Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell – The Stone Pilot

Title: The Stone Pilot
Author: Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell
ISBN # 0552554391
Publisher: Corgi Books
First Published: 2006 (World Book Day)
80 pages
Format: Paperback
Rating: 7/10

Synopsis:
This is an exclusive story, tracing the history of Maugin, the Stone Pilot, who Twig meets in "Stormchaser". Maugin is a trog, destined to change from a beautiful delicate creature into the fearsomely impressive adult termagant at her first blooding, due very soon. But an ill-fated trip above ground ends with her capture by Deepwoods slavers. Maugin's subsequent sale to a terrifying scientist could be the end of her - but for the actions of a young sky pirate, Quint Verginix.

Review:
This is every bit as enchanting as the rest of the series, telling the story of one of the characters largely overlooked in the longer books, although they played an important role in the proceedings. My only complaint is that I really wanted more! With this being a special short book published specifically for World Book Day, this was only ever meant to be a short story (a mini-adventure, if you will), but it managed to give a wealth of background information charting exactly how Maugin became the Stone Pilot and should perhaps be placed, chronologically, between the Twig and Rook sequences.

Absolutely charming and a must for fans of The Edge Chronicles.