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2000s (fantasy): Welcome to Ilir , a tiny desert world
The Boy Who Stole Time
What you need to know before your trail
When 12-year-old Krish finds out his mum is dying, he is desperate to give her more time to live. This leads to a deal with a devil-like creature to travel to another realm, Ilir, and collect the Myrthali – the essence of time itself.
Ilir is a tiny desert world where the days are a handful of hours long and there is magic and treachery on every corner. Here Krish is set three impossible challenges by the brutal King Obsendei to win from him the Myrthali. He joins forces with the razor-tongued, young girl-wizard Balthrir, who hopes to free her parents from the Black Palace; a living, breathing structure built entirely out of those subjects who have incurred the wrath of the King.
But as Krish battles these impossible tasks he may be about to learn that there is more than his mother’s life at stake as he gets embroiled in a blood-thirsty fight for power in Ilir that will push his friendship with Balthrir to its limits.
Travel Guide
Morocco
Morocco
Fantasy is all about inventing places that don’t exist. However, in this novel the author mixed a world of fantasy with one of fiction.
He spent a large part of 2011 in Morocco. Having visited the location of Aït Benhaddou and seeing how it had been the setting firm films such as The Man Who Would Be King to Game of Thrones, this crept into his mind as being a possible location for the book.
He travelled round a lot of the country and ended up in M’hamid (shown in red on the map), which is the nearest village to the great desert of the Sahara. Again, this vast landscape, very unique to the area, inspired him when it came to write The Boy Who Stole Time.
One of the main inspirations for the book were the desert palmeries – groups of palm trees. In the book, Krish travels to the magical realm of Ilir to collect the Myrthali, the essence of time itself, which he hopes will save his mother’s life. Walking vast distances, a major theme of the book, could only have been inspired by this place! The passing of time and the vast sense of freedom and space was what inspired him to make the days of Ilir short. Time spent around campfires on these long journeys inspired the kind of chats Krish and Balthrir’s on their journey around Ilir.
It’s a case of where fact and fiction mix in North Africa!
Booktrail Boarding Pass: The Boy Who Stole Time
Destination : Morocco Author/Guide: Mark Bowsher Departure Time: 2000s (fantasy)
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