Impossible Creatures

Summary

Impossible Creatures is a fantasy novel that follows the adventures of Christopher Forrester, who discovers a magical Archipelago, accessible through his grandfather's backyard. He rescues a baby griffin and meets a girl named Mal, who owns a coat that can fly and a compass that always points toward home. And Mal needs his help.

Someone is after Mal, and she doesn't know why. Worse, something is wrong in the Archipelago. The magic is fading, whole species of magical creatures are dying, and nobody else seems to care. So Christopher and Mal set off on a journey full of obstacles, like sea monsters, stubborn centaurs, and dangerous islands, as well as friends. Their new companions include a horned squirrel, a marine scientist, and a captain sworn to serve the Immortal, the soul born and reborn since the beginning of time but who has been missing for a hundred years. And as the crew searches for answers, they begin to wonder if the Immortal may be the key to saving the Archipelago from this mysterious threat.

Why I love this book

The world of Impossible Creatures comes alive through the creative, whimsical writing style that will make you laugh. Like the first sentence: "It was a very fine day, until something tried to eat him." Or when the captain tells the kids that "Adventurers tend to smell. The great epic tales stank, I think, more than the historians give them credit for."

At the same time, this fantasy tale hints at complex themes, like whether making sacrifices to help others is a choice or an obligation and whether humanity is worth saving at all.

I also love how the novel draws its mythical creatures from a wide variety of traditions, including Egyptian, Greek, Chinese, Norse, Scandinavian, and Scottish mythology. Even the most familiar creatures are presented in creative ways.

There are also occasional drawings that make the descriptions come to life.

Potential concerns

The concept of the Immortal in this world draws from metempsychosis, a philosophy of the rebirth of a soul in other plants, animals, or people. While this idea was inspired by a poem of Christian poet John Donne, it is closely related to reincarnation, which is rooted in Hindu philosophy. Other details of the magical history in the Archipelago, however, have clear connections to the Bible, like an ancient golden tree that gives life to everything and the idea that the all-knowing Immortal sustains and saves the world, even when it requires great sacrifice. To me, the Christian imagery far outweighs any opposing worldviews.

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