Jones, Diana Wynne - The Merlin Conspiracy

[oyceter]

This is set in the same universe as Deep Secret, though you don't need to read one to read the other

Comments

[kate_nepveu]

I read this . . . oh, years ago now, said "Huh" when I got to the ending, resolved to re-read it to see if it worked better the second time around, and never got around to it.

I've pretty much given up on it by now.

There is no author whose books I run so unpredictably hot and cold on like Diana Wynne Jones.

[tavella]

I'm the same. Things like Charmed Life and Power of Three, great love. Most of her adult novels, hate. But there's a great deal of scatter all around.

[oyceter]

I mean, the ending is neat, it's just... it didn't make all the lead-up worth it.

Yeah, sometimes DWJ completely fails to work for me, and sometimes I love her books to pieces, depending. Though this seems to have been a fairly meh book for many.

[rachelmanija]

All I can recall about it is that I was unenthusiastic.

[oyceter]

I really wanted to be enthusiastic, but it just didn't work out!

Though I sympathized greatly with Nick in the morning. i hope i am not that bad

[chomiji]

I quite liked this one in parts, but the "assorted incidents that feel random" comment is, sadly, bang on. I have a feeling that part of my relatively positive reaction is that I do like both Nick and Roddy. The whole Loggia City segment left me cold, though, and Romanov felt like a less pleasant version of Konstam from Homeward Bounders. It bothered me, too, that some interesting ideas were just dropped cold in a couple of places (Nick's spirit guide animal, for example), and other interesting ideas seemed to have been stuck in there just to see how they flew, whether or not they made sense to the story as a whole (like the flower-classification system for the spells Roddy picked up).

I did find the climactic scene pretty involving, but the whole thing does just sort of fizzle out at the end. DWJ always seems to have trouble with endings - Archer's Goon is the only one I can recall just now that ends in a satisfying way for me - and the problem just seems to get worse and worse.

I have her newest, The Game, but I'll want to

[oyceter]

The thing was, I really wanted to like Nick and Roddy, and individually, I did. But when the two met, I started liking them less, interestingly. I think part of it was because I couldn't tell their voices apart and had to keep checking the chapter headers to figure out who was who.

Ooooo, you have the latest! I'm still a couple of books behind and waiting for Pinhoe Egg.

[chomiji]

(FWIW - review of The Game now posted)

- Cho

[oyceter]

Ooo, thanks!

[oyceter]

I think I actually liked "Lives of Christopher Chant" better too, though I can't say for sure until I reread both of them. I love Millie!

[rayechu]

Sorry to hop in, I was bored and poking around. I checked your DWJ tag, but I didn't see any mention so I figured I should just ask. Have you ever read Dogsbody? It was one of my favorite books growing up and I did not realize until shortly after all of the hubbub with HMC that it was a DWJ novel.

[oyceter]

Oh, comments are always welcome!

I read Dogsbody a few years ago, before I started blogging, and it's one of my favorite DWJs, along with Fire and Hemlock and Homeward Bounders and some of the Chrestomanci ones. And Howl's Moving Castle. Hee ^_^.

I wish I had found DWJ while growing up!

[rayechu]

Sadly we had a very small school library so Dogsbody was the only book of hers I read back in the day. Since then I have read Darklord of Derkholm and Howl's Moving Castle. I wanted to read the Chrestomanci Chronicles as I hear nothing but good about them, but the copy I got from the library was moldy and smelled really bad so I sent it back.

[oyceter]

Oh, I like Chrestomanci! I think my favorite is "Lives of Christopher Chant," though I haven't reread any of them so I'm not sure yet.