The Chronicles of Chrestomanci Vol 3 by Diana Wynne Jones
This omnibus collects Conrad’s Fate and The Pinhoe Egg. I was actually surprised the second one was already in an omnibus, as it’s pretty new.
In CF, a young man named Conrad, who is the son of a reclusive feminist writer, and whose stingy uncle tries to get Conrad and his sister, Anthea, to work for him for free. After Anthea manages to get out from under his thumb by getting a scholarship to a school far away (and never coming home for holidays, knowing traps will be set to keep her there) Conrad lives in fear that, when he turns 12, he’ll be forced to leave school and work for free in the bookshop. He thinks he’s planned it out so that he’ll be safe and in school, only to learn that his uncle has arranged for him to go to work at the local castle. Conrad, it seems, has bad karma because he failed to kill someone in a past life, and if he doesn’t find and kill that person soon, he’ll be dead within a year. At the castle, Conrad meets Christopher Chant, who has run away from his guardian to look for his friend, Millie (who ran away from boarding school) who he’s positive is somewhere in the castle. There, the two boys discover that the servants are far from the norm, and that very strange magical things are happening.
This one was pure fun. I really should find young Christopher irritating, but I don’t. Mostly, I think, because he has good foils-first Millie, and now Conrad-who think he’s annoying and treat him that way, even as they appreciate his good points.
PE returns to Cat Chant as he meets a girl named Marianne Pinhoe, whose family dislikes the “Big Man” (Christopher) because they’re worried he’ll interfere with their magic. As they’re very big on misusing magic, they’re probably right. When Marianne’s grandmother wages a sneak-attack magical war against the Farleighs, another family with old magic in the area, Marianne is the only one who realizes what she’s doing. After she befriends Cat, she gives him an egg she found in the attic, which eventually causes the secrets of both families to be revealed. The book is put forth as being Marianne’s book, and should be, but is more Cat’s book. I didn’t find Cat to be nearly as irritating as he was in Charmed Life, (not really irritating at all, actually) but I still find him to be the least interesting of the main children in the Chrestomanci books. I didn’t think this one was as fun as CF, but it was still pretty fun.
I’m glad to see that the various Chrestomanci aren’t being as casual with their lives as they were before (I don’t care if you start off with eight extra ones! Don’t waste them!) but I wish there were a few more positive parental and authority figures in these books.
In CF, a young man named Conrad, who is the son of a reclusive feminist writer, and whose stingy uncle tries to get Conrad and his sister, Anthea, to work for him for free. After Anthea manages to get out from under his thumb by getting a scholarship to a school far away (and never coming home for holidays, knowing traps will be set to keep her there) Conrad lives in fear that, when he turns 12, he’ll be forced to leave school and work for free in the bookshop. He thinks he’s planned it out so that he’ll be safe and in school, only to learn that his uncle has arranged for him to go to work at the local castle. Conrad, it seems, has bad karma because he failed to kill someone in a past life, and if he doesn’t find and kill that person soon, he’ll be dead within a year. At the castle, Conrad meets Christopher Chant, who has run away from his guardian to look for his friend, Millie (who ran away from boarding school) who he’s positive is somewhere in the castle. There, the two boys discover that the servants are far from the norm, and that very strange magical things are happening.
This one was pure fun. I really should find young Christopher irritating, but I don’t. Mostly, I think, because he has good foils-first Millie, and now Conrad-who think he’s annoying and treat him that way, even as they appreciate his good points.
PE returns to Cat Chant as he meets a girl named Marianne Pinhoe, whose family dislikes the “Big Man” (Christopher) because they’re worried he’ll interfere with their magic. As they’re very big on misusing magic, they’re probably right. When Marianne’s grandmother wages a sneak-attack magical war against the Farleighs, another family with old magic in the area, Marianne is the only one who realizes what she’s doing. After she befriends Cat, she gives him an egg she found in the attic, which eventually causes the secrets of both families to be revealed. The book is put forth as being Marianne’s book, and should be, but is more Cat’s book. I didn’t find Cat to be nearly as irritating as he was in Charmed Life, (not really irritating at all, actually) but I still find him to be the least interesting of the main children in the Chrestomanci books. I didn’t think this one was as fun as CF, but it was still pretty fun.
I’m glad to see that the various Chrestomanci aren’t being as casual with their lives as they were before (I don’t care if you start off with eight extra ones! Don’t waste them!) but I wish there were a few more positive parental and authority figures in these books.