{"id":25,"date":"2013-02-22T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-22T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=25"},"modified":"2013-03-22T16:38:02","modified_gmt":"2013-03-22T21:38:02","slug":"down-the-mysterly-river-by-bill-willingham-fiction-talking-animals-deadly-swords-quest-villains-friendship-memory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=25","title":{"rendered":"Down the Mysterly River, by Bill Willingham (fiction) – talking animals, deadly swords – quest, villains, friendship, memory"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"book<\/a>An unfamiliar forest<\/a>.
\nTalking animals.
\nA swordsman attacking to kill.
\nNot your average Boy Scout<\/a> camping trip…<\/p>\n

Max “the Wolf” has constantly improved his woodcraft skills<\/a> as a Boy Scout and is a detective at heart, so he and his new companions watch for clues as they travel together in search of answers – and try to stay ahead of the vicious Blue Cutters.<\/p>\n

For his first novel for younger readers, Willingham taps the illustrating skills of his Fables<\/i><\/a>\u00a0 graphic novel series collaborator Mark Buckingham for the masterful sketches of each character, from Banderbrock the badger, Walden the black bear, and McTavish the Monster (or perhaps a cat) to their evil pursuers with swords<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Find this mystery\/quest\/friendship tale today in hardcover or paperback at your local library<\/a> or independent bookstore<\/a>. For a jump into the Fables<\/i> universe, try\u00a0 Willingham’s Peter & Max<\/i>\u00a0 novel which I reviewed here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I do wonder what the animals in our lives would say to us if we could understand them talking…
\n**kmm<\/p>\n

Book info<\/b>: <\/i>Down the Mysterly River \/ Bill Willingham; art by Mark Buckingham. Starscape, hardcover 2011, paperback 2012. [author’s website<\/a>] [publisher site<\/a>] [audio interview<\/a>] <\/p>\n

My Recommendation<\/b>: Max is lost in an unfamiliar forest, being chased by swordsmen who\u2019d rather kill than talk, meeting up with talking animals \u2013 this has never happened to the top-notch Boy Scout before!<\/p>\n

Using his woodcraft skills and powers of deduction (the young teen is a detective at heart), Max \u201cthe Wolf\u201d decides to head downstream to find a town (and perhaps his memory). Along the way, he encounters Banderbrock the badger, who likewise is perplexed about being in this unknown forest, but remembers many tales of his daring and brave ancestors.<\/p>\n

Dodging the Blue Cutter swordsmen who pursue all trespassers in this forest, Max and Banderbrock join forces with the black bear Walden, formerly sheriff in a quiet settlement in another forest, and McTavish the Monster, who looks very much like a battle-scarred tomcat to Max. All can understand one another perfectly, but their memories of time before this forest have unexplainable gaps.<\/p>\n

Chased down the Mysterly River (as Walden named it) by the Blue Cutters and their hunting hounds, the friends try to find Prince Aspen (who is said to know many secrets) or anyone else who could help them escape to safety.<\/p>\n

For the Blue Cutters remove everything unique about new arrivals in this forest \u2013 and what could be more unique than speech in animals or a Boy Scout with no troop nearby\u2026<\/p>\n

Why did the boy, badger, bear, and cat all arrive here at the same time?
\nCan the quartet avoid the Blue Cutters\u2019 vicious blades?
\nWhat will they discover at the end of the Mysterly River?<\/p>\n

An epic tale with an unexpected twist from Fables<\/i> graphic novel writer, Bill Willingham, who undoubtedly enjoyed adventurous stories around the campfire as a Scout. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com<\/a>) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An unfamiliar forest. Talking animals. A swordsman attacking to kill. Not your average Boy Scout camping trip… Max “the Wolf” has constantly improved his woodcraft skills as a Boy Scout and is a detective at heart, so he and his new companions watch for clues as they travel together in search of answers – and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,77,19,30,51],"tags":[7,4,76,20,16,49,85,15,35,33,60,6,53,8,28],"class_list":["post-25","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-fantasy","category-fiction","category-legends","category-mystery","tag-beliefs","tag-belonging","tag-cats","tag-conflict","tag-determination","tag-memories","tag-nature","tag-relationships","tag-surprises","tag-survival","tag-tbr2012","tag-travel","tag-us-artist","tag-us-author","tag-villains"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":379,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions\/379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}