House of Many Ways

Title: House of Many Ways
Author: Diana Wynne Jones
(C)2008
Publisher: Greenwillow Books (an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers)
ISBN: 978-0-06-147797-3
404 pp.

It's been a busy day here, but the weather is gorgeous and I've finally put my apartment to rights. I even borrowed a steamvac and did the carpets. Yay me!

Is that not the cutest cover ever? I'll admit, I don't have this one, but I saw it at Half Price books and if I ever find it in the clearance section, I will have to have it. My copy is the John Rocco/Paul Zakris design to match Castle in the Air. It's nice having a matching set of books, but every so often you'll find a duplicate in my library because I liked a certain cover. I'm weird. I know.

I still haven't figured out why House of Many Ways is considered the sequel. Morgan, Jamal and his dog, Princess Hilda; they are all found in the second book. So...yeah, I haven't figured it out yet either. I noticed the reviews were pretty poor for both of these books, but I enjoyed them.

The main character, Charmain, is a kindred spirit. She loves books as much as I do. She's also a bit of a rebel...once she's away from her mother. Her Great-Aunt Sempronia volunteers her to look after Great-Uncle William's house while he is away, getting medical treatment from the elves. (I never knew elves made such good doctors.)

Great-Uncle William turns out to be the Royal Wizard of High Norland, a country ruled by a King and his daughter who have a great love for their library, and no money. A wizard's house is always bound to be special, but this house is quite odd. It has a sort of trans-dimensional labyrinth running through it. Turn to the right at the inner door and you open it to find the kitchen. Left, and you're in the corridor of bedrooms that go on and on and on and...you get the point. The entire thing isn't even completely mapped.

However, the house is only half the story. By looking after the house, Charmain is given some independence, a chance to fiddle with magic she didn't realize she had, find out that being "respectable" really just means you don't know how to do anything practical, and helps to save the kingdom twice - once from a lubbock and again from a lubbockin. (If you're wondering what a lubbock is, read the book)

I'm so sad that there aren't any more stories with Howl and Sophie and the rest. There are still so many places that could be explored. Perhaps we'll be lucky and she'll publish another. If not, I shall just have to make up adventures for them in my own head.

Hmmm...that's not a bad idea. Until next time...

Castle in the Air

Title: Castle in the Air
Author: Diana Wynne Jones
(C)1990
Publisher: A Greenwillow Book (an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers)
ISBN: 978-0-06-147877-2
383 pp.

I first saw Howl's Moving Castle and fell in love with the characters. Hayao Miyazaki has produced some of the most beautiful animated films ever. That one is my particular favorite. I didn't realize at the time that it was a book by Diana Wynne Jones. It took me years to read the book. I was afraid they would be too different. They are similar and yet drastically different, but they are both wonderful. I'm thankful that I finally sat down and read it. If I hadn't, I might never have discovered the two other books Howl, Sophie, Calcifer and many other amazing characters appear in.

Castle in the Air is the second book. It stars Abdullah, a carpet merchant from Zanzib. As you might suspect from his name, Abdullah is from a place I imagine would be similar to the realms of the Arabian Knights. He comes into possession of a threadbare magic carpet and there his whole life changes. He meets a beautiful princess, he finds a genie...one would think his tale is just like Aladdin and all his troubles are over. But in typical Wynne Jones fashion, his troubles are just beginning.

I'll warn you now that those dearly loved characters, including the fantastic moving castle, don't seem to appear until the last few chapters of the book. I hope you are not disappointed in the twisted ending the author has fashioned for us. I thought it was rather ingenious.

Something I love about Diana Wynne Jones, is her use of a character's speech. Abdullah has the most magnificent phrases (not just one or two, but page after page of them). Here's an example:

"O sapphire among sorcerous beings," he said, "flame of festivity and candle among carpets, magnificent more by a hundred times in your true form than ever you were as treasured tapestry -" (p. 371)

And there's just something so...realistic about her characters. I adore Sophie's description of Howl. Those two are the kinds of characters I truly love.

"He's the best wizard in Ingary or anywhere else. If he'd only had time, he would have defeated that djinn. And he's sly and selfish and vain as a peacock and cowardly, and you can't pin him down to anything." (p. 283)

Well, I will leave you with that, and I think that I will search through the stacks for that third book. I know I put it somewhere.