The Pinhoe Egg

Title: The Pinhoe Egg
Author: Diana Wynne Jones
(C) 2006
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
ISBN: 978-0-06-113124-0
515 pp.

Think of a book as a glimpse into a character's life. A series lets to take a longer look and gives you the chance to watch that character grow and change. That's what I saw in The Pinhoe Egg. There's a space of time between meeting Eric "Cat" Chant in Charmed Life and seeing him again here. He's a little older now; maybe a little wiser. It's amazing how much I missed his character.

The Pinhoe clan and other families like them are old, OLD magical families that live around Chrestomanci Castle. The work their best to hide from the "Big Man", going so far as to keep spies at the castle. The leaders of each clan are the Gaffer (head man) and Gammer (head woman). When Gammer Pinhoe looses her mind (partly from a spell and partly from her own vicious nature), horrible things start to happen and soon the whole countryside is stuck in the middle of a family feud.

In the middle of this is Marianne Pinhoe. She's set to be the next Gammer even though she's too young and it's obvious that her magic is different from the rest of the family. These families use a sort of nature/herb magic which they call dwimmer. It just so turns out that much of Cat's magic is similar to this. Marianne, on the other hand, has enchantress level magic.

That was something I loved about these books. Not only did she make an interesting setting, but she made the magic different too. There are levels. Enchanters seem to be the most powerful (but there are only a few), whereas a witch or warlock are pretty much at the bottom (but there are lots of them). Chrestomanci and Cat, being nine-lived enchanters are the strongest in the world.

The egg is actually an egg and yes, it does hatch, but if you want to know what's in it, then you'll have to read the book. I was beginning to wonder why we never hear of brownies or sprites, gnomes, fairies, etc...and here she goes and uses this book to explain all of that. This is the last Chrestomanci book I have on the shelf. I'll be on the lookout for Mixed Magics and Conrad's Fate now.

I'll leave you with this quote from Ms. Jones...

"Each time I write a book, I try to say something new, with the result that each book turns out differently from the ones before - which surprises, puzzles, and pleases me in about equal proportions."