![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akashiverI heard via Neil Gaiman's blog that Diana Wynne Jones one of my favorite children's/YA fantasy authors, had just gone in for a serious operation. She seems to be ok, but given that I've been trying to convert my fellow Clarionites to reading her oeuvre, I thought I'd give a rundown of my personal faves.
# 5: The Tough Guide to Fantasyland: The Essential Guide to Fantasy Travel: A humorous roundup of every fantasy cliche there is, and an invaluable guide for fantasy writers who want to learn how *not* to describe their characters. Here's a hint: Silver eyes? Totally been done.
#4: The first book I ever read of Jones's oeuvre was Dogsbody.
In this novel, planets and stars are godlike beings who bicker and love and commit horrible crimes against each other. Sirius the Dog Star is exiled to Earth for murder. In a stroke of irony, he's incarnated in the body of a mongrel dog, and starts a search for a weapon of mass destruction that has fallen to Earth. Adopted by a friendless Irish girl (whose father may be in the IRA), Sirius learns about cruelty and love from the perspective of a mortal animal. Part beast fable, part mystery thriller, part I-don't-know-what. It's pretty awesome.
#3: The Homeward Bounders: One of my favorites in terms of all-time creepiness, this book begins with a young boy exploring his home town. After climbing over a high wall, he discovers a peculiar triangular lot occupied by a set of mysterious game-players wearing monkish robes. Given that he has seen THEIR game, he is "discarded:" We have no further use for you in play," THEY tell him, "You are free to walk the Bounds as you please, but it will be against the rules for you to enter play in any world. The rules also state that you are allowed to return Home if you can." And the boy is abruptly thrown out of his reality into a very different universe, doomed to become an eternal wanderer of worlds, and a secret enemy of THEM.
#2: Howl's Moving Castle: People who like the Miyazaki movie really need to check out its source material. This is one of Jones's "funny" books, although it has some creepy moments. The book begins with "In the land of Ingary, where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist, it is quite a misfortune to be born the eldest of three. Everyone knows you will be the one who fails first, and worst, if the three of you set out to seek your fortune." Sophie Hatter is the eldest of three, and through a series of unfortunate events, ends up having no choice but to seek her fortune. Things go downhill (and uphill) from there.
1) The Lives of Christopher Chant.
Hands down, this is my favorite novel in Jones's Chrestomanci series. I'm also fond of Charmed Life and Witch Week, but rebellious, adventurous Christopher is undoubtedly my favorite of her protagonists. In a world where everyone can do magic, Christopher is unusual in that he has no magic at all. None. But he does have amazing dreams, in which he gets to rescue people and escape dangerous enemies. Sometimes he dies. And while Christopher's dreams don't come true, exactly, they do start to have a strange impact on his life.
There are a lot of titles that almost made this list: The Power of Three, The Spellcoats, Charmed Life, Castle in the Air, Cart and Cwidder, The 8 Days of Luke, Fire and Hemlock, and Witch Week etc. But alas. There are too many.
# 5: The Tough Guide to Fantasyland: The Essential Guide to Fantasy Travel: A humorous roundup of every fantasy cliche there is, and an invaluable guide for fantasy writers who want to learn how *not* to describe their characters. Here's a hint: Silver eyes? Totally been done.
#4: The first book I ever read of Jones's oeuvre was Dogsbody.
In this novel, planets and stars are godlike beings who bicker and love and commit horrible crimes against each other. Sirius the Dog Star is exiled to Earth for murder. In a stroke of irony, he's incarnated in the body of a mongrel dog, and starts a search for a weapon of mass destruction that has fallen to Earth. Adopted by a friendless Irish girl (whose father may be in the IRA), Sirius learns about cruelty and love from the perspective of a mortal animal. Part beast fable, part mystery thriller, part I-don't-know-what. It's pretty awesome.
#3: The Homeward Bounders: One of my favorites in terms of all-time creepiness, this book begins with a young boy exploring his home town. After climbing over a high wall, he discovers a peculiar triangular lot occupied by a set of mysterious game-players wearing monkish robes. Given that he has seen THEIR game, he is "discarded:" We have no further use for you in play," THEY tell him, "You are free to walk the Bounds as you please, but it will be against the rules for you to enter play in any world. The rules also state that you are allowed to return Home if you can." And the boy is abruptly thrown out of his reality into a very different universe, doomed to become an eternal wanderer of worlds, and a secret enemy of THEM.
#2: Howl's Moving Castle: People who like the Miyazaki movie really need to check out its source material. This is one of Jones's "funny" books, although it has some creepy moments. The book begins with "In the land of Ingary, where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist, it is quite a misfortune to be born the eldest of three. Everyone knows you will be the one who fails first, and worst, if the three of you set out to seek your fortune." Sophie Hatter is the eldest of three, and through a series of unfortunate events, ends up having no choice but to seek her fortune. Things go downhill (and uphill) from there.
1) The Lives of Christopher Chant.
Hands down, this is my favorite novel in Jones's Chrestomanci series. I'm also fond of Charmed Life and Witch Week, but rebellious, adventurous Christopher is undoubtedly my favorite of her protagonists. In a world where everyone can do magic, Christopher is unusual in that he has no magic at all. None. But he does have amazing dreams, in which he gets to rescue people and escape dangerous enemies. Sometimes he dies. And while Christopher's dreams don't come true, exactly, they do start to have a strange impact on his life.
There are a lot of titles that almost made this list: The Power of Three, The Spellcoats, Charmed Life, Castle in the Air, Cart and Cwidder, The 8 Days of Luke, Fire and Hemlock, and Witch Week etc. But alas. There are too many.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-07-24 08:48 am (UTC)I pretty much share your top three, with the addition of Fire and Hemlock because it's the book that made me say "I want to be a writer," and Eight Days of Luke as the dark-horse candidate because it forever warped how I think of Loki. Then lots of other good ones. The Dalemark books didn't register that strongly on me, though; I think I need to give them a re-read.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-24 10:35 pm (UTC)Don't forget the harrowing Time of the Ghost, another one that packs a powerful punch.
Reading her and Robin McKinley when I was in grad school convinced me to expand from my narrow literary poetry world.
I met her once at a World Fantasy convention, and immediately went all fan girl.