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January – April Reviews – scroll down for -
The Apple-Stone
The Ghosts of Austwick Manor
Alchemy
The House Called Hadlows.
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, 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.
The Apple-Stone,
by Nicholas Stuart Gray, Dennis Dobson 1965.
This was an old favourite in my childhood, but I hadn't read it for years. Then
it turned up at the library sale. Before I started reading, I remembered the
apple-stone itself, the gargoyle incident and the affair of the feathered
serpent. As I read on, the other incidents came back.
The apple-stone turns up inside a withered apple in a Devon orchard. It is
discovered by Jeremy, Jo and Jemima (Missy) and their cousins Douglas Macdonald
and Nigel Campbell. These two are known collectively as "the
clans". The apple-stone's magic brings things to life, and in the course
of the story elephant bookends, a lost glove, a stone gargoyle, a feather boa,
a knight's effigy, a broom, a stone ball, a cage of butterflies, a toy rocket
and a floor rug are animated.
So far, so normal, and in fact, things about The Apple-Stone remind me of other
books. The cousins spending time in the orchard remind me a bit of the
children in LM Montgomery's "The Story Girl" and its sequel. The
knight's story etc could come from Kipling's Puck of Pooks Hill. The
characters, thoughtful Jeremy, kindhearted Jo and feisty little Missy could
have come from many children's books of the period. Even the apple-stone itself
with its caustic but grudgingly helpful nature, its habit of telling stories of
the past, its desire *not* be be used and the fact that it gets heavier and
heavier each time it does magic is a dead ringer for E Nesbit's Psammead and
Phoenix. However, there are striking differences. The author expects readers to
be intelligent and doesn't feel the need to spell out every single thing. For
example, "the clans" are introduced without immediate explanation,
and Nigel's stammer is evident but never mentioned
directly until late in the book. There are touches of witchcraft throughout,
but the point is not belaboured. An old neighbour is, or has been, a witch,
Jo's cat Mrs Blossom seems to have another life and Jeremy has an
uncomfortable experience with a broom... it recognises his potential even
though he doesn't. Dad's old aunts are almost certainly witches and Dad and Mum
use puppets for children's TV entertainment. Douglas is an interesting
character. He has the potential for real violence and evil. His cousins
recognise and accept this, and bring him back from the brink. He is a most
unusual character for a children's book of any period, but especially for a
pre-Moon landing story.
There are also a couple of moments of horror - when the gargoyle Jeremy has
wakened from kindness turns out to be wicked and when Missy is hypnotised by
the feathered serpent. There is also kindness and a real sense of family.
Then there's the eerie story about the sheep - the children's beloved
chicken-hearted Great Dane Ragnar has been scolded and sets off to worry sheep
- he, like Douglas, comes close to the brink of evil and is brought back by the
children's intervention. There is irony in the style that is apparent only in
hindsight.
I'd be interested to hear other opinions of this book.
The Ghosts of
Austwick Manor, by Reby Edmond MacDonald, Margaret K. McElderry Book, 1983.
This is a fast-moving Canadian story with its roots in Scottish/ English
history.
Back story; A Scot named Donald MacDonald did a favour for Princess Mary of
England, and when she became Queen she granted him a house called Austwick
Manor. His daughter was married to a Spanish nobleman and fretted, so MacDonald
had a model made of the house to send to her. She died before it was completed.
Main plot. A Canadian 15 y-o named Donald MacDonald inherits the model, along
with mysterious warnings about the dolls it contains and also many ledgers and
account books. Don and his sisters Hillary and Heather live with
their mother and stepfather, who help them set up the model. At night, Hillary
(the narrator) and Heather are able to enter the manor and meet Margaret,
daughter of the first MacDonald, not long before her marriage. On
the visit they learn of a prisoner in the dungeon; he has cursed Queen Mary and
the MacDonalds so that every second generation will lose the father and heir in
odd circumstances.
The girls (and later Don) enter the manor again on subsequent occasions. Mother
(who is pregnant) and (step)Father get alarmed and Mother tries to prove the
girls are lying by challenging them to take her with them. They
fail, and Father hires a 19 y-o student to help transcribe the ledgers etc.
Meanwhile, the girls are afraid for Don - their own dad has already died in
mysterious circumstances.
The story moves along well and the characters are quite well rounded. There are
a couple of holes in the plot - the girls seem to come to conclusions rather
quickly. For example, they make one visit to the manor themselves, then try -
and fail - with Mother. From this they conclude that only MacDonalds by blood
can enter the manor. I would have expected them to consider other possibilities
such as Age, Belief etc. However, the twist (the ghosts are from the present,
not the past) is quite clever. I've read only one other book (by Barbara
Michaels) that uses that particular idea.
A pretty good read, although I do find authors who use their own surnames in
novels are a bit disconcerting!
Alchemy - by Margaret Mahy - CollinsFlamingo
2002. $14.95
Margaret Mahy is the author of two of my favourite books "The Changeover" and "The Catalogue of the Universe", so I always approach a new book of hers in both hope and resignation. I hope it will be as good as the two above, and expect it probably won't.
"Alchemy" is the story of school prefect Roland who commits a minor offence and is subsequently blackmailed (by his teacher) into 'taking an interest' in aloof fellow-pupil Jess Ferret. Reluctantly, Roland complies, but soon finds himself intrigued by Jess and her chameleon ways. Without giving away the plot (since this is a new book) I can still say Margaret Mahy revisits several themes such as influence, power, vampirism (but not for blood), transition and family influence, forgiveness and responsibility. There is also a sense of past problems casting a long shadow over the future, and something about the masks people wear. Like many heroes, Roland must leave the easy path (symbolised by his pretty girlfriend Chris) and take the stony climb (problemical Jess).
All these themes pack into a book 271 pages long, but Margaret Mahy's deft touch seldom falters and never allows the themes to overburden the story. The characters are likable, but human in their faults.
The return to so many of her earlier themes is interesting, and I was especially intrigued to find her using the name "Roland" again.
There are three small glitches that made me turn back and check... Roland's age is given as 17, (and he has a driving licence) and it is said that his younger brother Martin was born when he was 8. It is then said that Martin is currently 7, which would make Roland 15, not 17...
Then there is a gift of six colouring pens, a notebook and a bar of chocolate that is later described as "six colouring pens, a notebook and a muffin".
Then Jess says her parents take it in turns to be at the house, and later says she's waiting for both of them to come home.
Having fallen over these errors quite close together, I wondered if they were actually deliberate - if maybe Mahy was using them as a metaphor for the shifting face of truth, but having finished the book I'm inclined to think they were just - mistakes. Only minor, but still they do shake my faith in her editors a bit!
That said, the happy ending is a little bit too pat, perhaps - it is tidier than the endings of either of my two favourite Mahy titles. But quibbles aside, "Alchemy" is still towering head, chest and shoulders above most books I have read in the past year.
The House Called
Hadlows, by Victoria Walker.
This is the less-known (and less good) sequel to VW's 1969 fantasy
"The
Winter of Enchantment", which she wrote when she was twenty-one.
In general I sigh when reviewers proclaim that a sequel (or remake) isn't as
good as the original. It almost seems that it's said automatically. It is a
fact that a sequel has to work hard to equal or top an original, mainly
because the protagonist(s) has/have already undergone considerable growth or
loss in Book #1. The *plot* might be equally as exciting, but it's difficult
for the emotional /character component to strengthen, because the first book
will have done much of that strengthening already.
Good authors (and good books) build firmly on a foundation. Either a new
challenge tries a protagonist is a different direction, or else the original
menace returns for Round #2 with new and improved slings and arrows.
However -
A few books ignore whatever came before, and never mention that Toby fought
killer wasps last book... in fact, Toby might not have aged a day.
And then -
- there's what I call 'the Splash Effect', named after the Tom Hanks / Daryl
Hannah film 'Splash'. Splash 2 revised the ending so that "it can be
only
this way" became "oh, that wasn't right, silly us...".
Highlander 2
practically rewrote the whole premise.
'The House Called Hadlows' does admit the happenings of 'The Winter of
Enchantment', but it does so clumsily at best.
***Melissa (Selina?) has aged a year from 12 to 13, which should make
Sebastian 14, but the text harks back to the 'events of a snowy winter, long
ago'.
Then there's Melissa's uncle who 'is almost 100'. He tells her he's he
mother's half brother and 'your grandmother' (i.e. his stepmother) 'was only
a few years older than I'. If Melissa's mother is 35 or so, that would
make
Grandmother 85 at the very most... which is a good 20 years younger than
she ought to be. OK, this is nitpicking, but I can't see why the uncle
wasn't simply made a great uncle or great great uncle and be done with it!
***In the first book, Melissa, who had been trapped in another world for a
century, was finally freed - and Sebastian's new and prev. unknown
stepsister, whose name was 'Selina' looked like Melissa and had at least
some of her memories... yet had also been in India for some years.
Hmmmmm.
All that aside, the plot is another "banished out of the world"
story. The
wife of an Ancestor (not a direct one...) of Melissa rescued a prince of the
Elder Folk and unwisely asked for Eternal Happiness. The elixir of life was
duly handed over, but the Evil One caused trouble between the girl and her
husband and took off with the elixir. The girl was banished from the world
and her husband arranged to be sent after her - they were to be in limbo
until someone reassembled the elixir which had broken down into its four
elements - Fire went to the Underworld, Air into the keeping of Hermes,
Earth into the Tower of London and Water into the keeping of Pan.
Sebastian and Melissa, under the guidance of the prince of the elderfolk,
take it in turns to enter the world of myth or time and try to get a piece
of the elixir.
Some of the scenes are memorable, and the writing in general good (though
there's too much authorial Dear Readering for modern taste), but I think
Victoria Walker was better when using her own invented world rather than
mixing Victorian children with the devil, Pan, Hermes and the 16th C. navy.
I also feel there is too much tendency to make a statement such as "only
you
can go" without any evidence or proper explanation to back it up.
I do wish VW had written something more, though - she was about 23 when this
one came out and the only mention I can find on the 'net of it (or her)
seems to be via Neil
Gaiman and the DWJ list.
Sallyo.
