The Book of Dead Days is a novel by Marcus Sedgwick. It tells the story of a 15-year-old named Boy, a sorcerer named Valerian, a girl named Willow, and a scientist named Kepler. The Book of Dead Days is set in the days between Christmas and New Year, the period of time to which the title refers: "a strange, a quiet interlude, somehow outside the rest of the year, outside time itself." Plot introduction The days between Christmas and New Year’s Eve are dead days, when spirits roam beneath the surface of our lives. A magician called Valerian has only 4 days to live and will die on the dawn of the new year, he must save his own life within those few days, or pay the price that he made with evil so many years ago, but are no match against the great power pursuing him. Helping him is his servant, Boy, a child with no name or past, and the orphan girl, Willow. Together they dig in death-fields at midnight, and are swept into the subterranean city on a journey from which there is no escape. Plot summary The story starts off in a theatre in a city only known as 'Grand Theater'. Valerian is performing a magic trick using Boy's talent to fit into small spaces. Boy is Valerian's slave (Valerian calls him his 'famulus'). He is treated cruelly by Valerian. Boy, after the show, is sent to a pub to collect something from an acquaintance of Valerian's. This something is a music box, which the increasingly distracted Valerian assures Boy that he needs. The acquaintance, an ugly man named Green, walks to the toilet; Boy follows. The man is killed (although it is not clear what killed him, since the killer was shielded by purple smoke) and Boy takes the music box and leaves the pub, running into Willow. Willow had found out the Theater Director, Korp, is dead, killed by a mysterious beast named the Phantom. Both of them are coated in blood because of the deaths that night. They are both arrested and accused of the murder of the director. Valerian breaks into their prison and gets them out, taking both Boy and Willow to his home. Boy gives him the music box. Valerian plays it but is unable to discern the meaning. Willow gains his trust by working out the music box spells