Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Ropemaker | 2001 | Peter Dickinson | Buy |
| 2 | Angel Isle | 2006 | Peter Dickinson | Buy |
The Ropemaker is a two-book fantasy series by Peter Dickinson. The first book, The Ropemaker (2001), won the Mythopoeic Award for Children’s Literature and was named a Michael L. Printz Honor Book. Its sequel, Angel Isle, followed in 2006.
The Ropemaker is set in a valley protected from the outside world by magical barriers maintained by two powerful magicians. When the magic begins to fail, a girl named Tilja and her grandmother must journey beyond the valley to find the mysterious Ropemaker, the only person who can restore the protections. Angel Isle continues the story a generation later, when the magic is again under threat. Dickinson, who was already well-known for The Changes Trilogy and his detective fiction, wrote The Ropemaker in his seventies. The books are denser and more complex than much of his earlier children’s work, with a layered magic system and a plot that rewards careful reading.