I didn’t think it was possible, but this sequel might be even better than the first.

From the moment a dragon woke Christopher up by chewing on his face (!!), I knew I was in for something special. The Poisoned King swept me right back into the Archipelago, and I didn’t want to leave. Katherine Rundell’s imagination is wild and wonderful this world feels alive in a way few fantasy stories do. The creatures, the landscapes, the magic… it all just sings.

But what really stuck with me was the heart of this story. Yes, there are dragons and sphinxes and epic rescues, but there’s also so much about friendship, justice, and the kind of bravery that isn’t loud or flashy, just quietly determined. I adored the girl with birds at her side (seriously can we talk about her? Instant favorite), and Christopher continues to be such a compelling, kind-hearted protagonist.

If you loved Impossible Creatures, this one will absolutely deliver. And if you haven’t started the series yet please do. Rundell’s writing is full of magic, but also humor, tenderness, and so much soul.

I turned the last page and immediately wanted to go back. Counting down the days until book three.

Phenomenal! Astonishingly imaginative.

Impossible Creatures is such a woderful book so I was really excited to read The Poisoned King and... it was even better!

Christopher Forrester is joined by the admirable Princess Anya and they go on an incredible adventure where they meet the most magical and terrifying creatures.

Fast-paced and glorious this series will go on to become a classic, will be adapted for film and will.undoubtedly capture the imagination of many children (and adults)!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

Really enjoyed this second book (maybe a little less than the first one; I missed the dynamic between Mal and Christopher), it is a great return to the universe of Impossible creatures!

An enjoyable return to the wonderful world of the Archipelago.

The book opens about a year after the events of Impossible Creatures. Christopher has returned to his everyday life but still dreams of Mal and has a bag packed ready to return to the Archipelago. When dragons start dying in suspicious circumstances it is decided that Christopher, as an outsider, is best placed to help.

Alongside this quest to discover what is causing the deaths, Christopher is asked to help Princess Anya. Brought up in the forest she has found it hard to adapt to royal life and prefers the company of her beloved gagana birds to people. With Anya's life in danger Christopher comes to her rescue and she gets involved in his efforts for the dragons.

I really enjoy Katherine Rundell's writing. She is a wonderful storyteller who can create beautifully vivid scenes. I love that she includes words that children are unlikely to have come across and will likely need to look up. It's always in a positive way that makes you want to know about the word, rather than being a barrier to enjoying the story if you don't understand it.

The story encourages readers to continue on with the book. Chapters are short and each leads on to the next in a way that makes it difficult to find a place you are willing to put the book down. The mythical creatures are again the stars of the book for me. My advance copy didn't have all the artwork, but based on the first book I am sure it will be wonderful.

I didn't enjoy this story quite as much as Impossible Creatures. I found Anya quite unlikeable, even more so than Mal was in Impossible Creatures. Her behaviour is awful and I found one scene in particular quite unsettling. I realise she is a child and that books offer a way for children to get to grips with their emotions but I felt that went too far. I will say that the overall message of the book is very much about not choosing violence and there is character development.

The whole story with Anya's family felt too simplistic. It was bizarre that everyone just went along with things and no one was suspicious of the person who actually stood to gain. Likewise the ending to that plotline was also tied up in a very 'and they all lived happily ever after' fashion. This book seems to be written for a slightly older audience than the first as it deals with some more mature issues. Therefore it was disappointing that the subplot rather glossed over things.

Where the story shone for me was when the focus was on the mythical creatures themselves. The descriptions are vivid and I love that they go beyond the basic species you might expect. The non-human characters were my favourites. Some of the new ones in particular were fabulous. You really want to escape to the Archipelago and live there yourself.

An enjoyable fantasy adventure.

Utterly marvellous - I laughed, I cried, I added #3 immediately to my ‘to read’ list.
Katherine’s world and the creatures that inhabit it are fantastic - magical and fully formed. The characters come alive and I’m fully invested in their stories

Oh my goodness! I cannot put into words how excited I am to be back in the Archipelago! Impossible Creatures is one of my favourite books of all time. Whilst some were hesitant at the Tolkien and Morpurgo comparisons Rundell was garnering, I’m someone who believes she deserves that praise heaped upon her by the truckload. Impossible Creatures had the makings of an instant classic, and I’m delighted to report that The Poisoned King is joining it.
 
Mal’s absence was a big concern to me going into The Poisoned King, but boy oh boy, Christopher and his new comrade sure do work brilliantly in her honour. Anya is the epitome of those strong emotions we feel as children that we struggle to process and deal with, and when combined with the tragedy that falls at her feet, Rundell shows us a strong, fearsome yet wonderfully vulnerable companion for Christopher. I find this duo simply wondrous, and I will take much pleasure in telling everyone I know about them! (Side note: I already have told family members and friends they NEED to read this book, and I am suggesting you do the same!)

Whilst the plotline does feel suitably darker, after all the audience reading the first book will have grown up a bit by the time they get their hands on The Poisoned King, there is the lightness and dazzlement of the Archipelago that Rundell magnificently jaunts through to counter it. I want to give an honourable mention to Koo, who I one day expect there to be merchandise of and everyone to instantly fall in love with. I was besotted from his first appearance, and I WISH I could have a Koo of my own.
 
Between new creatures, sections of the Archipelago, characters, villains and the threads weaving to and fro from Impossible Creatures, The Poisoned King is a radiant triumph of storytelling. This book is not only a delight for readers of all ages today, but destined to shine just as brightly on bookshelves for generations to come. Furthermore, Rundell is laying the groundwork for what’s sure to be a tremendous third instalment in the series.
 
With Impossible Creatures: The Poisoned King, Katherine Rundell cements her place as one of the most captivating voices in children's literature. This sequel is a must-have for fans old and new. I urge you to preorder your copy ASAP and be sure to check out Rundell’s upcoming tour dates. If her storytelling on the page is anything to go by, those events will be nothing short of magical and an unmissable opportunity to step even deeper into the world of the Archipelago…

While my list of upcoming titles that I’m desperate to read is – quite naturally – different from those of many of my fellow children’s fiction-reading friends, this is a read that I suspect is on everyone’s list. The much-anticipated sequel to 2023’s Impossible Creatures, a book so brilliant that it not only won the Waterstones Children’s Book of the Year but the overall prize that year too, when I spotted that it was available to wish for on NetGalley, such was the thrill I felt that I broke out in goosebumps.

Having not been successful in my previous wishes, and being the eternal pessimist that I am, I wasn’t expecting to be approved so I was reading something else when the email came and had to wait 24 hours until I could start it but that only served to increase my anticipation when I did pick it up. Incredibly imagined and exquisitely executed, this is everything I hoped for and more as the book returns to the world of the Archipelago after the shocking conclusion of Book 1, in a story that will surely be in contention for not just Waterstones Book of 2025 but a great many other prizes too.

When we meet Christopher for a second time, it is a few months since he returned to the home he shares with his father and he is being woken up by Jacques – a small jaculus dragon – chewing on his face; not in hunger, or as a sign of affection but to alert him that his presence is urgently required once more in the Archipelago. Explaining that dragons have mysteriously been dying, Jacques tells his baffled friend that, as an outsider, he is the only human that the dragons will trust to uncover what is going on and the boy hurriedly packs a few essentials before heading to the waybetween that bridges his and Jacques’s worlds.

Arriving in the Archipelago, Christopher is greeted by sphinx Naravirala, who has come to assist him but who also tells him that there is a child in trouble, at risk of death, and that he must help her. At the same time, on the Island of Dousha, Anya, is high on the rooftops of the castle in which she lives, intent on protecting an egg laid by one of the royal gaganas – an egg that is being sought by soldiers despite the birds being protected by law. Successful in her mission, Anya takes the precious egg inside with her and reflects on the events that have led to her being forced to live within the castle’s walls instead of the forest where, as a younger child, she and her father enjoyed far more freedom, little knowing that her life is about to be completely turned on its head.

With destiny decreeing that the lives of the two children are bound together, both must seek the truth about the fate of not only the dragons but also some of the other inhabitants of the Archipelago. Joined by friends old and new, Christopher and Anya must undertake a bold and daring quest not just in their efforts to protect the dragons but also to avenge the death of the poisoned king…

I said in my review for Impossible Creatures that to call that book either an adventure or a fantasy was to do it a great disservice and that statement holds true again here. What sets that book and this one apart from other middle grades is the author’s ability to involve you in the world she has created so that you feel as though she is telling the story to you and to you alone, making you feel almost physically hooked into its narrative. Very few titles hold my attention like Katherine Rundell’s do and the further into the book I got, the greater the need I felt to continue reading – if reading were addictive, I would’ve needed serious assistance from the NHS to break myself free of the story’s pull and I know that I won’t be the only one to experience that.

You don’t need to have read Book 1 to enjoy this, but I can’t begin to stress how much more you will enjoy this if you have and are already familiar not just with Christopher and Jacques but several other characters that reappear here. Having first visited the Archipelago in Impossible Creatures, Christopher is a little older and much wiser than he was when we first met him and is more aware of the ability he has that allows him to build relationships with the animals who live there, but the crucial role he played in that previous outing has not made him arrogant or reckless as it might some individuals, making him a hero who is both entirely credible and very likeable. In Anya, he meets someone with whom he immediately feels a deep bond, but he is unafraid to tell her things as they are and prioritise his mission to save the dragons over her needs if necessary.

With the very back of the electronic copy of the book I read dangling a metaphorical carrot for the as yet untitled Book 3, expected autumn 2026, I am now left in the most desperate need of that to see how the story continues. It will, of course, be added to my list – and many others – once it is announced.

Ahead of that, the most enormous thanks are due to publisher Bloomsbury and to NetGalley for my advance, virtual read of this title. The Poisoned King publishes in hardback on September 11th and is one to preorder now.

A sweeping sequel into a magical world that is filled with magic, wisdom and adventure.

I have been anticipating returning to the Archipelago ever since I turned the final page of Impossible Creatures and I was, again, swept into a hugely imaginative world of adventure, peril and the fight to do what is right, to seek justice and to hold on to hope.

Christopher is awoken by a tiny tea-cup sized dragon chewing on the end of his nose and is implored, is quested, with returning to the Archipelago to save the dragons. Meanwhile, a new character - Anya - longs to escape the castle tower, frilly dresses and comportment lessons. But a devastating, life-trajectory-changing event, means her escape is not as she planned. And so our heroes paths are thrown together.

I adored meeting the mythical beasts familiar and new and the Bestiary at the end is a wonderful deepening of the storytelling. Spending time with familiar characters gave this a comforting feeling of being in safe hands, and although I missed Mal Alvorian, Anya steps into her space (but, crucially, not her shoes) giving us a new perspective and a new fight.

Rundell writes with remarkable elegance, using a wide and expressive vocabulary that respects young readers' intelligence. With just a few carefully chosen words, she conjures vivid scenes, offering readers the opportunity to build a world in their own imagination, making the story feel uniquely their own. No reader will experience the story the same way. It's, yet again, ingenious unmatched storytelling for children and adult readers alike.

Readers who long for escapism, magic and a path to hope, will adore this new adventure that is charged with a wisdom that will stay with you long after reading.

Like every good magical story, we begin with a boy called Christopher Forrester being unexpectedly woken by a tiny dragon chewing on his face. 🐲 Christopher has longed to return to the world of the Archipelago - the secret islands where impossible creatures thrive - at least, that’s where they used to. Dragons are being wiped out, killed by an unknown threat. As a guardian of this realm, Christopher feels a deep sense of duty to answer this call, and hurries back through the secret entrance in Scotland, to assist his magical friends in solving this terrible mystery, but alongside this, he rescues an extraordinary princess. 👸🏼

Princess Anya would much rather spend her life with her beloved royal gaganas and her beloved father in the forest behind Argentina Castle, where winged unicorns drink from the Great Lake. 🦄 A life she hasn’t enjoyed since her grandfather decided to bring her up as a royal ornament under the constrictions of the castle. But then her grandfather is murdered, 🩸 speculation falls to her father who is jailed, and her uncle sends her away whilst he reigns as Regent. Narrowly avoiding an assassination, 🔪 Anya is rescued by Christopher, and together they set out, not realising just how connected their quests are. 🦜

Overview:
✨This is a magical sequel to a timeless classic in the making. Katherine Rundell is a fantastic writer and having heard her speak in interviews, I love the grace she brings to children’s publishing, and I hope she inspires lots of kids out there to pick up, what perhaps might be their first ‘grown up’ book. There are big words and I love that young readers are challenged with an expansive vocabulary. 🤓
I wish this book every success with publication, and I look forward to receiving my hard copy in the post upon release!

Pick this book up for yourself or your kids!

💚💛💚💛💚

A Spellbinding Return to the Archipelago

I am beyond thrilled to have received an advanced preview of this incredible book—my heartfelt thanks to the publishers for the opportunity to dive back into this world before its official release. From the very first page, Katherine’s writing swept me away once again. Her storytelling is nothing short of masterful—easily standing shoulder to shoulder with greats like Philip Pullman.

I won’t add any spoilers!!
When Christopher Forrester is unexpectedly woken by a miniature dragon chewing on his face, I knew we were in for a wild, magical ride. What follows is a whirlwind of adventure: a daring rescue atop a sphinx and a confrontation in a dragon’s lair. It’s all written with such vivid imagination and emotional depth that I found myself grinning, gasping, and holding my breath from chapter to chapter.

Katherine has crafted a world that feels both ancient and fresh, full of wonder and danger in equal measure. It’s a rare gift to capture the mythic and the human so seamlessly—and she does it with elegance and heart.

I felt so privileged and ecstatic to receive an early copy, and I cannot recommend this book enough. A must-buy for fans of the series, and for anyone who still believes in the power of stories to transport, transform, and inspire.