Superior Saturday

Infobox Book |
name = Superior Saturday
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Garth Nix
cover_artist =
language = English
series = Keys to the Kingdom
genre = Fantasy, Young adult novel
publisher = U.S:Scholastic Press, U.K: HarperCollins Children's Books,

AUS: Allen & Unwin
release_date = UK: July 1, 2008 [http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0007175116 Amazon.co.uk: Superior Saturday (The Keys to the Kingdom): Books: Garth Nix ] ]
AUS: June 2008.citeweb|url=http://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=94&book=9781741145908|title=Superior Saturday at Allen Unwin Publishers|accessdate=4 March|accessyear=2008]
US: August 1, 2008 [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0439700892 Amazon.com: Superior Saturday (The Keys To The Kingdom): Garth Nix: Books ] ]
media_type =
pages = US:288, UK:323
isbn = 0439700892
preceded_by = Lady Friday
followed_by = Lord Sunday

"Superior Saturday" is the sixth novel by Garth Nix in his "The Keys to the Kingdom" series. It follows the pattern set by the five previous novels (i.e. Arthur has to deal with the removal of the sixth Trustee, Superior Saturday). Superior Saturday, like many books of the Keys to the Kingdom series, was first released in Australia, being released in early June 2008.The expected release date is July 1, 2008 in the United Kingdom (however people who pre-ordered with Amazon received their copy a day early), and August 1, 2008 for the United States. However Barnes & Noble released it on Monday, July 7^th

Character

Superior Saturday is one of the Seven Trustees chosen by the Architect to help Her manage affairs within the House, which is the epicentre of the universe and the first Creation of the Architect. When the Architect disappeared, She left behind a Will, stating what was to happen to the Keys to the Kingdom, and with it, the mastery of each demesne of the House.

Saturday was given control of the Upper House and the Sixth Key. Defying the Architect's wish that control of the House be given to a mortal Heir, Saturday kept the Sixth Key and the Upper House, and with the help of Lord Sunday convinced the other Trustees (Mister Monday, Grim Tuesday, Drowned Wednesday, Sir Thursday, Lady Friday) to retain mastery of their respective Keys and demesnes of the House. She serves directly under Sunday, and often makes rulings on things not under her direct control, using his "tacit" approval as authority. It has been revealed that she is the oldest Denizen, the most powerful and knowledgeable sorcerer within the House, and the third most ancient being in the universe, after the Architect and the Old One. She decried their collaborative experiment of having children from the beginning and (possibly as a result) resents being inferior to Sunday. For the last 10,000 years she has been hatching a plan to remedy this injustice and rule the House and Incomparable Gardens. She represents the sin of envy.

As shown in all of the novels in the series, Superior Saturday was the one doing most of the plotting against Arthur Penhaligon. During "Grim Tuesday" she ordered the creation of the The Skinless Boy. The Skinless Boy is a certain type of Nithling called a Spirit-Eater or Cocigrue; its purpose is to take the place of a mortal within their Secondary Realm. It also has the power to control the minds of anyone whom it touches, using the spores of a symbiotic fungoid. At the end of "Drowned Wednesday", it is revealed that she sent it into the Secondary Realm of Earth to take Arthur's place, preventing his return. Using its symbiont's spores to control the minds of Arthur's family and friends, Saturday was able to hold their memory of him for ransom, in exchange for all of his Keys, Demesnes, and any claim as the Rightful Heir.

Her latest move was to order an invasion of the Middle House during the events in "Lady Friday". She proclaims control of the Middle House; but as Friday did not legally abdicate her authority of the Middle House, Saturday's claim was false.

It has been confirmed that Saturday possesses the sin of envy because she is taunted by Sunday when he shows her glimpses of his realm. He is aloof and represents pride.

It was revealed in "Sir Thursday" that Saturday controls the Bathroom Attendants; Denizens who "wash between the ears" of Piper's children, brainwashing them. She controls elevators between the various demesnes of the House and also attempts to control the telephones of the House, but as these fall under the authority of the Lower House and the wiring of them under the Far Reaches, she lacks full control. She also (up to the events of "Sir Thursday") controlled the Army of the Architect through Thursday. Most of these powers have presumably been granted to her by Sunday.

At the end of Lady Friday, Suzy Blue gave Arthur a piece of paper, ripped from a larger piece, that was found by Ugham, and was given up by Ugham before he was destroyed by the Void of Nothing.

"For the last time, I do not wish to intervene. Manage affairs in the House as you wish.
It will make little difference in the end."
"S."

Dame Primus confirms to Arthur that the note is from Sunday, as Saturday would not have signed it with a single "S". [Superior Saturday p75]

The Sixth Key is a quill and the Sixth Part of the Will is a raven. This part of the will seems much more charitable than the others, being willing to help Arthur rescue Suzy. It is implied that Arthur has been turned into an immortal (though it is uncertain of what type), as his blood is a brilliant gold.

The Upper House

The Upper House is ruled by Superior Saturday. It is revealed that the Upper House is affected by constant rain; the rain contains particles of Part Six of the Architect's Will. Due to the rain, Grease Monkeys are needed to keep the Sorcerer Tower oiled to prevent rust. Part Six of the Will is like no other, it is divided into thousands of type letters. The Upper House is the only place in the House where Sorcerers are trained. The Upper House controls most of the phone lines throughout the House. As a result, Superior Saturday tries to stop the phone connection to the Lower House, The Far Reaches, The Border Sea, the Great Maze, and the Middle House, but is unable to do so because the wiring for the phone services fall underneath the Far Reaches and the phone operators are located in the Lower House.

The majority of Denizens within the Upper House work at desks situated within large iron cubes, with mesh floors and no ceiling. These iron cubes make up the structure of Superior Saturday's tower. The Grease Monkeys work the chains which lift the iron "offices" of the working Denizens, the purpose of this is to move Denizens to different levels when they are promoted or demoted; the chains can move the "offices" up, down, left and right. Each Denizen working at a desk has an umbrella, the colour of the umbrella is equivalent to the rank of the Denizen e.g. the Denizens near the top of the tower have Gold and Silver umbrellas, whereas the Denizens lower down the tower have brown moth-eaten umbrellas; which fail to keep the constant rain off the Denizen but somehow manage to keep the Denizen's paperwork completely dry.

The ceiling of the Upper House is actually the floor of the Incomparable Gardens, shrouded usually in clouds. Sunday constantly taunts Saturday by parting the clouds only for her eyes, allowing Saturday to see the realm she desires and envies. Saturday, for the past (almost) ten thousand years, has been building a tower with her private viewing chamber at the top while the other floors are slotted in below. The purpose of the tower is to reach and invade the Incomparable Gardens above, so that she may claim it for herself. However, within the Upper House are four large trees, located at the four corners of the Upper House, that are constantly growing at a rate faster than Saturday can build her tower. As these trees grow, the Incomparable Gardens move further upwards, irritating Saturday for the past ten millennia because they grow faster than she builds. Saturday's plot has been revealed in the first chapter of her book. Her sorcerers have calculated that if the Lower House and the Far Reaches fall into Nothing, then the four trees would grow at a pace slow enough for her builders to finally reach the Incomparable Gardens. This implies that she (as Dame Primus had suspected) planned deliberately to cause this to happen.

Plot

The book begins with Saturday discussing with her new Dusk (who was younger brother to Saturday's old Dusk) her plan to invade Sunday's realm, the Incomparable Gardens, which she has been trying to reach since the Architect disappeared, being envious of Sunday.

Arthur, returning to earth with Friday's captives, discovers that the national army (under orders from General Pravuil) is planning to destroy his hometown to prevent disease outbreaks, and uses the Fifth Key to stop time so he can find a way to forestall this disaster. He then discovers that he is now more than 60% contaminated by sorcery, and is therefore irrevocably turning into a Denizen. Seeing no other choice, he returns to the Lower House (leaving Leaf to deal with Lady Fridays' Sleepers) to find it empty and on the verge of being annihilated by Nothing. He barely escapes, reaching the Deep Coal Cellar, which is partially protected by the sorceries surrounding the Old One's prison. After finding Dr Scamandros in the Cellar, Arthur confronts the Old One, who has grown in power and has destroyed his clockwork jailers. He also makes a comment about flowers being the "harbringer of change" and that if Arthur is lucky he will also be given flowers... After talking to the Old One (and receiving no definite answers) Arthur returns to the Citadel in the Great Maze and plans a pre-emptive strike against Saturday.

Arthur hence learns that Saturday (as Dame Primus suspected in "Lady Friday") has deliberately destroyed the Lower House and Far Reaches to stunt the growth of the Drasil trees that lift Sunday's realm higher than Saturday can build. She believes that even if the rest of the House is destroyed, the Incomparable Gardens will remain. Dame Primus wishes for Arthur to fortify the rest of the House against the influx of Nothing, but is reluctantly convinced to split herself into two (Dame Quarto and Dame Septum) to administer the House while Arthur seizes the last Keys from Saturday and Sunday. Before she splits, Dame Primus tells Arthur how the Nothing which had destroyed the Far Reaches and Lower House could not be held off for ever and that unless Arthur gains the Seventh Key, then the House is doomed, confirming what Dr Scamandros said about the Seventh Key being "Paramount". Arthur requests Dame Primus to give him the "Compleat Atlas of the House", but Dame Primus evasively tells him that she does not have it. He suspects she is lying, but has no idea of her motive.

Arthur, accompanied by Suzy Turquoise Blue, infiltrates the Upper House using the Simultaneous Bottles owned by the Raised Rats, and find that Saturday is preparing her assault on the Incomparable Gardens, which are now within reach of her Tower. Finding that the Sixth Part of the Will is dispersed in the rain that constantly falls in the Upper House, Arthur goes to a holding tank for the water to reconstitute the Will(in the shape of a raven), but is separated from Suzy when they are attacked by Artful Loungers. Flushed down to the lowest levels of the Upper House, he encounters a force of New Nithlings, led by The Piper, preparing to attack the Upper House.

With the Will's help, Arthur disguises himself as a Sorcerous Supernumerary (the lowest-ranked and most terminally depressed sorcerer) in hopes of rescuing Suzy, but is caught up in Saturday's assault force. In the Incomparable Gardens, Arthur tries to take advantage of Saturday being distracted by Sunday's forces to call the Sixth Key to him, but is thrown to the floor of the Gardens by Superior Saturday's spell as he completes the incantation. The book ends here, not revealing what happened.

The epilogue shows Leaf trying to get as many people into the hospital's bomb shelter before the bombs are launched. Though she manages to make it, along with Martine and at least twenty sleepers, the others are killed as the bombs hit. The building starts shaking, and debris falls from the roof. Leaf yells for Arthur, saying that he needs to come back.

References

WARNING: This page contains spoilers for any readers who have not yet read the book.