dwj

Apr 03, 2011 00:19

Diana Wynne Jones, one of my favourite writers for over twenty-five years, died last week.

goons, gods and ghosts )

Leave a comment

makyo April 3 2011, 22:25:19 UTC
Thanks :)

I'm not sure which of her books to recommend first - they're all good (in fact they're all so good that I've never quite understood why the Harry Potter books have become so popular). Even the ones which are ostensibly for younger readers (such as Wilkin's Tooth or Black Maria) are eminently readable by older readers.

There are several (Charmed Life, The Lives of Christopher Chant, The Magicians of Caprona, Witch Week, etc) which feature a nine-lived enchanter called Chrestomanci. These can all be read individually, in any order, but some of them have little, non-plot-specific references to each other.

Lots of her books incorporate elements of mythology and folklore: Eight Days of Luke has Norse gods wandering around in modern-day suburbia. Fire and Hemlock is based on the ballad of Tam Linn. Archer's Goon is about a town being run by seven wizards, and the writer whose work is apparently causing them to be trapped there. The Time of the Ghost is pretty spooky, and is largely told from the point of view of an amnesiac ghost who knows that she's one of four sisters and must figure out who she is and prevent something really bad from happening.

But they're all excellent, really.

Reply


Leave a comment

Up