When I found Maddigan's Fantasia by Margaret Mahy, I wanted it immediately because I knew from previous experience that Mahy is simply a very good writer. The book is an adventure and a mystery, a mix of science fiction and fantasy, time travel and post-apocalyptic fiction.
"Maddigan's Fantasia" is actually the name of a traveling circus in a post-nuclear world. The story begins with Garland Maddigan, who is perched on a hillside above the circus's camp when she sees the Fantasia attacked by Road Rats and her father killed. Moments later, two boys step out of thin air holding a baby. They are time travelers, though it will take Garland a while to believe Timon and Eden's story.
The circus travels on, followed by two men who are hunting for Timon and Eden and the secret they carry. Garland is torn by the loss of her father and resents the circus's new leader, Yves. She continues writing in her diary, addressing her entries to her father, Ferdy. She is amazed to discover that Timon and Eden have a battered copy of her diary that they have brought with them from the future.
The Fantasia's journey, in part dedicated to getting a solar converter from the city of Newton and bringing it back to the city of Solis, takes Garland and her companions to a series of grim communities, where various societies have found eerie and oppressive ways of dealing with the terrors of an uncertain world. Garland turns out to be a resourceful and strong-willed heroine. Changes to her new friend Timon raise questions about the long reach of that future villain, the Nennog, and glimpses of a mysterious silver girl occasionally guide Garland along the way.
I'll admit I found Maddigan's Fantasia a little uneven in spots, but it really grew on me. Perhaps best of all, Mahy's circus is almost a living thing, a metaphor she lovingly nurtures, the winding, dynamic entity that somehow stitches this entire miserable, dark landscape together with its constant motion, determination, and hopeful, joyful artistry. While just about everyone else we meet seems to have succumbed to harsh survivalism and short-sighted greed, the circus family reminds us that even in the midst of despair, love, loyalty, and of course the show must go on.
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Maddigan's Fantasia Books In Print, Audio Books.