MUSEUM OF THIEVES

In Jewel, all threats, from wild animals to slave traders, are kept at bay—many literally imprisoned in the strangely organic Museum of Dunt. Children are fiercely protected by the Blessed Guardians and wear silver “guardchains” until formal Separation ceremonies release them. Bold, impatient Goldie, her own Separation scuttled by civil unrest, steals a scissors and escapes. A political struggle between the liberalizing Protector and her brother, the power-mad Fugelman, unleashes nonstop mayhem. As Guardians infiltrate the Museum, threatening its seething, barely checked life force, four Museum protectors pluck Goldie from certain imprisonment in Jewel and train her for her role as fifth Protector. Tanner layers it thickly—besides the present dangers and a culminating, ultimately liberating storm, there are Jewel’s lurking, violent past, seven gods (off stage, so far) and the barely tapped mysteries of the shapeshifting Museum (with its morphing staircase, Dirty Gate and clever denizens). And—last chapter—an apparently dispatched antagonist reappears. Bring on the teeming sequels, number one of which is due in Fall 2011. (Fantasy. 9-12)