SALLYO'S BOOK REVIEWS.
The Merlin Conspiracy,
Diana Wynne Jones.
H/C, 2003. reviewed
17/4/2003. 
The Merlin Conspiracy is a follow up to DWJ's earlier book "Deep Secret". It must be close to the same length, but was written for children rather than adults. Very little mention is made of the events in Deep Secret, and only two characters from that book reappear in the flesh. Indeed, (I think) only two or three others (Nick Mallory's deceased birth parents and his half brother) are even mentioned, which disappointed me a little. I'd like to know what had happened to Maree and Rupert.
Nick is still fourteen, I think, so the events
in "MC" must take place less than a year after those
in "DS". He is still determined to become a Magid, and his Earth
dad, Ted Mallory, is still attending conventions. And this is about all we
learn that pertains to the previous book.
Like "DS", the story is told in dual first person,
with Nick being one narrator and Arianrhod Hyde, (known as "Roddy")
the other. Roddy lives in Blest, which is another version of the British Isles.
London, Salisbury and Stonehenge and Wales all exist under those
names, but the King of Blest travels constantly about the land. With him
travels the court, made up mostly of wizards and their relatives, some of whom
have magic. Roddy is the daughter of a weather wizard and a witch, both of whom
seem pleasant and ordinary people (so far as a magic-user can be ordinary!). It
therefore comes as a slight shock, later in the book, to meet Roddy's two
grandfathers who are very far from ordinary.
Roddy is a little tired of travelling with the court, and
spends much of her time protecting her slightly younger friend Grundo, who is
dyslexic in magic as well as reading and writing. As the King's Progress nears
Wales, Roddy's mother gets a message that Roddy is to go and visit her maternal
grandfather at his manse. (Shades of DWJ's own grandfather?) Mam seems very
shaken by this, and Roddy agrees to go if Grundo can accompany her.
Meanwhile, Nick Mallory is reluctantly attending a detective
writers' convention with his dad. Tom Mallory wants to meet his favourite
author, Maxwell Hyde, but just as he's on the point of achieving this ambition,
someone murmurs "Off you go!" to Nick, who promptly finds himself in
another world. Without giving away too much, I can say that Nick is soon caught
up with a quasi-security force which contains a very large man named Arnold.
And yes, I do think DWJ did it on purpose. On the run, Nick encounters big
cats, a drunk, a beautiful girl and a most charming elephant, all three of whom
need his help. He meets an assassin, and changes the destiny of a city. He
encounters some truly horrible food and a clever world-skipping goat, as
well as an extraordinarily powerful man named Romanov.
Meanwhile, Roddy has been given a huge source of power and she
and Grundo have made some terrifying discoveries of treason and wickedness to
do with the new Merlin (the King's official wizard) and Grundo's mother and her
lover. Roddy desperately needs help, which comes in the form of a
world-travelling teenage wizard, the very amateur Nick.
The story, though long, never lags, and some of DWJ's most
felicitous characters flock its pages. Mini the elephant is wonderful, Sybil is
a thoroughly wicked villain. There is a pair of brilliantly conceived twins,
and a wonderful old witch in the mode of Howl's old tutor Mrs Pendragon from
"Howl's Moving Castle". There are echoes of many other books here too
- Roddy's grandmother could be a sister to the elderly witch in "A Sudden
Wild Magic", while the wicked, the weak and the untrustworthy seem to have
their roots in "The Lives of Christopher Chant". Human relationships
get a serve too, in typical DWJ fashion, with parent/child, sibling/sibling,
husband/wife relationships all under the eyeglass.
There's even another (and mostly benign) version of the
thoroughly unbenign thornlady in "DS", plus some hints of
"Archer's Goon" in characters who are really personifications. And of
course there are plenty of twists in the tale that I defy anyone to sniff out
ahead of time. I was taken totally by surprise on at least three occasions by
events and explanations that seemed perfectly obvious in hindsight.
A few points - I'd love to have learned more about the
panther, Gwyn and Maxwell Hyde, Mini and Helga and even Romanov. There were
hints about all these characters' backstories and origins that I wish I could
have followed up. The ending is marvellously controlled; a typical tightly
woven DWJ ending, but easier to understand than that of "Fire and
Hemlock" or even "Howl's Moving Castle". The last note is in a
minor key, hinting at something more to come, although, knowing DWJ, this
mightn't mean a promise. Then there are the salamanders, the dragon, the
beings, the little folk... all the wonderful ingredients used with such
precision that there's never the slightest hint that anything has been put
there for effect. This is *easily the best longer book I've read this year and
probably last year too. It would be most unfair to compare it with shorter (say
30K) books, so I won't.
* Having
considered that, I must say Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman and
Alchemy by Margaret Mahy were also excellent books.
SPOOK'S
SHACK - Wendy Orr (illus. by Kerry Millard.) (reviewed 4/3/2003.)
Allen
& Unwin 2003.
Finn is
between worlds. His old house has been sold, and his parents have flown to 'the
biggest city in the world' to choose a flat. Finn is left to spend the hiatus
with his mother's aunt, Agatha Greene. Agatha lives on a bush block between a
farm belt and Boris Banks' mansion. She tells Finn to watch out for snakes,
explains the procedures for surviving a bush fire and basically leaves him to
himself.
Down in
the bush, Finn discovers a fire-singed shack. When he enters, he wakes
the inhabitants; an old swagman, Jack Henry, and his collie, Nipper. Jack
and Nipper are surprised to find themselves waking as ghosts, but they discover
that swallowing green fungus from the inside of the shack renders them easily
visible.
Finn
makes friends with the odd pair, and together they rescue a joey wallaby, foil
the land-grabbing Boris Banks' plans to foreclose on Aunt Agatha, and preserve
her house from a fire.
The
plot may sound like a standard bush/fantasy adventure, but the style, the
themes and the deft interweaving of worlds and times sets this
novel apart as something rather special. The narrative is both elusive and
allusive, as Finn moves through Jack Henry's world experiencing the old
ghost's kinship with the local wildlife and introducing him to the modern joys
of radio, computer games and mobile phones. Their shared fascination with one
another's knowledge and skills is touching and very believable. Jack's
life story is one of wandering and betrayal, of a friendship turned to enmity
with Boris Banks' ancestor. The past impinges on the present, and
the various elements of the plot move forward in a dream-like way. At
times, the reader is enmeshed in Jack Henry's perception, either directly or
while he is recounting an incident to Finn. This led to me needing to reread a
few brief passages, just to make sure I really understood what was going on.
There
is humour in the story, but Wendy Orr has not taken the easy route of making
Jack Henry into a comic figure. As Finn discovers, Jack is not dangerous, but
allowing himself to become immersed in Jack's world is. The thrilling defence
of a goat and kid from a pack of dogs is a triumph - but the appearance of the
farmer with a gun brings real danger to Finn.
In the
end, Jack redeems his long-ago betrayal with a favour for an undeserving enemy,
but it is not the redemption that could send Jack into limbo…
Symbolically,
Jack casts off his modern delights, but Nipper is able to join him -
somewhere. Aunt Agatha has her happy
ending, and Finn is able to move on to the next thing; his life in 'the biggest
city in the world'.
THE
MOULDERING OF MISS HAVISHAM, (reviewed 18/6/2002.)
By Patricia Kennedy.
(Greater Glider Publications, 2000)
Y.A. paperback, R. R. P. $14 .30.
Genre -- ghost story: mystery: Gothic: romance.
A broken love affair has sent Stella and her mum to the refuge
of a café in Newtown. Here Stella mixes work with school, and dreams of
freedom. Life should be opening out for the sixteen-year-old but instead it is
closing in. Her mother has become
overprotective and slowly seems to be losing interest in everything else --
including the welfare of the cafe. Bad choices and bad luck seem to dog them,
and after a brief but shattering brush with death, Stella begins to suspect
that something, or someone, is behind their problems.
Stella dubs this Someone "The toxic ghost", but why is this being bent on destroying their lives? Could it be something to do with a kindly old woman who lived in the 19th century? If so, does Stella's history teacher hold the clues? Or what about Cara Chandler of Time Trek Antiques?
As Stella begins to unravel the mystery, the sense of unease grows deeper and more pervasive. Relationships with friends and enemies are overshadowed by a state of being that Stella terms "The Necropolis". Step-by-step, the impossible becomes real as Stella penetrates a labyrinth of lost and mistaken love, misunderstanding, misery, and lies.
In The Mouldering of Miss Havisham, Patricia Kennedy has produced a powerfully atmospheric novel, steeped in foreboding and in the sense of place. Chains of coincidence (that are really no coincidence) are deftly handled, and Stella is kept firmly at the centre of the story. Relationships, social standing, standards, and appearance are all important to the denouement, and are all kept beautifully in balance.
Intriguingly, parts of the novel are based on fact. Eliza Emily Donnithorne (whose life story Stella must piece together) was a real person whose story is said to have inspired Charles Dickens to create Miss Havisham.
The Chimaera Conspiracy, by Beverley Paine. Reviewed June 22nd. 2002.
Y.A.
paperback, R. R. P. $14 .30.
Genre
– science fiction thriller.
Published by Greater Glider, 2002.
The Chimaera Conspiracy is a fast-moving thriller set in Queensland in
the year 2024. Katya, the reluctant heroine, is the middle child of two
scientists and is not at all happy to be relocated from a farm to an underwater
colony.
The thriller begins with Katya's shuttle journey to Aquadome. During the
journey, she meets a man named Jerome to whom she takes an instant
dislike. Next, she encounters a
teenaged boy named Coen -- who seems to be hiding from Jerome. An explosion
follows, and Katya is on the run.
The action that follows is swift, tautly written, and pulls no punches.
Katya discovers unbelievable facts about herself and her family, but is never
given the time she needs to assimilate these. Whom can she trust? The
revelations follow mercilessly, as Katya and her new friends run for their
lives.
Despite the breakneck pace of this novel, there is plenty to think
about. Genetic engineering, cloning,
cross-species communication, ethics, nature versus nurture, and the true
meaning of family all form part of the story; death, redemption and identity
are also part of the blend. The background information is blended seamlessly
into the narrative; there are no awkward chunks of exposition, nor is the
reader kept unnecessarily in the dark.
This adventurous thriller is Beverley Paine's first published book, and
a very accomplished debut it is!
Reviewed by Sally Odgers.
More reviews to come…
Older Books Reviewed Books Read in 2003 My library
Background – "Gems Under Water" from Sallyo's Backgrounds.
