In Of Two Minds, the first book in the Minds series of fantasy adventures, Princess Lenora of Gepeth and her fiancé, Prince Coren of Andilla, join forces to save the land of Grag from a despot. In More Minds, the couple embark on another rescue mission, this time in pursuit of a giant who is wreaking havoc in their own territory. The interloper is upsetting a state of civil order with a distinctly Orwellian feel to it. Lenora can’t resist an adventure and Coren would rather stay home, but he gallantly follows Lenora to see that she comes to no harm.

The contrast between the temperaments of the prince and princess adds to the comedy in the novel, but more importantly, it sets up a binary structure that is mirrored in several other areas. There are two kingdoms, two time settings, and two ways of using one’s mind to alter reality. There are even doubles of the protagonists, which heightens the parody of gender stereotypes in the original characters. The most interesting binaries are sets of competing ideas that the characters must learn to mediate between, such as mindless complacency versus knee-jerk rebellion and rigid order versus utter chaos.

The only pair that seems non-contrasting is the one behind the novel – the authors. Both Carol Matas and Perry Nodelman are veteran writers and fine stylists, and their collaboration here is seamless. The atmosphere of the novel is such that its profuse detail strengthens this sense of cohesion. The many intertextual references, jokes, and scenes of comic-grotesque disorder fit together nicely in this novel. On the whole, More Minds offers good, light fare: it is often more silly than cerebral, but it is very cleverly structured and definitely a page-turner.