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I always forget just how much I love Archer's Goon until I reread it.
This is one of the set I mentally classify as DWJ's Really Weird Books (which are of course all the ones I love best.) In it, thirteen-year-old Howard Sykes finds that a group of seven ambiguously super-powered wizard siblings are planning to take over the world as soon as they get rid of whatever block is stopping them from leaving Howard's town.
The block, it seems, has to do with some rubbish short stories that Howard's famous-author father has been writing once every three months, and all of the wizard siblings are now determined to get their hands on them -- and they are not averse to using their powers to do things like shut off all the power, dig up the street in front of Howard's house, send marching bands and disco dancers to harass them at all hours, and stop the family's bank accounts. Every member of the household has a different reaction to all these goings-on:
QUENTIN, HOWARD'S FATHER: storms around shouting dramatically about MEGALOMANIAC WIZARDS and how AS A TAXPAYER and CITIZEN OF THE WORLD it is his bound duty to not write any magical words for anyone! He must TAKE A STAND!
CATRIONA, HOWARD'S MOTHER: is very, very unimpressed with all these wizard shenanigans, until it turns out that super-powered wizards could potentially cause her to lose her job, at which point she becomes very unimpressed with Quentin
AWFUL, HOWARD'S BRATTY LITTLE SISTER: seems to have discovered a new joy in life, which is to be as bratty and terrible as possible to every single super-powered wizard that she meets
FIFI, AWFUL'S FRAZZLED BABYSITTER: is not very comfortable with all these goings-on, until she meets Archer, the sexy oldest wizard brother, and suddenly becomes a little too comfortable with these goings-on
THE GOON: is a tower of strength in their time of crisis! For the record, the Goon does not properly belong to the household; he's a giant gorilla of a person who shows up as Phase 1 of the Campaign to Acquire Quentin's Words and sort of amiably refuses to leave until Quentin produces some words for Archer. Eventually, since there seems no getting rid of him, they make him up a bed on the sofa and set him to running errands and barbecuing in the backyard
You may have noticed something especially unusual about this description now: Howard's parents ALSO have to cope with 'surprise, there's magic!' This is something I feel I always want to see in kids' novels and never do; usually it's the kids' jobs to take care of everything while the parents remain oblivious. Archer's Goon is emphatically NOT THIS. It is, instead, very much a book about families, and how some things about the ways families interact remain the same no matter what the circumstances -- not just with Howard's family, but with super-powered wizard siblings, too, who have a complex family dynamic all their own.
Also, Quentin and Catriona are also probably my favorite set of parents in a DWJ book. They're completely human and super flawed, and prone to tremendous arguments, and not always particularly great people, but the fact that they really love their kids is never in doubt.
Ahhh, Archer's Goon! I LOVE IT SO MUCH. I mean, it's not perfect, and the ending is horrendously unfair to Fifi and those two poor Shine minions who get sent off with them -- but especially Fifi! She needs an Archer intervention, not a honeymoon trip off the planet -- but, I mean, no one is saying that anyone involved in making these decisions are actually good people, and I love all the characters too much anyway to care. (Also, where is all the fic about [SPOILER] coming and inviting Awful to rule the world?)
This entry is cross-posted at Livejournal from http://skygiants.dreamwidth.org/326608.html. Please feel free to comment here or there! There are currently
comments on Dreamwidth.
This is one of the set I mentally classify as DWJ's Really Weird Books (which are of course all the ones I love best.) In it, thirteen-year-old Howard Sykes finds that a group of seven ambiguously super-powered wizard siblings are planning to take over the world as soon as they get rid of whatever block is stopping them from leaving Howard's town.
The block, it seems, has to do with some rubbish short stories that Howard's famous-author father has been writing once every three months, and all of the wizard siblings are now determined to get their hands on them -- and they are not averse to using their powers to do things like shut off all the power, dig up the street in front of Howard's house, send marching bands and disco dancers to harass them at all hours, and stop the family's bank accounts. Every member of the household has a different reaction to all these goings-on:
QUENTIN, HOWARD'S FATHER: storms around shouting dramatically about MEGALOMANIAC WIZARDS and how AS A TAXPAYER and CITIZEN OF THE WORLD it is his bound duty to not write any magical words for anyone! He must TAKE A STAND!
CATRIONA, HOWARD'S MOTHER: is very, very unimpressed with all these wizard shenanigans, until it turns out that super-powered wizards could potentially cause her to lose her job, at which point she becomes very unimpressed with Quentin
AWFUL, HOWARD'S BRATTY LITTLE SISTER: seems to have discovered a new joy in life, which is to be as bratty and terrible as possible to every single super-powered wizard that she meets
FIFI, AWFUL'S FRAZZLED BABYSITTER: is not very comfortable with all these goings-on, until she meets Archer, the sexy oldest wizard brother, and suddenly becomes a little too comfortable with these goings-on
THE GOON: is a tower of strength in their time of crisis! For the record, the Goon does not properly belong to the household; he's a giant gorilla of a person who shows up as Phase 1 of the Campaign to Acquire Quentin's Words and sort of amiably refuses to leave until Quentin produces some words for Archer. Eventually, since there seems no getting rid of him, they make him up a bed on the sofa and set him to running errands and barbecuing in the backyard
You may have noticed something especially unusual about this description now: Howard's parents ALSO have to cope with 'surprise, there's magic!' This is something I feel I always want to see in kids' novels and never do; usually it's the kids' jobs to take care of everything while the parents remain oblivious. Archer's Goon is emphatically NOT THIS. It is, instead, very much a book about families, and how some things about the ways families interact remain the same no matter what the circumstances -- not just with Howard's family, but with super-powered wizard siblings, too, who have a complex family dynamic all their own.
Also, Quentin and Catriona are also probably my favorite set of parents in a DWJ book. They're completely human and super flawed, and prone to tremendous arguments, and not always particularly great people, but the fact that they really love their kids is never in doubt.
Ahhh, Archer's Goon! I LOVE IT SO MUCH. I mean, it's not perfect, and the ending is horrendously unfair to Fifi and those two poor Shine minions who get sent off with them -- but especially Fifi! She needs an Archer intervention, not a honeymoon trip off the planet -- but, I mean, no one is saying that anyone involved in making these decisions are actually good people, and I love all the characters too much anyway to care. (Also, where is all the fic about [SPOILER] coming and inviting Awful to rule the world?)
This entry is cross-posted at Livejournal from http://skygiants.dreamwidth.org/326608.html. Please feel free to comment here or there! There are currently
comments on Dreamwidth.