can I join in?
We’d love to know that other people are reading Robin’s books along with us – in fact, the more the merrier. So if you want to join in, sign up for email updates (down the bottom of this page), chase down a copy of The Dark Portal and jump on and leave some comments! We’d love to hear from you.
Why are we doing this?
Aufwader: My main aim for the Great Grand Reread is to get to know Robin Jarvis fans who may feel more at home discussing his worlds in a more formal setting than that offered by platforms such as Twitter. I have long been aware that there are many of my fellow fans out there who may not have the time or inclination to cultivate a full social media presence, but who may still want to discuss Mr Jarvis’ work in-depth with those of like mind.
This project is for all those who, like myself not so very long ago, felt marooned and alone in their love for Robin’s terrifying and fantastical worlds, and longed for even one mildly interested ear to hear their thoughts and theories. Come one, come all.
Matt: When I was in my early teens, I wandered into a bookstore in Sydney and in the children’s section, I saw a paperback that showed a terrified-looking mouse hanging on for grim death to a bat’s legs as the bat flew over London at night. I had no idea what the story was about, but the image caught my eye. This was, of course, The Final Reckoning, book 3 of The Deptford Mice Trilogy. Not one to come in halfway through anything, I quickly chased down book 1, The Dark Portal, and was instantly hooked.
For me, Jarvis’ writing conjured up images of the classic animated 80s mouse films – The Secret of NIMH, The Great Mouse Detective and An American Tail, but with a darker, and more intense, edge to it. It was almost like an alternative universe where that sort of animation had been allowed to get more violent, more scary – and more British. I lapped all the books up and would grab anything that I could find by Jarvis in the stores.
However, a combination of getting busy with grown-up life (university, work, family, etc.) meant that I fell behind on keeping up with all of Robin’s latest books. But now at age 38, I thought it would be a good chance to go back and re-read the books I loved (and a few that I haven’t had a chance to read at all) and share them with others.
Myth & Sacrifice 