The Society of Unknowable Objects is the follow up to Gareth Brown’s debut The Book of Doors. While The Book of Doors had a series of magical books as a source of power, in the follow up power comes from a range of magic objects. However, readers should be aware that this is a direct sequel to The Book of Doors and the connection between the magical books and magical objects is one of the strands of this story. So that while no knowledge of The Book of Doors is required to enjoy this tale, it will make more sense of this connection and the final stinger which brings the two worlds together.
The Society of Unknowable Objects is a group of four people based in London who protect a group of objects each with a unique magical power. Magda is brought into the society when her mother dies on a mission to recover more objects. The others are also descendants of the original members of the Society, although when the book opens one of the members has quit. Magda is dispatched by the Society to recover a magic item in Hong Kong and there runs into someone else dangerous who is also looking for object. Then it turns out there is yet another player, a person who was present at Magda’s mother’s death, who is also hunting the objects. This pressure on the group splinters them further as Magda starts to suspect that the history she has been told about the Society and its founding members is far from the whole truth.
The Society of Unknowable Objects has a similar feel to The Book of Doors with plucky characters trying to stop evil forces getting hold of potentially dangerous magical items. While there are twists, it has much more linear plot which actually works better at maintaining the tension (the time travel element in the previous book gave some of the action an air of inevitability). This is the case even though those twists, when they come, are fairly predictable. None of which prevents The Society of Unknowable Objects from being an enjoyable adventure which broadens Brown’s world and delivers a cliffhanger-style set up for the next book in this series.
The Society of Unknowable Objects by Gareth Brown
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