Time travel, ancestral magic, extinct beasts—these are a few of the elements Shatha Ghanem weaves into Marine Stone II, the wildly imaginative follow-up to her debut fantasy novel. The sequel expands its predecessor’s mythological landscape, introducing readers to such wonders as deaf soothsayers, kangaroo disguises, and magical sisters engaged in metaphysical combat.

Following mysterious events in Chess Squares village—including the mass poisoning and subsequent magical sleep of villagers—the Lava family (patriarch Fergus and sons Flynt, Fire, Flicker, and Kai) find themselves embroiled in a complex quest involving the magical Marine Rose stone, which can summon extinct creatures and manipulate time. When their friend Mr. Thunderstorm is cursed by the witch of the woods, the Lava men must uncover long-buried secrets, confront unexpected betrayals, and harness the stone’s power to save Mr. Thunderstorm and the sleeping villagers.

As with her previous novel, Ghanem achieves moments of delightful, wide-eyed wonder amidst a sprawling—sometimes dense and unwieldy—web of storylines. When Maccabee, a prehistoric Irish Elk summoned by the Marine Rose, explores the Frozen Glitters realm, butterflies rest on his antlers “as if enjoying a high retreat in the air.”

Still, the prose remains the novel’s most significant weakness with its awkward, rambling constructions, improper punctuation, and clumsy phrasing: “‘There isn’t that alien about himto [sic] think they aren’t humans because they are or that they seem to be.’” Emotional moments suffer from a tendency to summarize rather than show, as in a pivotal scene in which Carwyn reunites with his son: “Carwyn’s meeting with his son was filled with a lot of emotions and a lot of questions which the young cave lion was bound to ask.”

Readers who can overlook the novel’s technical shortcomings will find a story bursting with earnest, childlike wonder that embraces its delightful absurdity and is firmly rooted in resonant themes of family loyalty and enduring goodness.

Also available in hardcover and ebook.