The Watchmen of Port Fayt

June 1, 2015
A motley squad of private police takes on smugglers, rival peacekeepers, and a mad witch in this tumultuous trilogy opener, first published overseas in 2012. The rough-and-tumble melting-pot town of Port Fayt serves as the setting, and a wooden spoon that is actually a powerful magic wand is the MacGuffin. Two young orphans-half-goblin Joseph Grubb and Tabitha, a whiny, blue-haired adrenaline junkie-are the main point-of-view characters in a cast composed of humans, hulking trolls and ogres, tiny fairies, a feline shape-shifter, pale elves, imps, and various mixtures. From these elements Mason dishes up a standard-issue stew in which the wand, lost by a smuggler in a tavern brawl and found by Joseph, passes from hand to hand as the shy lad meets Tabitha amid frequent fights, flights, and chases. By the end, both have demonstrated individual talents (Joseph for clever deduction; Tabitha for creating general mayhem) and earned places in the crime-fighting, multispecies Demon's Watch. Though the plot, setting, and characters are conventional types, pervasive themes of racial prejudice set the tale slightly apart: Joseph's father was killed by goblin haters; the wand was created as part of a narrowly averted scheme to clean out Port Fayt's "demonspawn" residents; and the conclusion hints at further such conflicts to come. A polished if unambitious adventure with a whiff of thinly disguised topicality. (maps) (Fantasy. 10-13)

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September 1, 2015

Gr 4-7-Port Fayt is a somewhat wretched hive of scum and villainy, but it is one of the few places where everyone-human and otherwise-is more or less welcome. The town is governed in turn by three ruling families, and things are not going well. Joseph Grubb, a half-goblin/half-human orphan working in his uncle's tavern, accidentally gets mixed up in a complicated plot involving the League of Light, an organization dedicated to the eradication of trolls, elves, fairies...and goblins. A former, supposed-to-be-dead governor of the town has joined with the League and plans to use illegal magic to bring forth a terrible monster to destroy the town. Standing in their way is the Demon Watch, a ragtag crew that includes blue-haired Tabitha, orphaned daughter of another former governor, who's just itching to have her chance to fight. The Demon Watch must contend with eel-eating pirates, duplicitous sugar-addicted fairies, and the Dockside Militia, while Joseph fights to survive run-ins with a shapeshifting cat, a tank of ravenous sharks owned by an underworld kingpin, and a magical wooden spoon. The story is quite cinematic with plenty of explosions and destruction, humor (mostly in the form of the Bootle brothers, the troll version of the Weasley Twins), and enough drama to invest readers in future titles. VERDICT A well-built world makes this fantasy series opener stand out.-Mara Alpert, Los Angeles Public Library

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