To Hold the Bridge by Garth Nix - NO

Nix, Garth To Hold the Bridge, 400 pages.  Harper, 2015.  $18.  Langauge: PG (4 swears, 1 ‘f’); Violence: PG-13 ( a bloody, graphic death scene); Mature Content: G.

Twice now I have felt cheated by Garth Nix because he has published a set of short stories that contains ONE story fromt eh Old Kingdom and then the rest is filled by other random stories that are rarely as good.  To Hold the Bridge is an excellent story that deserves a novel all of its own, just as Across the Wall did when it was published (also in a book of other random short stories).  Of the others stories in the book, probably three of them rose to the level of Bridge, while the rest acted as filler.

Harper, would you PLEASE refrain from publishing any more Old Kingdom stories until Nix has enough of them to fill a book.  Or maybe Nix should invite others to write stories within his kingdom so that we can have enough for a solo collection?  DO NOT do this to us again!

NOT RECOMMENDED.  Cindy, Library Teacher