Behold the shrine to Diana Wynne Jones! You have entered the room that pays homage to my favorite author. Her books are unlike anything I have ever read. I read Witch Week in 1996 and I was hooked. I had to have more! Her stories are witty and fantastical (in ways you wouldn't expect) and filled with quirky characters. The quirkiness is one thing I like best about her books. It, along with her special brand of fantasy, gives the books a quality that is matched by no other I have read (well, Neil Gaiman comes close!).
This page could more appropriately be named "A Beginner's Guide to DWJ."
My Little
Diana Wynne Jones Page
The Chrestomanci Quartet
Chrestomanci is the title given to the nine-lived enchanter Chris Chant. There have been many Chrestomancis over time. The one before Chris Chant was Gabriel de Witt. The one after will probably be Eric "Cat" Chant. The job of each Chrestomanci is to control to use of all magic and make sure that no one abuses it. The post goes is only available to people with nine lives, who are very rare. Chris Chant, the current Chrestomanci is vague and debonair with dark, bright eyes and smooth dark hair. He lives at Chrestomanci Castle and can be called by someone in any of the Related Worlds by saying his name three times. He is usually called while wearing one of his magnificent dressing gowns.
Witch Week This is a good place to start if you haven't read DWJ before. It can be read out of sequence. This is a boarding-school story that takes place in an alternate world where there are witches, and where witches are still burned at the stake. Several students discover new powers and wreak havoc at the school, at the same time worrying about their fates. Finally Chrestomanci is called to help figure out where this world went wrong.
This book will blow you away!
Charmed Life DWJ says to read this before you read The Lives of Christopher Chant, even though it takes place 25 years after. Orphaned Eric "Cat" Chant and his sister Gwendolen, who is a witch, go from the little town of Wolvercote to Chrestomanci Castle, and Gwendolen is determined to go far. This book is fabulous, funny, and fantastical (pardon my sudden outburst of alliteration). My favorite line: "Miss Larkin wore a scent that shrieked VIOLETS! at him, her earrings swung like manacles, and her corsets creaked when she was close to."
The Lives of Christopher Chant
This amazing and often hilarious book tells the story of the current Chrestomanci's youth. Christopher Chant lives in a world right next to ours, which is more old fashioned and magic still exists. He discovers that he can travel to parallel worlds, is unknowingly exploited by his Uncle Ralph, tries to learn magic but is hindered by his silver tooth-brace, is found to have nine lives, and struggles with his fate as becoming the next Chrestomanci. Finally, he takes charge at Chrestomanci Castle and helps bring down the Wraith, a gang of otherworld smugglers.
The Magicians of Caprona
Two young people from feuding families (reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet) in the Italian States from Chrestomanci's World set out to save Caprona with the help of a humble duke, a cat named Benvenuto, and Chrestomanci. This book can be read out of sequence. I love this book because of Tonino's ability to communicate with cats, and the feuding scenes between the two families (COWPATS!).
Other Books That Have Sequels
Dark Lord of Derkholm and its sequel Year of the Griffin take place in a place that you will find sounds familiar if you have read The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, and vice versa. The latter book is not a sequel to either of the first two books, but a wickedly funny "tour guide" to Fantasyland. In Dark Lord of Derkholm,Wizard Derk's world is being exploited by Mr. Chesney's tours. The story centers around Derk, who enjoys creating & breeding new magical animals, as illustrated by his his griffin offspring, flying pigs, carnivorous sheep, Friendly Cows and other animals; plus the human family members: his wife Mara, son Blade and daughter Shona. Year of the Griffin is like Harry Potter in that Derk's griffin daughter Elda goes to the Wizards' University to learn magic, but the similarities end there (there have been many books about schools for magic, like Wizard's Hall by Jane Yolen and the Worst Witch books by Jill Murphy). Lots of funny scenes ensue when Elda and her friends begin to study magic from the books Derk told them about instead of the narrow-minded curriculum of the school.
Sophie Hatter gets turned into an old woman by the Witch of the Waste. The fun begins when she goes to live with the infamous Wizard Howl in his Moving Castle. Its sequel, Castle in the Air, which takes place in the same world, tells the story of Abdullah, carpet merchant and daydreamer, whose dreams come true when he buys a magic carpet. Although he has a little trouble with a genie and some djinns... (If you liked Disney's Aladdin, you'll love this!)
Howl's Moving Castle was made into an anime movie by fab Hayao Miyazaki.
Mixed Magics Four tales featuring Chrestomanci: Stealer of Souls, Warlock at the Wheel, Carol Oneir's One Hundredth Dream, & The Sage of Theare. Stealer of Souls is new, bringing together Cat from Charmed Life & Tonino from Magicians of Caprona. Others can be seen in story collections such as Warlock at the Wheel and Believing is Seeing.
The Homeward Bounders
I loved it up until the end, which made me kind of sad. This book was more Science Fiction than Fantasy, like Archer's Goon. And it reminded me a little bit of another book. Maybe The Giver. Uquar was like the Giver. But also, at the same time, it reminded me (a little) of the TV series "Quantum Leap". Because at the end of the show, they said Dr. Beckett never went home. He was like Jamie, because he kept on Leaping, just like Jamie kept being buffeted around in the worlds. Each Leap was like the stays in each of the worlds. I liked the character Helen. But Joris was quite funny at times, and I liked Frederick M. Allington, even though he was a skeleton.
Diana Wynne Jones is an Amazing Person
Ms. Wynne Jones seems to have a very interesting and unusual life. Many coincidences happen with her, and sometimes parts of the book she's writing come true. There's the travel jinx, and the places she gets ideas for books (not at the "Idea Bank", that's for sure!*). It seems that magick is all around her. Read about her at www.dianewynnejones.com Gateway to Elsewhere: the official DWJ site, which rocks.
Other Fantasy Authors
(aka "What to Read after Harry Potter")
Besides DWJ, there are a lot of other authors in the same genre that I like to read or have heard about.
His Dark Materials trilogy, which I just finished (and loved). It takes place in a world parallel to ours where people have "daemons," parts of their personality which manifest in animal form. There are lots of other subtle differences between our world and his, especially with the way things are named. They are making a movie of The Golden Compass. The others are The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. There is also the Sally Lockhart Trilogy, set in Victorian London, starting with The Ruby in the Smoke. I just finished the second book, The Shadow in the North. The final installment is the Tiger in the Well.
Susan Cooper:
Check out The Dark is Rising Series of five books:
Over Sea, Under Stone,
The Dark is Rising,
Greenwitch,
The Grey King
Silver on the Tree.
My aunt got me into these. Since fantasy is big these days, they are making a movie out of this series, and from what I gather it is from the second book.
Also, The Boggart & its sequel, The Boggart and The Monster, are fun books with a Scottish influence.
Lloyd Alexander:
Chronicles of Prydain books. Prydain is apparently the Welsh name for the island of Great Britain (also, I learned to pronounce Welsh from Susan Cooper, yay!).
There are five books:
The Book of Three
The Black Cauldron
The Castle of Llyr
Taran Wandering
The High King
I haven't read these yet, but I enjoyed Alexander's Time Cat.
Diane Duane: Starts with So You Want to Be a Wizard, which I have read - it reminded me a little of Madeleine L' Engle. There are a bunch of other books which I haven't gotten too, and hey, maybe a movie!
Jenny Nimmo: Children of the Red King Series - which can also be likened to HP, but I think the titles were changed to appeal to those readers, annoyingly. I love the Flames - three magical cats in shades of red, copper-orange, and gold. Also, I like that she puts a family tree at the beginning of each book. I would totally do that too if I got published, because I like to figure out exactly who everyone is.
Midnight for Charlie Bone
Charlie Bone and the TimeTwister
Charlie Bone and the Invisible Boy
Charlie Bone and the Castle of Mirrors
Charlie Bone and the Hidden King
C. S. Lewis:The Chronicles of Narnia, which I have since traded away due to the Christian overtones; Philip Pullman hates these books, and I respect his opinion. Also, I didn't like them that much, although I have the DVD of the first movie (and the BBC ones) and intend to see any future ones.
Tamora Pierce: Haven't read the Song of the Lioness Quartet yet, but they look like they would appeal to me because they are about a female knight, Alanna.
J. R. R. Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Suprisingly, I have yet to read these. I've tried, though, let me tell you.
Monica Furlong:Read Wise Child and Juniper. These are also books my aunt told me about, and I'm glad she did; they've become some of my favorites.
Jill Murphy:The Worst Witch Series more for kids, but very cute, and I love anything with witches, especially illustrated (these are illustrated by the author, I believe). Have been made into a British TV series and a slightly awful 1986 movie featuring young Fairuza Balk and Tim Curry (yay).
Eva Ibbotson: She reminds me of J. K. Rowling a little bit, in that she's British and the stories have a lot of magic and characters from mythology. I have read Which Witch, The Secret of Platform 13, The Island of the Aunts, Dial-a-Ghost, and Not Just a Witch; quite fun.
Gail Carson Levine: Ella Enchanted and other reworked fairy tales, (The Princess Tales, Vols. 1 & 2) which I love.
Dogsbody
When ones says "Sirius," if you're not an astronomer, you might think of Harry Potter's godfather. Which is all fine and good except that DWJ wrote this book first, and Sirius was the Dog Star. Sirius was framed, and as punishment, got exiled to Earth in the form of a dog. A puppy, actually, who, after being determined a mutt by a breeder, is nearly drowned, then rescued by an Irish girl. It's a great book. I love how he starts out as enemies with the cats, but then they become allies. And I love the "Hallo" dogs. That was funny.
The Time of the Ghost
What's with the neglectful/awful parents in DWJ books? And what's with the fact that I accept it as normal when reading? In this book, four sisters formulate a plan that will most surely cause their parents to notice them. They send Sally away and plan to say she died, while Fenella goes for the tying-knots-in-hair method. But their made-up goddess Monigan turns out to be real and wants a life. The ghost, meanwhile doesn't know which of the sisters she is. She realizes she's not dead, just displaced in time. For more examples of awful parents, read Fire and Hemlock. There is also an article on the DWJ website on this by Chris Hill.
Deep Secret and The Merlin Conspiracy
Howl's Moving Castle and Castle in the Air
The Crestomanci Books:
Books that Stand Alone
which pokes fun at Sci-fi/ Fantasy Cons. Also, my yahoo! screen name (rainkitten82) was inspired by my favorite part, when Rupert makes a mistake, trying to find the new Magid:
The address was in South London. That part I got right. But when at last I found it, it proved not to be called Rain Kitten as I had written down, but Grain Kitchen. It was a health food shop.
This is the question that every author gets asked, and none of us know, so we all have to make up something that sounds as if it's helpful. People are genuinely interested, I know, and it isn't polite to be facetious about it. For one thing, people don't always know you're making a joke. I once said in answer to this that I subscribed to Ideas 'R' Us, and someone wrote in and asked for the address.
But what interests me is why people ask. I can't believe that everyone isn't having ideas all the time. I think they are, actually, and they just don't recognise them as potential stories. Because the important thing is not just having the idea; it's writing the book. That's the difficult thing, the thing that takes the time and the energy and the discipline. The initial idea is much less important, actually, than what you do with it.
I have ideas all the time, and I continue to write, even though I suck at it.
in which Nick from the previous book gets catapaulted into another world, and helps save it. This book is awesome.
J. K. Rowling vs. Diana Wynne Jones
My feelings on the Harry Potter books are complicated. On the one hand, I love them, but on the other hand, I am fiercely loyal to DWJ and therefore preach to everyone who will listen that while HP are great books, there seems to be mass hysteria concering them and also, DWJ has been around longer, her books have more texture, etc., etc. I do look forward to getting home and reading in bed if it's a HP book, but I am a huger (that's not really a word) fan of DWJ and buy different editions of her books, which I devour over and over. I maintain that Harry Potter is overexposed and I am glad that DWJ has not sold the rights to say, Chrestomanci, to Warner Bros. He might come out wrong.
*The Idea Bank
I remember reading something DWJ had written, in answer to someone's question, on the website. She was saying that the question of "where you get your ideas from" makes it sound like there is a Bank of Ideas that exists somewhere, and whenever you needed one, you would make a withdrawal. I can't find that now, but I did find this:
The most frequent question of all is almost as hard to answer: Where do you get your ideas? It is almost unfailingly asked by unfortunate people of ten to thirteen years old whose teacher has made them do a project. My very favourite form of it was asked by a twelve-year-old: Where do you get your ideas, or do you think of them for yourself?
WHAT'S NEW TO THIS AREA
January 2008: I love Neil Gaiman (Stardust, American Gods, Neverwhere, Good Omens), Connie Willis (Doomsday Book, Impossible Things), and Ursula K. LeGuin (The Left Hand of Darkness, Changing Planes, Gifts, The Word for World is Forest, The Lathe of Heaven). Did you know that Neil Gaiman is friends with Diana Wynne Jones?
I also still love Susan Cooper, and I read the Dark is Rising series again...
I'm on the last book. I haven't see the movie yet.
September 2007: The cat Sara and I call Loki made me want to read Eight Days of Luke again, so I did. Then I read The Power of Three for the first time and loved it, and too soon I started on Ursula K. LeGuin's Gifts, and as a result I kept thinking I was still reading The Power of Three. I forgot you have to let them sink in.
A lot of DWJ's books feature cats. And not always cute and cuddly ones, either: In Charmed Life, Gwendolen turns her brother's fiddle into a cat; in The Lives of Christopher Chant, young Christopher is instructed to take an Asheth temple cat from another world. Throgmorten is his name: an ugly, bad-tempered ginger tom who says "wong". I love Throgmorten. Also, in The Magicians of Caprona, Tonino can communicate with a tom named Benvenuto. Short stories featuring cats can be found in Unexpected Magics: Little Dot and What the Cat Told Me (one of my favorites).
