I don't usually like books with an old-world kind of setting but this book had just the right amount of mystery and intrigue about the city that gives it a dystopian feel but with a strange edge. ( )

[I wrote this review in 2010]

**Good solid children's / YA fantasy fiction**

Very good original fantasy from this talented young writer. It reminds me of Philip Pullman's Northern Lights series, but is a quite different story. Mark and Lily are brought together by different sad circumstances and soon become firm friends. They live in servitude in the tower of the ancient and powerful astrologer Count Stelli. Lily is tasked with housekeeping duties and Mark with assisting the Count's grandson, Doctor Theo as he works to find cures for some nasty diseases, including a great plague. Very soon though they each have to start making their own choices, none of them easy, as dark and powerful forces show an uncommon level of interest in Mark and Lily and throws their beliefs and friendship into doubt.

David Whitely has created a setting for Mark and Lily's story which is a kind of capitalist utopia society - absolutely anything can be bought and sold within the city (emotions included, and children up to the age of 12) and people who lose the ability to earn their living are afforded no rights at all, not even to basic food and shelter. Charity just doesn't exist even as a concept and money is all that matters. At times I think the message overpowers the story just a fraction, but otherwise it's a very good, tightly written fantasy. Recommended for ages 10/11+. ( )

A fascinating look at the choices two children make in a world ruled by commerce. Great world building and a good read. Read my full review:

http://www.wandsandworlds.com/blog1/2009/08/book-review-midnight-charter.html ( )

I finished this book, but I didn't much like it. I didn't like the characters, especially Mark. I didn't find the world particularly well-built, and I thought the ending was more than a little cheesy. I found the emotion addicts intriguing, and the storefront paved with little bits of colored glass is a lovely image that sticks with me. ( )

Everything about THE MIDNIGHT CHARTER - the plot, the characters, and the setting - is engineered to deliver the author's anti-greed philosophy. It's simplistic, obvious, and exaggerated. As a result, the novel is no fun at all.

Marketing materials compare THE MIDNIGHT CHARTER to Philip Pullman's HIS DARK MATERIALS trilogy. The comparison is pure wishful thinking. Pullman created a rich, varied world, and he drew on a very complex theology (with frequent excursions to the deep literary well of John Milton's PARADISE LOST). Whitley's book is thin gruel in comparison. There's no spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down - no whizzing spoon masquerading as an airplane heading for the hanger - just Whitley's dogged determination to tell us over and over again how brutal trade is, how antithetical to generosity and compassion, how inhumane.

I wasn't politically opposed to the message. I'd love to read a book that made the same point with more grace and subtlety. However, THE MIDNIGHT CHARTER has neither.

For anyone looking for something along these lines - a great book with a mildly industrial setting, maybe featuring an orphan - I suggest the MONSTER BLOOD TATTOO series by D.M. Cornish, starting with FOUNDLING. ( )

"Charity is nothing to do with buying the feeling of virtue; compassion is not something you can measure. It's there when we don't check that we're always getting the best deal, when we stop seeing others as traders or merchandise, and see them as people, as those who deserve to live. Charity knows that humanity is worth more than the market price."

The City of Agora is divided into districts, each named for a sign of the zodiac. Each district has it's distinct quality and nature, each one different from the one next to it. The people and the city are governed by one central government and director located within the city's glorious Directory of Receipts. Mark and Lily are two orphaned children growing up in this world where emotions are bottled and sold as drugs, where skills are traded, bartered, and exchanged as commodities, where the value of a human life is based solely on what they personally have to offer. Mark and Lily discover that being orphans is not the only thing they have in common and that the government is more connected to them than they had ever imagined. Together, they will uncover a secret that may threaten the very existence of the City of Agora, it's people, and the only place they've ever called home.

Reading this book felt like I was dropped off in the middle of nowhere and told to find my way to nowhere. It felt like reading the middle of a book, in the middle of a series, with no knowledge of the beginning and no clue of the ending. Halfway through the book I was so disoriented that I had to double check to ensure that I hadn't actually been reading the first book in the series. The most frustrating part of it all was that I really, really enjoyed the story since the concept was incredibly creative and intriguing, the characters interesting and fascinating, but I was left feeling very confused from the first to the last page. In the end, I really don't know what to make of the entire experience except that now I realized that I can like a book that seems to be missing context, I can get lost and still arrive, I can give a 2.5 star rating and still want to read the next book in the series. ( )

Fascinating and original in a creepy sort of way.

In the aptly named city of Agora, everything and everyone is for sale. Two children, Mark and Lily, become friends after Mark is sold to a doctor who lives in the house where Lily is already a servant. Mark eventually attains the heights of power while Lily opens an almshouse for the debtors, the city's poorest. Unknown to both of them, the Director of the city believes them to be the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy and a mysterious society will do anything, including murder, to keep that from becoming true. ( )

I won the sequel to this book in a goodreads giveaway, and whether by fortunate mistake, or fortunate kindness, the publisher sent me a copy of this one. Now, I am itching to receive the sequel in the mail because to say this book was amazing is a complete understatement!This book follows Mark and Lily through a series of coincidences that are just to coincidental to not be fate. I enjoyed the writing style very much, and I loved seeing the way everything was so perfectly tied together. I was gripped by the story from the first paragraph of the very first page, and I was never let down as I continued. You can trade your emotions in this book, and while reading it, I felt I would gladly trade mine for more time to read it. The author, David Whitley, writes such a compelling and gripping tale, with just enough action, emotion, and fate to keep readers wanting more. The world he created was beautiful and terrible, but above all other things, this story was very original. I definitely recommend it as a good read! ( )

I read it although I didn't like it, it was full of sadness and misery, nothing happy happens. ( )

I tried to like this book. In fact, I tried to like it for nearly two months, and I never could. The book tells the story of two young adults in a Greek mythology-inspired world in which literally everything is for sale. No money? Sell your emotions. There's a machine for extracting them. Rough divorce settlement? You might have to give up your voice. Your ex husband can keep it in a vial around his neck. While this world sounds intriguing, the main characters are not. Their moral conflicts develop predictably, and they feel like wooden puppets of the plot. The author added some business with chosen ones and secret destinies, but the whole thing was too trite to really create suspense. I quit halfway through, and I'm not sorry. ( )

Mark, who has been sold by his father, and Lily, an orphan, meet at the tower of Count Stelli who makes his living by reading the future. When Count Stelli has an arguement with his grandson, the doctor Theophilus, Lily leaves with Theophilus to set up a practice elsewhere, and Mark becomes the count's manservant and learns the count's future telling trade. However, he soon realises he is being groomed like a puppet to further the Count's own plans, and Lily finds a world that buys and sells everything, even emotions. When Lily decides to set up a charity she sets in motion a philosophy that will shake the society around her and Marks life as well.
This is a book that questions the beliefs and values that build society. It is set in an almost Victorian fantasy setting. Well written and gripping. ( )

"The Midnight Charter" is the story of two older children living in a dystopian society, one which is based on trade. In Agora, children can be sold to masters and debtors can be erased forever. It's a society which values goods over lives. The two children, Lily and Mark, find their lives intersecting and then diverging as each copes with life in Agora in very different ways.

The idea of such a society is an interesting one. A flaw of the novel is that there was not sufficient explanation of how the society works or how it became that way. It felt a bit like visiting a foreign country without a tour guide who speaks the language: fascinating, but also potentially frustrating. The characters were somewhat unevenly developed; I found myself drawn into the chapters about Lily and bored by the chapters about Mark.

The story, however, did maintain my interest. The plot picked up a more even pace and became much more compelling in the last quarter of the novel. The ending did not provide much resolution; however the book is the first in a series and it did succeed in leaving me wanting to find out what happens next. ( )

Lily is a young woman who never knew her parents. She was left at an orphanage when she was very tiny, and sold to work in a book bindery when she was six. Mark was sold by his own father to Dr. Theophilus. Mark's father thought he was selling Mark into a better life, because the entire family was dying from the plague, and his dad hoped the doctor could save Mark. Mark did recover and ends up as the servant of the doctor, who is the grandson of the Count. The Count is a famous astronomer, and he owns the castle where Lily works as a servant, bringing him his meals. Lily and Mark become friends and this is where the story begins. This is a very complex story and for this reason, would not be understood by anyone other than a decent reader. I'd only recommend it to children who are voracious readers. Everyone else is going to be left far behind. It is book one in a series.

I couldn't put the book down once I started reading. The characters were fun to read about, and the setting was very different then anything I have ever read. The beginning was really good but towards the end it slowed down. I loved the characters, and how the author switched their stories every other chapter. The story plot and setting were amazingly unique. The ending was very surprising and left you wondering if there would be a sequel. The only complaints I have with the book is at points it was a little confusing, and I wish the ending was as good as the beginning. It's not for sure but I have read that this book will be the first of the trilogy. The Midnight Charter is David Whitley's first book, and I look forward to read other things by him. ( )

Agora is a city state surrounded by a circle of unclimbable walls; divided into the twelve signs of the zodiac, each section with its own set of goals, people and cultural quirks, all ruled by the Director, all influenced by astrological predictions, with the Midnight Charter hanging a dire prophecy over it.

This is a society corrupted by materialism and built on the idea that everyone, everything, has a value, everything can be bought and sold...NOTHING is free!

Two of the young children, meet, form a strange friendship and grow into totally different young citizens. Dreams and desires, good luck and ill fortune, friends and enemies all come together to weave a well written story that holds all the tension of a good fable. ( )

I would be VERY curious to see what young adults thought of “The Midnight Charter”. Maybe, as an adult, I have forgotten what appeals to that age group. And yet, there are many children and young adult books that I’ve read lately and enjoyed immensely. I chose this book because the summary mentioned that it was for readers of Philip Pullman. I very much enjoyed Pullman’s books and plan to read them again someday. His books had magic, adventure and danger, and a strong underlying message. They can be enjoyed by children and adults.

I didn’t find anything magical in “The Midnight Charter”. There was certainly danger…but no real adventure (until the last page of the book or so)…and the underlying message wasn’t very underlying. It was beat you over the head obvious and made the story incredibly depressing.

None of the characters were compelling to me; I didn’t feel that I knew enough about either of them to believe in their words or actions. And even Lily, the heroine of the book, couldn’t arouse much interest. I didn’t feel the passion behind her words, behind her obsession.

Again and again, I looked at the glowing reviews on the back cover. They mention being inspired, they mention amazing twists and turns…and not being able to put the book down.

For those readers, I am very glad. Because I agree with the book’s message that greed is destructive and that caring for others should matter as much, if not sometimes more, than caring for oneself. But – to use a line from the book, “Truth is never more addictive than when it comes to you in the tiniest grains.” But to which I would add; the truths in this book would be far more addictive were they delivered with a spoonful of hope.

One thing I can agree with from the back of my copy? This book does have a GREAT first sentence. ( )

Doubleday Canada, 05/10/2010 - Fiction - 336 pages
Agora is an insular city-state where anything can be bought and sold. Everything is a commodity; goods, services, people, thoughts, concepts and even emotions are bartered on the open market. It's an economy without money, where trade is the only way of life and debt is death. The successful elite rule, plague festers in the pitiless slums, and children are possessions until their twelfth birthdays. In the ancient tower of Count Stelli, the city's greatest astrologer, two children meet, both of whom have been sold into servitude. Mark is an emotional, imaginative boy who is sold by his father to the Count's grandson in return for medical treatment. The other child, Lily, is reserved and thoughtful; an orphan now owned by the Count. At first, threatened with being thrown out to die on the disease-ridden streets if they displease their masters, Mark and Lily's only goal is to work and survive. However, as they begin to understand that they can shape their own destinies, they each find their own path Mark within the system, angling for power and the security it brings; and Lily beyond it, determined to change the city forever. Unbeknownst to them both, however, Mark and Lily are watched by the mysterious ruler of Agora, the Director of Receipts, whose interest in the apparently insignificant pair is more than a passing one. .