Delivery to the Lost City (The Train to Impossible Places)

I was utterly thrilled with this book, the last in the Train to Impossible Places series. Full of adventure, magic and love, P. G. Bell has created something extremely lovely.

These books always feel to me like a combination of Angie Sage and Paul Stewart: surprising you with its strangeness and hitting you with an emotional kick when you least expect it. This book wraps up Suzy’s story in an incredibly satisfying way but (hopefully) doesn’t leave the door too firmly closed. I’m going to miss reading about my favourite Posties on their amazing train, but I’m so happy they got such a wonderful send off.

Well, it was a bittersweet journey in this, the third and final instalment of the Train to Impossible places series.
I was really looking forward to this one, having enjoyed the previous 2 and it was really nice to be back in the company of Suzy, Wilmot, Fletch etc.
This time, the crew are looking for the lost city of Hydroborea and have limited time to deliver their package.
Another fun adventure for the crew. I really enjoyed the addition of the chief and Ina. These books are great fun and I did feel sad knowing it was the last journey.
Thanks to Usbourne and Netgalley for this preview copy. Can't wait to get my hands on a finished copy with all the illustrations 😊

It’s time to say goodbye to Suzy, Wilmot, Fletch and the fantastic cast of characters in P.G. Bell’s imaginative trilogy. I say goodbye, but perhaps, it is not really the end, just a see you soon!

A perfect blend of imagination and fun, science and adventure and a fitting farewell to these super characters.

In this exciting and adventurous third book, Suzy takes her parents along for the next delivery! In trying to prove it isn’t dangerous or scary, and to convince them to let her continue on as postie....though much of what she does is entirely the opposite of that. This time, the crew of the Impossible Postal Express, must deliver a gold stamp special. It is the Book of Power and it is devouring all the words from the Ivory Tower, and anything it comes into contact with. If it doesn’t get delivered back to its original home, the words will go back to their books. If the deadline passes, then the words stay inside The Book of Power. Speed and efficiency are of the most importance for the crew.

It won’t be easy but the crew are brave, determined and ready for adventure! The book belongs to the lost city of Hydroborea and many who attempt to find it, become lost themselves. Suzy and the crew find themselves in plenty of dangerous situations, come face to face with old foes and must ultimately work together to deliver the book on time!

The entire series is imaginative and fun, exciting and enchanting. It has been great to be along for the ride!
I look forward to seeing what P.G. Bell comes up with next!

Returning the Book of Power which had been borrowed for a few thousand years, was the mission for Suzy and Wilmot.
The challenge was mighty! This massive responsibility led to the pursuit of evil Lord who had been controlling the Union. .
An amazing sequel to The Train to Impossible places had me and my ten year old son on the edge of our seats.
We were gripped and thrilled by the adventure!
Recommended to all readers aged 9+
thanks to #NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ahead of publication in exchange for an honest review

What an ending! I was gripped from the very beginning. Having followed Suzy’s journey through from book 1, , I started reading this book with equal feelings of excitement about reading the final instalment and dread of it all being over!
Thankfully it didn’t disappoint and the adventure that Suzy and her gang find themselves on this time is the best yet in my opinion,
The ending was satisfying in terms of it tying up all of the loose ends and left no stone unturned.

Welcome aboard the Impossible Postal Express. Buckle up and prepare yourself for another wild ride!

When Suzy invites her new friends to meet her parents, the last thing she expects is to end up on another hair-raising adventure, with her parents in tow! We travel with the new crew members to a lost city in order to save the Union from a word-stealing book.

The third book in the Impossible Places series does not disappoint. The phrase action-packed doesn’t seem to cut it! Adventure ebbs from every page in this story. P.G. Bell is a master architect, creating new worlds, brimming with magic, with ease. The reader feels as if they are on an actual train journey looking out upon a world of impossible places. It’s immerse, refreshing and totally unique.

Delivery to the Lost City was fast-paced, unpredictable and gripping. Bell’s imagination is seemingly-endless. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and very much hope it’s not my final meeting with Suzy, Wilmot & Co.

What a simply delightful book.

We are back with Suzy, Wilmot and the gang for another adventure and their most daring delivery to date. We are back with the whole gang but this time we have Suzy’s parents in tow too.

This book is as cracking as the rest in the series - the characters are wonderful, the story and one liners are as witty as you’d expect from PG Bell.

Highly recommended to all.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley and Usborne in return for an honest review.

This is the third and final installment in the Trains to Impossible Places series. The story begins with Suzie trying to convince her parents that her job as a deputy postal operative is perfectly safe. This becomes increasingly difficult when the crew of the Belle de Loin are urgently called upon to return an overdue library book which takes the concept of fines for late returns to a whole new level! Not only is the book alive and dangerous, but the world to which is needs to be return vanished many, many years ago. Suzie and her friends need to achieve the impossible: find a lost city; return the book before it does irreversible damage; and convince Suzie's parents not to ground her for the rest of her life!

I always love the writing style in these books. The humour and word play makes me laugh out loud and as with the previous books, I look forward to the moments when children 'get' the joke and then explain to me why it is funny.

This book has just as much danger and adventure as the other two and it was made even better by getting to see some familiar faces from previous books return. I particularly liked having Suzie's parents more involved in the story. The tendency in middle grade to conveniently remove the parent so adventures can take place, means we don't often get to see honest and genuine parent/child relationships. It was great to see how much they both cared for Suzie while also seeing their mixture of awe and fear at discovering that the Impossible Places exist.

An interesting theme that was touched on in this book was how fake news can be used to create a culture of fear and suspicion. After reading this book, you could have some great discussions about evaluating news sources and the harm prejudice views can cause. I love when the fantasy genre provides a medium to explore these ideas and allows the readers to make links to real-life situations (obviously reading about real-life events is also important).

This book was a great conclusion to the trilogy and readers 8+ will enjoy the mystery and the adventure.

Suzy’s parents are none too keen on her weekend activities as a postie on the Impossible Postal Express, so to reassure them, she invites the crew of the Belle de Loin to dinner at her house one Friday evening. Plans are quickly thrown into disarray however, as a message summons the crew to the Ivory Tower for A Gold Stamp Special – the first Wilmot the postmaster has ever had. The delivery is an overdue book, which is threatening the very existence of the library at the Ivory Tower. Unfortunately, no-one can locate the delivery address Hydroborea, which has been missing for a long time.
A frantic race against time ensues, involving crossing voids between worlds, carrying a ghost in a skull and being imprisoned by a kraken. Slapstick humour, madcap adventure, and generated by the eccentric characters and their interactions are described so vividly that the novel plays like a film before your eyes. Suzy’s relationship with her parents is depicted realistically and with humour, whilst the action takes place entirely in the fantasy mix of magic and science fiction that is the world of the Impossible Places.
Entertaining, funny and totally enjoyable.

The final instalment in the Train to Impossible places. I enjoyed Delivery to the Lost City. In this adventure, Suzy is trying to make her parents warm up to her role as a Postie and to get their permission to work part time at the Postal express. The trolls —Stonker and Flinch — visit with a lovely present (!) to talk things over with Suzy's parents. But suddenly they are thrown into an impossible delivery and called to be Ivory tower on emergency. They includes Suzy's parents too! There is a book that was loaned to the Tower and it has to be returned to a 'lost' city before the due date. This book 'The Book of Power' eats words, so words are disappearing from the world —including books from the library and the delivery forms of the postal express.

Suzy's parent's being in the train add to the anxiety element in the book. They are amazed by the new world they are witnessing but also incredibly scared for Lucy. It is cute to see them having differences in opinion among themselves. There are ghosts attached to ships, demons, eyes of storms, frog armies, evil magicians and all the fun. It was nice to note how the book uses the theme of spreadig fake news and suppressing truths. I enjoyed this lesser than the earlier books though, probably because there were less of trolls —those are the funniest guys! So this is less funny than the earlier books. Overall, worth a read and an adventurous postal delivery. I am glad to see a trilogy ending well. Looking forward to see what P. G. Bell has in store next.

Delivery to the Lost City is the third book in the trilogy by P G Bell. The first book had me hooked in that it didn't defer to vague references of 'magic' to explain the unexpected, but rather shrugged it off, saying that in our world we have physics; in other worlds they have fuzzics.
Delivery to the Lost City returns to the characters and situations that the previous books have set up, but with the very realistic problem that Suzy's parents are onto her. Now she's got them in tow, chaperoning while she and the crew of the Impossible Express try to save the world again. From the beginning the twists on our reality are some of the most un-selfconsciously creative I've seen: the overdue library book from the lost city is fantastic.
P G Bell's stories are original, imaginative and gripping. I love these and I've loved hand-selling them to countless parents and children as intelligent and funny, but safe for the child who's not ready to face mature topics. I look forward to seeing much more from him. Thank you for the books!

P. G. Bell's Delivery to the Lost City is the thrilling conclusion to the Train to Impossible Places trilogy, the most magical of middle-grade adventures. There’s magic at every stop as Suzy and Wilmot embark on their most daring and dangerous delivery yet, to return an overdue library book to a mysterious lost world. It’s a race against time to get the book back to its rightful owner before it drains the Impossible Places of all its words and knowledge forever, and with Suzy’s anxious parents along for the ride and fearsome foes at every turn, it certainly pushes the Impossible Postal Service to its limits.

I have been a fan of this series since reading the first two books with my son. There’s something so wonderful about the way they are written that makes them an absolute dream for any adult to read aloud. The language that P .G. Bell uses throughout shows a great level of respect for children as readers and listeners, giving them a real insight into his seemingly limitless imagination. I just love the names, the creatures, the far-fetched concepts and especially the subtle nods to a certain Time Lord’s adventures that are enough to raise a smile from any self-respecting Whovian. Team all of this with the dazzlingly-quirky illustrations by Flavia Sorrentino that bring the story to life, and what you’ve got here is a truly spell-binding read that will grip you from start to finish.

Suzy is every bit the head-strong, intelligent and compassionate leading lady that the story needs, and her loyalty to Wilmot and the rest of the crew knows no bounds. Aside from this dynamic duo, the book also houses an array of other interesting and colourful characters. The villains are perfectly dastardly, with a few familiar faces rearing their ugly heads for the ultimate comeuppance. A highlight for me though was the Chief, the ghostly pirate who joins Suzy and Wilmot to act as their guide as they search for the lost city. His random one-liners and witty outbursts gave me a real giggle and will no doubt appeal to children’s sense of humour. It is these little comic moments sprinkled throughout the story that will stay with a child and really add to its charm.

While a part of me is sad that I won’t get to take any more new trips on the Belle de Loin, I feel that this book is a very fitting end to the trilogy. The series as a whole is one that I’m sure readers will return to time and time again, and one that will be treasured by families, earning its place amongst their favourite stories. So, while it’s Goodbye for now to Suzy, Wilmot and the crew of the Impossible Postal Express, it’s (Postie) hats off to you, P. G. Bell… you truly are the Master of Adventure.