Utterly Dark and the Tides of Time: A truly satisfying finish to a wonderful trilogy

Utterly Dark and the Tides of Time by Philip Reeve

Utterly Dark and the Tides of Time (2023) is the third and final book in the UTTERLY DARK trilogy, and the reason I left it this long (I read the preceding books exactly one year ago) is simply because I didn’t want it to end. Once a Philip Reeve story is over, it can’t be read for the first time ever again, so you have to savour them while they last.

And in this case, as soon as I opened the books and saw two maps of Wildsea Island on the inside cover – one in 1812 and the other in 1971 – I knew the trilogy was going out on a high.

At the conclusion of the previous book, young Utterly Dark made a deal with her mother, the ancient and monstrous Gorm, a primal goddess of the sea. In exchange for the Gorm agreeing to destroy another dangerous god to save Utterly’s friends, Utterly will go back with her to the Hidden Lands, her mother’s watery home where few mortals have ever tread. She has been given a year in which to say farewell to her friends on the Isle of Wildsea, but now the spring has come and the Gorm come to claim her own.

But Utterly has made peace with her decision and goes without a fight, though her young friend Egg has noticed her distant behaviour over the winter and kept a careful watch over her. He raises the alarm at her departure, though he’s unable to prevent her from leaving on a skiff sent by the Gorm. Egg wants to launch a rescue mission immediately, but Utterly’s uncle Will Dark and his wife Aish aren’t so sure that Utterly went to her mother unwillingly.

It’s only when Will’s old university friend Frank Constantine turns up some months later with a seafaring vessel and a full crew of men that Will sees an opportunity.

At this point the story divides into three distinct strands: Utterly learning how to swim through “the tides of time,” and so accidentally getting stranded in the year 1971, Egg being sent after her by the Gorm in a desperate attempt to bring her home, and Will’s adventures at sea onboard the Acantha – all of which eventually wind together thanks to the time-travelling angle.

As a device, the time-travelling isn’t quite on the level of Tom’s Midnight Garden when it comes to being devastatingly clever, but Reeve knows how to use the tropes and expectations of the genre to his advantage. For instance, we get clues about what happened to the Acantha in the 1971 storyline, long before the chapters that follow the vessel reach their conclusion, thereby raising the suspense of what exactly Will Dark is sailing towards long before he gets there.

There’s also plenty of lovely “full circle” moments when the past catches up to the present and you’re left with that satisfied sense of completion, like when the last jigsaw puzzle piece clicks into place.

The vibes are very much “holiday seaside adventure,” but with an undercurrent of the ancient and mystical – think The Famous Five mingled with Susan Cooper’s Greenwitch or Alan Garner’s Weirdstone of Brisingamen. Pure bliss. As ever, Reeve’s most touching element is that despite the cruelties of the world and the randomness of chance, there are always good, decent people that one can rely on, whether it’s a gang of kids on bikes, a kindly old couple, or a wise nature goddess.

On his website, Reeve states he may return to Wildsea Island one day – until then, what can we do to ensure that Laika Studios adapts these books?