Lord Sunday

[sawyl]

Finally at the end of all things with Garth Nix' Lord Sunday, the conclusion to his Keys of the Kingdom series. The story opens with Arthur Penhaligon, having wrestled the sixth key away from Superior Saturday, attempting to enter the Incomparable Gardens, from which point the Great Architect created the universe; his friend Leaf is back on Earth, sheltering from a small nuclear explosion; while longtime side-kick Suzy Turquoise Blue has been imprisoned by Saturday's Sorcerous Supernumeraries.

Entering the Incomparable Gardens via the Improbable Stair, Arthur finds himself in a duplicate of his family home. Here he finds his mother, missing since the middle of the series, living out a series of identical days as one of Sunday's exhibits. Attempting to get himself closer to Elysium, where he hopes to confront Sunday, Arthur finds himself bound to a huge clock programmed to torture him every twelve hours with nothing but a stuffed elephant toy from his childhood for company.

Back on Earth, Leaf has survived the mini-nuclear strikes intended to stop the plague centred on East Area Hospital. Queuing for supplies for the inmates of what used to be Lady Friday's nursing home, she meets Arthur's older brother, Major Erazmuz Penhaligon. After getting Leaf decontaminated, the Major takes her back to the home where she is promptly kidnapped by Sunday's Dusk and brought into the House where, after a scuffle with a gang of Nithlings, she unexpectedly finds herself Lieutenant Keeper of the Front Door. Using the power of the Door Leaf escapes and rejoins Arthur's forces — Dr Scamandros, Dame Primus, and Suzy, now escaped from Saturday's clutches — as they try to decide how to enter the Gardens in support of Arthur.

After a grand battle involving all the remaining forces from Arthur's other domains, the Rightful Heir finally confronts the arrogant Lord Sunday, the eldest son of the Architect, and uses the power of the seventh and final component of the Will to claim the final key to the House. Suddenly a series of hitherto concealed plans come to the fore, revealing the fate of the Great Architect, the reason the Trustees allowed the House to fall into disrepair, and where Arthur, now some sort of post-human archangel, stands in the grand scheme of things.

The final resolution to the series, while not exactly unexpected, is solidly satisfying. Not only are all the plot threads associated with the Piper and the Mariner resolved, but so is the mystery of what happened to the Great Architect. The Incomparable Gardens are solidly Edenic, even going so far as to feature a crystal serpent standing guard over Elysium, which marks the centre of the Great Architect's creation. The seventh part of the Will is embodied in an apple tree; one whose fruit proves just as dangerous to Arthur and his universe as that in Genesis.

Nix sticks the final dismount, choosing a bittersweet ending in place of a happily-ever-after one that would have trivialised Arthur's struggles and character growth through the seven books. The message is, I suppose, that no matter what happens to you and no matter how powerful you become, there are some things you simply can't change; and that these are often the most important things to you means you have to come up with a way of accepting them for what they are and to come up with a way of coping with the consequences.