Book Review: Fugitives of Chaos by John C. Wright

Another exciting tale in the Chronicles of Chaos by John C. Wright. This book picks up right where the first volume left off, with the five students losing their memories of all that has happened and that they have discovered about themselves. They've forgotten that they are hostages preventing an interdimensional war between the forces of Chaos (from which the students have come) and an wide assortment of other mythological forces, mostly centered around the Greek gods. They have magical and pseudo-scientific powers that they could use to escape, if they could only remember that they had them and they want to escape. The only exception is Amelia Windrose, who was able to put a bit of a block to the blocking of her memory. She quickly recovers and rallies the troops to flee their English countryside school/prison, beginning a fantastic flight whose only destination is freedom. Can they escape together? Will their flight mean the outbreak of war on an unsuspecting human population?

The plot is fairly intriguing. I found the first book foundered a little under the wide variety of mythology and the pseudo-scientific explanations and arguments between the students. Both of these are somewhat scaled back in this book as the band of schoolmates flees their school on Christmas day. Human drama and exciting action take over. In addition to fleeing the school, they have to regain their memories and their powers, and figure out what their final destination should be. This novel is a bit of a page turner and I look forward to the conclusion of the story in the final volume, Titans of Chaos.