Jupiter North: Jupiter is Morrigan’s patron. Townsend seems to be offering her readers an insight into Morrigan Crow’s true nature and prospects. In Irish mythology, Morrigan is associated with power and sovereignty. She shares her forename with an Irish goddess (who often appeared in the form a crow) whose name means ‘Great Queen’ or ‘Phantom Queen’. Morrigan Crow: Morrigan is the story’s main character. What clues does Townsend offer her readers to help them understand the moral shape of her imagined world? There are hints in the names of people and places, in the values that are affirmed, and in the exercise of power.Īuthors often give clues to the true nature of their created worlds through the names they select for characters and locations. Meanwhile, waiting in the wings, is the nebulous figure of Ezra Squall, who (like Jupiter) vies for the role of Morrigan’s patron. To remain there, Morrigan must compete with other children for admission to the exclusive Wundrous Society. But entry into this realm is by invitation only. Jupiter, a member of the Wundrous Society, runs Nevermoor’s Deucalion Hotel in the Free State. She departs Wintersea under the care of her newly emerged patron, Jupiter North. But Morrigan is offered an alternative, albeit uncertain, future. Her family is resigned to her demise, perhaps even welcoming the shedding of an awkward burden. Very briefly, Morrigan Crow, an eleven-year-old, cursed child, is facing imminent death-a fate that awaits all children born on Eventide. In Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow, Jessica Townsend begins to reveal the world she has created for her debut series. What principles will determine issues of right and wrong, of justice, of the exercise of power? Will their world operate within the boundaries of a belief system? Will myths and stories from the imagined world’s past (or from other, known worlds) influence the present? In addition to these tangible elements, fantasy authors need to envision the moral framework that governs their created world and the values that underpin it. (Think of J R R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.) Worlds with unique geographies and climates technologies and customs and even, on occasion, languages. Writers of fantasy fiction create not just characters and plots for their novels, they imagine whole new worlds. Which world is she talking about? The world of Wintersea and the Free State the world inhabited by Morrigan Crow, chief protagonist in Townsend’s new fantasy series, Nevermoor. ‘I know everything about this world’, declares Jessica Townsend in an interview with Publisher’s Weekly. Design by Beatriz Castro, illustration by Jim Madsen. Cover image courtesy of Hachette Australia.

Nevermoor book