This book explodes like a firework in the brain, or perhaps like one of the thirteen volcanoes that encircle the misappropriated lake of the title. The ideas, the plot, the situations go beyond the merely outrageous and into the sublimely wonderful. This is a masterpiece of children's fantasy, and Dido Twite must surely be one of the great heroines of children's literature.

Dido is travelling back to England on the Naval steamer The Thrush, which is diverted to South America, or, as it is known in this alternative universe, Roman America, by the Admiralty, to the country of New Cumbria, established centuries before when the Romans and the British fled Saxon invaders, crossed the Atlantic and found the New World. Yes. All is not well, however, and as Dido and her companions traverse rivers and jungles and mountains to answer the summons of the Queen, they dodge kidnappers and ferocious beasts and encounter plots and mysteries by the score. Missing children, sinister dressmakers, giant flying birds, horrible hunts, steam-powered revolving silver castles and, yes, a stolen lake, whose provenance must be one of the wildest, maddest, most original ideas I've encountered in ages. Aiken's measured style keeps things anchored, as does the incomparable Miss Twite, her good-natured, big-hearted, curious, stubborn, loyal, common-as-muck and ferociously intelligent protagonist, who speaks fluent street-cant as though it were lyric poetry, and whose common sense and indefatigable moral compass keeps the whole fabulous contraption firmly on the ground.

I honestly think this is the most purely enjoyable thing I've read in ages, of any genre, for any age-group, and I've read some pretty enjoyable stuff lately. I will definitely and absolutely be reading more of this series.