When kindness came from murdered ghosts and lost pigs, and the adults that were supposed to help you were monsters that walked like men… What was he supposed to do? It wasn’t right. He wanted the world to be different. [p. 111]
Oliver is, as his armadillo familiar Eglamarck frequently reminds him, a minor mage. That's true in more senses than one: he's not particularly powerful, and he is also just twelve years old.
The people he's grown up with, the adults of his village, have banded together and sent him on a dangerous journey to end the drought. (They waited until his mother was away! And he had been planning to go anyway!) Oliver understands the importance of the land to farmers; he understands that the villagers were afraid; he knows that the Cloud Herders might be able to help lift the drought and restore the land. But how is this right? How is this normal?
Oliver's journey is ... not without incident. He meets lots of interesting people: some rather odd farmers, a charming youth who makes harps, a ghost in red, and a plethora of irrational, brutal adults. There's quite a bit of violence here (mostly off-page), but it's not disproportionate to the story. Oliver is in more or less constant peril, and without his familiar (to whom he's utterly devoted, and it's mutual) this would be a very short book. (It's actually a novella.)
I found it an enjoyable read, though slightly imbalanced: the first third is quite slow, while the last couple of chapters speed up to breakneck pace. Eglamarck is a delightful and wise counterpoint to Oliver's very credible adolescent, and also -- equally credible -- an armadillo, who has short legs, can't see the colour red and is certain of reincarnation.
Apparently there's some debate about whether this is suitable for children. I'd have devoured it eagerly from around the age of eight, though there are some pretty grim scenes. A key theme is Oliver's gradual realisation that adults can be just as scared as children: and that is an important thing to recognise, both in the novel and in the world.
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