I have been trying to get this book for ages, but the library doesn’t have it in physical or digital form (every time I try to get it from the library, it gives me the first book). Amazon doesn’t have a Kindle edition available right now. So when Amazon sent me an email saying I can get a free audiobook, I got this book.
Man, I missed this series.
It’s called ‘The Chase’ but most of the book is about Charlie and the lions hiding out in Venice. Which is cool! Even in a weird dystopian world, I am happy to spend time in Venice. And they ARE fond of lions there. The Plot is cool and fun and pushes the characters to think on their feet while working on trying to get the lions home to Africa.
Also, we have Charlie’s parents escaping from the evil corporation reeducation camp, which is quite exciting. They don’t have all the information to find out where Charlie is right away, but they’re thankfully quite intelligent enough to not be useless in their storyline.
I am a bit… confused about the depiction of Venice’s society in this novel? It’s run by a Doge, and all of the people are superstitious and believe in the Lion of Saint Mark as an angelic entity that exists? And brings blessings when it appears? Yeah, having Mabel Stark was a bit of an odd thing considering she’s an actual person from the 20th century, but aside from that it’s in the future, ish. But Venice is a separate city-state? What the heck does that mean for the rest of Italy? I guess the Corder just wanted to do Venice this way so I guess it’s okay.
It’s also interesting to me that this, a kids’ novel written in the 2000’s, deals with pollution, but it does so talking about how the air is so polluted that asthma is incredibly common, and Venice is sinking even faster into the ocean. It’s not a climate change thing, but it’s still pretty dire. There are other issues that are mentioned but not explicitly explained–there’s an Empire, but where it is? Never explained (TV Tropes thinks it’s the US.) Some countries have been wiped off the map–including the Ukraine, which is a little hard to read in a book right now? And of course, a lot of people hate cats because of allergies and asthma.
TV Tropes also describes the story a bit as Dickensian in how everything connects together. I didn’t think it was quite that crazy until a previously-unknown relative appears.
And I like that this entry in the story is the second book in the trilogy, but it’s not just treading water. There is an actual major Plot thread that is tied up here, and our heroes feel like they can go home! But as our narrator informs us, something big is coming, and we shall see how that story goes (hopefully I can track down a copy this time).