"A series of fragmented fantasy adventures for variably aged children featuring full-colour illustrations and packaged in a fancy gold-foiled hardback format."
The fourteenth instalment of the Tales of Ramion fantasy series leaps right into the baffling action of a new adventure: “Now that he was free from the rules of the Land of Lost Hair, Cloud 9 was bored.” Fortunately (for him, at least) while wandering “through Ramion looking for creatures to soak,” Cloud 9 is struck by a tedium-quelling idea. He will suck in the ocean and soak a castle. However, in so doing, Cloud 9 unwittingly releases the Blizzard Wizard (“evil touch, heart of ice”) who’s incarcerated in said castle.
With Blizzard Wizard free, the realm turns to ice and it takes a strange assortment of characters to try to put things right, among them the Lion of Icing. And then there’s the sudden involvement of the Venomous Vampires, Globerous Ghosts, Mystic Mummies, Racing Racoons, Hero Hedgehogs, and so on. While the author’s alliteration game is pretty high here with such zany character names, the zigzagging story lacks cohesion.
When, with the unwitting help of foolish Cloud 9, the Princess of the Night frees the Blizzard Wizard from his prison cell, he turns the Garden, the Gardener and the whole of Ramion into ice. With the help of the rabbit Scrooey-Looey, the boys set out to gather the four elements which will bind up the Blizzard Wizard and take him back to prison.
Frank Hinks is the creator of the Land of Ramion series...And here’s another secret about the magical world of Ramion: it’s here that Frank Hinks lets his hair down and escapes the austere and highly formal world of the legal profession where he is a Chancery QC with a successful international practice based in London. As well as being a storytelling author and painter, Frank Hinks lists Indie Rock (listening at full volume and dancing) among his personal interests.
