Wharton makes youthful fantasy fiction fun regardless of gender

The world of young adult fiction is being turned on its head as we speak and Thomas Wharton has a sly grin on his face.

The University of Alberta assistant professor of literature and world-renowned author has a new book out. The Fathomless Fire is the second in the Perilous Realm fantasy series that started with The Shadow of Malabron in 2008. It does a fair better job of telling stories with young people as protagonists than anything that J.K. Rowling ever wrote.

There. I said it.

It’s also a fine antidote to the spate of Twilight novels and their ilk aimed at unsuspecting teens and tweens.

There. I said that too.

In The Shadow of Malabron, Will Lightfoot had his first adventures after discovering the Perilous Realm, a kind of secret universe where all stories come from. It’s a meta concept: the world is Story, so that makes this a story within Story. Wharton gives some credit to being inspired by The Neverending Story, a book he describes as “genius,” but he goes one step further.

Whatever happens in stories, happens in Story. That means you have all manner of adventures, interesting characters, plot devices and everything else that you’d expect, all happening to Will and Rowen, his new best friend.

Fathomless Fire starts with Will back in the real world trying to readjust to life with his family, but he wants to see Rowen again in the city called Fable. This is especially true after a messenger from the Realm warns him of danger.

Yes, there are epic battles with Malabron, and yes, Will must enlist the help of Shade, his talking wolf compatriot.

What you don’t expect is that Rowen isn’t just some damsel in distress, like the Empress in The Neverending Story. She doesn’t sit idle while Will comes to her rescue. Rowen is more of a modern heroine, a character who should be a feminist icon in literature for young adults.

Wharton’s writing career began more than 15 years ago with the widely acclaimed realist fiction Icefields, followed afterward by Salamander and The Logogryph, the latter even making the short list for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

And then he shifted gears and brought the target age of his audience down. Way down.

Why? His kids. He has two boys and one girl and they’re all in the age range that the Perilous Realm series is aimed at.

“I was trying to find a book that would have that balance for the kind of books that they like to read,” he began.

“One of the things that I wanted to do, especially with the second book, was that I was aware of some of these books coming out that are retelling these old stories over and over again about how, as a girl, your life will only be fulfilled if some handsome guy falls in love with you, and everything’s perfect. I found that frustrating. I didn’t want my daughter to just grow up thinking that’s the only way to be in the world.”

He wrote it for children ages 10 and up to enjoy, and he’s spot on with that assessment. There might be a burgeoning affection between Will and Rowen but there isn’t any of the romantic entanglements or icky emotional sentiment that you would find in Stephenie Meyers’ books.

While I hold on to my regular complaint that fantasy novels are all-too-often chock full of strange names for people, places and things, this is an easy thing to overlook in this otherwise wonderful tale. I had forgotten most of Malabron in the last four years so it’s really great to catch up again with these young adventurers.

I just hope that the third one in the series doesn’t take as long to come out. Even if it does, I’m sure it will be worth the wait.