Is

[sawyl]

After a gap of a number of years, Joan Aiken returned the world of Willoughby Chase with Is, which focuses on the adventures of Is Twite, the illegitimate daughter of Abednego Twite and Lily Bloodvessel, who has spent the last little while living with her half-sister Penelope.

While searching for his missing son Arun, Hosiah Twite happens across the home of his nieces, Penelope and Is. After telling the sisters of their family in the north, Hosiah promptly dies, leaving them to decide what to do about their missing cousin. Determined to help, Is travels to London where she learns from Wally Greenaway that someone has been snatching the capital's children — including the son of a mysteriously familiar aristocrat. Uncovering a trail that leads to a secret train called the Playland Express, promises to transport all children to a land of leisure, Is finds herself bound for New Blastburn, now rebuilt as the underground town of Holderness.

Escaping the train guards, Is quickly locates a couple of her relatives — her 102 year-old great-grandfather and her Great Aunt Ishie — who warn her to be wary of her Uncle Roy, also known as Gold Kingy, unless she wants to end up working in the blast furnaces and coal mines with the rest of the children brought by the Playland Express. Is agrees to work as Dr Lemmen's assistant, but when this fails to get her any closer to her missing cousin or the aristocrat's missing son, she decides that her only option is sign up for duty in the mills and the mines.

I enjoyed Is, especially the ancient members of the Twite family and the gloomy chthonic setting of Holderness, and I liked the way Aiken has decided to allow various parts of England to break away from London — presumably by taking advantage of the various Hanoverian crises. I didn't mind the more fantastical elements either — the characters develop a form of telepathy while working in the mines under the sea — but somehow I didn't think it worked quite as well as some of the Dido novels, even though I'm not entirely sure why. Perhaps it's just a matter of being loyal to one of my favourite characters?