The Hidden Land

Name: The Hidden Land
Author: Pamela Dean
ISBN: 9780441329090

core novel 1986 The Secret Country

Record

First published	1986
Original language	EN
Work type	novel
Canon status	core
Reader rating	3.80 (893 ratings, collected 2026-11-01)
First-edition ISBN	9780441329090
Internal chronology	2

Synopsis

The five cousins remain in the Secret Country, which turns out to be more beautiful and more tangled than the game they played at home. After the king is poisoned, Ted, one of the cousins, must take the throne despite having no experience of ruling, working magic or leading people. He has to learn all three quickly, with the others beside him, while the kingdom faces a looming war with the treacherous Dragon King. Ceremonies, court politics and a proposed marriage complicate the peace talks, and the children still hide the truth about where they came from from the people who depend on them. Each of them must decide how much to trust the inhabitants of a country they are only pretending to rule.

Where it sits

Universe: The Secret Country
Series: The Secret Country core; position 2 of 3 in the series' recorded order
Author: Pamela Dean

Notes

From the series record (The Secret Country): Five cousins are drawn into the kingdom of their childhood game and must play its royal children.

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 The Secret Country: position 2 of 3: previous The Secret Country (1985) · next The Whim of the Dragon (1989)
Internal chronology, within The Secret Country: position 3 of 4: previous The Dubious Hills (1994) · next The Whim of the Dragon (1989)

Sources

← The Secret Country dossier · All universes

Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.