Despite his gifted parents, young Christopher Chant seems to have no magic of his own - except in his dreams. Here, he can slip into many different worlds - and
even bring items home, if he's careful about it. When his skills are discovered, his destiny as the next Chrestomanci, master of magic in his and other worlds, seems
assured. Only a nine-lifed enchanter can assume such a powerful role, as it's his multiple lives that make between-world travel so easy for him. But Christopher
doesn't want to be the Chrestomanci. He just wants to continue his explorations of the Almost Anywheres of his dreams.... if he doesn't run out of lives first.
Review
This was written as a prequel to a series of Chrestomanci books, wherein Christopher is an adult. Maybe that's why I had trouble enjoying this book; there was a
pre-existing body of material that Jones assumed I'd be familiar with. What really bugged me about this story, though, wasn't the world. It was Chant's intolerable
and inexpungible stupidity, especially when faced with all the same glaring red-flag clues that we readers knew. About a fourth of the way from the end, he finally
begins to wise up - a little - but by then I found it very difficult to sympathize with such a selfish little numbskull. The premise was moderately interesting, but
it was hard to stay focused on such things when the main character, my gateway to understanding and exploring this universe, was so willfully ignorant. After this
book, I no longer have any desire to track down the remaining Chrestomanci stories.
(I've seen the Chrestomanci books repackaged and sold in the "grown-up" Fantasy section. If this book's any indication, I can't for the life of me figure out why...)
For forty years, King Luther’s magical lands have been virtually enslaved by a man named Mr. Chesney, who hails from a world not unlike our own. His Pilgrim
Tours take residents of his home world through the fantastic realms for a series of staged adventures, from Bandit raids through Leathery Winged Avian attacks,
all leading up to the defeat of the Dark Lord. Though the kingdom’s residents are paid for putting up with and arranging these events, it is a tremendous drain
on local resources, and Mr. Chesney always seems to make out with a much better deal than anyone else. Nobody likes the despicable man, but he has a powerful
demon enslaved to do his bidding, and even the gods won’t stand up to him or his agents.
This year, the Wizard’s University has finally had enough. A delegation travels to the Oracles to learn how to rid their lands of Chesney once and for all. On
oracular advice, they appoint the first person they see to the position of this year’s Dark Lord, and the second person as the Wizard Guide for the final Tour
of the year. Unfortunately, the first person they see is the wizard Derk, and the second his son Blade.
Derk is a peaceful wizard, more than happy to stay at his home in Derkholm and create new animals like his sentient griffins, flying pigs, and invisible cats.
Blade, his fourteen-year-old son, is gifted, but entirely untrained in the wizardly arts. Even the Council knows the appointments aren't ideal in the least, but
the Oracles have spoken, and they're desperate enough to listen.
Almost as soon as Derk and Blade learn of their new assignments, things start to go wrong. Soon, all Derk's children – human and griffin – are forced to help out
in a Tour season the likes of which the land has never seen before. In addition to his own problems, Derk faces mutinous armies, angered dragons, local protests,
the seeming desertion of his wife Mara (assigned to be the Glamorous Enchantress for the year), and the possibility of a traitor in their midst.
Review
Long ago, I read and thoroughly enjoyed The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by the same author (pitched at a somewhat older audience than this story.) This
book is based on the ideas presented in that volume, and I must say that my liking of this story was greatly augmented by memories of the Guide. I wouldn’t say that
it’s necessary to read the Guide first, though – the tale stands up well on its own. In addition to the humor of the situations presented, Jones offers interesting
characters for us to follow in a plot that I didn’t find predictable in the least, delving deeper than one might expect from the superficially silly concept. This
is a very amusing book, and it reads quickly.
It has been eight years since Mr. Chesney's offworld tours were effectively terminated, but the land is still feeling the loss. On the plus side, all
the needless slaughter and energy diversion has ended. On the minus side, many places struggle to return to self-sufficiency, having depended on Chesney's
tours for so long. One of the places feeling the pinch the hardest is the Wizard's University. The former chancellor and most of the staff retired out of
sheer exhaustion after turning out countless half-trained, semi-competent wizards to serve as Guides for Chesney's offworlders. Sadly, the replacement
staff was all trained during those years, throwing the University into a stagnant state that mirrors its sagging funds.
The new chancellor, Corkoran, is far more interested in his plans for space exploration than his students, but realizes that both the University and his
moonshot need money desperately. This year's new students should give him some funds - all are from prestigious and high-born backgrounds, from the dwarf
Ruskin (dwarves are famous for their gold craftsmanship) to Elda, daughter of the famed wizard Derk (who isn't as human as he was led to believe.) Surely
their illustrious parents will be willing to pay a little extra... but it's not quite that easy. Most of these new students comes with problems of their
own. Inevitably, these problems will, sooner or later, find their way to the ancient University itself.
Review
I was going to cut this book a little slack on the assumption that there may be a third story in the series and this one's suffering from classic
middle-volume syndrome, wherein the middle book (or books) fall into a slump between stronger beginning and ending stories. The more I thought about it,
though, the less content I was. Jones presents some wonderful ideas and interesting characters, but then she doesn't seem to know what to do with them, and
the story suffers as a consequence. The plotlines become too scattered and hard to track, as do her characters. Much is brought up and not resolved to my
satisfaction, hence my hopes that there was another volume in the works. (Since Jones has passed away and there's still no sign of one, that now seems unlikely,
whether or not one was planned.) Some characters needed to grow or learn a lesson but never were allowed to do either, instead being shunted into far less
adequate conclusions. (There's also more than a whiff of sexism underlying the tale, which grew irritating.) The ending felt forced and illogical, with at
least one unnecessary event coming from out of nowhere when a far better solution existed with what we already had to work with. It read fast and was somewhat
enjoyable, but it could've been even better with a rewrite or two. Considering how much I loved Dark Lord of Derkholm, this sequel just felt sad and
unnecessary.
The islands of Blest, a parallel version of Earth's British Isles, control the magic of many of the multiverse worlds, though few outside Blest seem to
realize it. The Merlin is responsible for its maintenance, traveling with the King's Court to every corner of the land in a perpetual tour. Arianrhod and
Grundo also travel with the tour, both of them children of courtiers and mages who help run the Progress of Blest. When the old Merlin dies, they alone
see the trouble that soon crops up with the new Merlin, involving Grundo's greedy Earthmaster mother and a nasty courtier named Sir James. They must find
help to stop the conspirators from corrupting Blest's magic, lest half the worlds of the multiverse fall into black shadow.
Nick lives on Earth, but was born on another world. He lives with a man he calls Dad, but is really just another lonely stranger, a man needed a friend as
much as Nick needed a father figure. Nick has known about the other worlds and magic all his life, but until now has never managed to get to them. Then,
a stranger at a writer's conference pushes him into another world, and Nick's troubles really start. A man sent to kill him for something he may do in the
future, a case of mistaken identity blown way out of proportion, and a promise to help a pretty girl - Arianrhod - save the multiverse's magic await
him.
Review
This book should have been half as long as it was. It would have been shorter, had the characters not all been so irritatingly stubborn and the tangents
into unrelated ideas not been so long. I liked some of the imagery and many of the ideas presented here, but I couldn't enjoy my time with them because of the
annoying people, protagonists and antagonists alike. The ending felt inconclusive, radically altering some fundamental principles of the multiverse but with
absolutely no apparent repercussions for any of the main characters or worlds. I was strongly reminded of Jones's Chrestomanci universe from The Lives of
Christopher Chant, which also featured an ignorant little twit as its main character. What with the many worlds and near-constant travel between them, I
suspect that The Merlin Conspiracy was set in some part of the Chrestomanci world, as I got the impression that there was a great deal of backstory
to Nick and "Roddy" and their multi-world universe that I was somehow supposed to know about. In any event, I wasn't completely disappointed by this book, but
I was far from completely satisfied with it.
Diana Wynne Jones Greenwillow Nonfiction, Autobiography/Writing ***+
Description
In 2011, the prolific fantasy author Diana Wynne Jones passed away. She left behind three grown children, more than forty books, and countless fans of all ages. In
this collection of essays, speeches, and various writings, Jones speaks to her audience one last time, discussing her peculiar (and sometimes unbelievable) life,
her writing, and thoughts on storytelling.
This volume includes a foreword by Neil Gaiman.
Review
Though I've always had a mixed reaction to Jones's works myself, it's hard to deny her influence on writing. These essays offer an inside view of of her writing
process and influences, often tied in with her strange and generally unpleasant childhood. She also discusses her own career, plagued by Rules that had dominated
the world of children's literature, and other obstacles, not to mention a few incidental anecdotes and commentaries. Some of it made for interesting reading, but
occasionally the articles felt repetitious and downright tedious, especially when they assume an encyclopedic knowledge of her books (and several classical poems
and epics besides.) At the end is a brief writing by one of her children, which casts a different light on some of Jones's claims and indicates how complex (and
possibly difficult) it was to know her in person. Though I can't say I always cared for the personality I glimpsed behind the words, I learned a few things here,
and there's no doubt that Diana Wynne Jones forged a singular and memorable legacy with her works.
From the requisite Map to cryptic Gnomic Utterances, this guide describes the various people, places and things of fantasy realms. It creates a collective
"generic" world called Fantasyland, where the Management (authors) arrange Tours for you, the adventurer (reader.) This is a guide to your travels in the realm,
describing events you are likely to encounter, as well as the people you encounter them with and the places they occur in.
Review
This is a hilarious book for anyone who reads fantasy! Like the Nitpicker's Guides do for TV shows, it humorously yet non-maliciously points out the conventions,
clichés, and peculiarities of the genre. It also answers those questions which the authors seem to avoid. How can horses in Fantasyland be ridden at a full
gallop all day, never throwing a shoe or breaking a leg (unless Forces of Darkness are half an hour behind), and always behaving as reliably and obligingly as a
bicycle? Obviously, they aren't animals at all; they're some form of plant, reproducing by pollination (which also explains how docile stallions are and why mares
never go into heat.) Want to know the truth about your Companions? Consult the Guide's handy Color Coding guide for clothing, skin, hair and eyes to see if they're
good or evil, lost heirs or witches in disguise. How come nobody ever catches a cold or other disease unless required to by the plot? Obviously, there is a serious
ecological imbalance in Fantasyland, wherein there are almost no bacteria or other microbial life forms, so all sickness is magical in origin. I laughed the whole
way through, especially when I recognized so many elements of fantasy works I've read. Fans of the genre will love this guide!
Incidentally, Gnomic Utterance is the term applied to those vague analogies, quotes and bits of history that either precede a chapter or are spoken by mysterious
people (such as Mystical Masters, Crones and Tour Mentors - see the Guide for more on these characters) who inhabit Fantasyland. Usually, they have little to no
bearing on the plot, and they are in no way related to gnomes.
