Impossible Creatures
core novel 2023 Impossible Creatures
Record
| First published | 2023 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.09 (33,303 ratings, collected 2026-10-19) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9781408897409 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
When Christopher Forrester is sent to Scotland to stay with his grandfather, he quickly makes for the only area forbidden to him, the top of a nearby hill, and discovers astonishing magical creatures. It is the day he learns about the Archipelago, a cluster of unmapped islands where magical creatures of every kind have thrived for thousands of years, until now, and that his family are guardians of the way through to it. Meanwhile, in the Archipelago, the last surviving magic place, Mal Arvorian is pursued by a man who wants to kill her, while marvellous creatures have begun dying and the soil is turning grey. When Mal appears in Christopher's world, the two, with the last living griffin, embark on a wild, island-hopping adventure through a land where sphinxes hold secrets and centaurs do murder, searching for someone who can explain why the magic is fading. If the Archipelago is to be saved, they will have to do it themselves.
Where it sits
- Universe: Impossible Creatures
- Series: Impossible Creatures core; position 1 of 3 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Katherine Rundell
Awards (verified)
- Waterstones Book of the Year, 2023: won
- Foyles Book of the Year (Children's), 2023: won
- British Book Awards (Children's Fiction Book of the Year), 2024: won
- Books Are My Bag Readers Awards, 2024: won; Named as a winner in the publisher's list of the book's awards; year inferred from the book's first eligible award round.
Notes
- From the series record (Impossible Creatures): Katherine Rundell's planned five-book fantasy of the Archipelago, where the creatures of myth survive.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series Impossible Creatures: position 1 of 3: next The Poisoned King (2025)
- Internal chronology, within Impossible Creatures: position 1 of 2: next The Poisoned King (2025)
Sources
- Series page on the rating platform (ratings and years with titles)
- Bloomsbury (publisher description, via Toppsta)
- CBCA Reading Time (review with edition details)
- Knopf (publisher description, via Apple Books)
- Bloomsbury (publisher description and review, via ReadingZone)
- Kirkus Reviews
- Better Reading (author note)
- Shakespeare and Company (Bloomsbury publisher description)
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