I guess you’d do it. I mean, I have prequel shaped wounds that time will never heal, but I still wouldn’t turn down getting George Lucas a glass of water if he asked for it. I mean, I might get a second glass to dump over his head while screaming “Han shot first!” But I would still make sure he wasn’t parched first.
But being commanded by one of your idols to do something maybe isn’t the best way to get the creative juices flowing. (I’m just assuming Nix has a soft spot in his heart for Lucas and Star Wars, but there’s always the option that he’s dead inside and has gone to the dark side.) And I think it does kind of show in this series. Nix’s heart just doesn’t seem to be 100% into this story. But a lackluster Nix series is still better than most young adult series out there!
The Fall, the first in The Seventh Tower series, is more of an extended flash back sequence to get the world building in place for the rest of the series. Tal is our obnoxious main character. (Seriously, nine times out of ten, the main character of a given young adult book will grate on my nerves – Harry Potter himself included. Tal dials it up to eleven.) He lives in The Castle, which is what the world has been reduced to. The outside world is completely dark, The Veil keeps the sun out and The Castle keeps up The Veil because…reasons. Magic is used with crystals and the light spectrum. Light is controlled by sunstones, which are grown at the top of The Castle. Tal’s father has gone missing with their family’s main sunstone, so Tal needs to get a new one, or they can’t go on the months vacation to the spirit realm. (It’s called Aenir, but it really reminds me of the spirit world from Legend of Korra, so I’m curious if anyone working on Korra is a fan of Nix.) The Castle’s upperclass (the magic users) get to go to Aenir for a few months out of the year and the Under Folk (the servants) stay behind and clean the castle.
So Tal tries to climb a tower and steal a sunstone, but that doesn’t work out. He gets thrown off the tower and is barely saved by his shadow. (Kids of the upper class are bonded to a spirit in Aenir once they are born. When then come back into the real world, the spirits turn into shadows. Once a kid comes of age, he or she goes into Aenir and picks they new shadow spirit and if they have enough magic, they can get a powerful spirit. Tal is mainly concerned about getting that sunstone so he can go get a powerful shadow spirit since this year is his birthday.) They make it into the outside world. Tal gets rescued by some viking pirate nomads, which are way cooler than Tal could ever hope to be, so he spends most of his time insulting them. Milla, who is Tal’s age, must complete a quest so she can become a Shield Maiden, so Milla is ordered to escort Tal back to the Castle and retrieve a Sunstone for her viking shipmates because theirs is going out.
Like I said, the first book is heavy with exposition, which I normally don’t mind in Nix books. But coupled with a demanding and selfish main character, I really hoped for more.