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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Apr 2003, 480 pages
Paperback:
May 2004, 480 pages
A masterful weaving of mystery, intrigue and magic into a complex plot that's full of twists and surprises. In this astonishing novel, the characters' actions have unexpected consequences, and nothing in the multiverse is as it first seems. Ages 10+.
The islands of Blest keep the balance of magic in half the multiverse. If something goes wrong with the magic on Blest, it will have a ripple effect on many other worlds. Something is about to go wrong …
It all begins when the Merlin of Blest dies of a heart attack. Or was he murdered by sorcery?
Two friends, Roddy and Grundo, suspect a conspiracy, but no adult will believe them. When a boy from another world, Nick, blunders into the trouble on Blest, Roddy tries to enlist his help. But what can three children who are just discovering their magical talents do against the new Merlin, the Earthmistress, and the dark powers they’re calling up? The dangers are great, and if Roddy, Grundo, and Nick fail to stop the conspirators before they disrupt the balance of magic, the results will be far more far-reaching and destructive than they can imagine.
Diana Wynne Jones masterfully weaves mystery, intrigue, and, most of all, magic into a complex plot that's full of twists and surprises. In this astonishing novel, the characters' actions have unexpected consequences, and nothing in the multiverse is as it first seems ...
Chapter One
Roddy
I have been with the Court all my life, traveling with the King's Progress.
I didn't know how to go on. I sat and stared at this sentence, until Grundo said, "If you can't do it, I will."
If you didn't know Grundo, you'd think this was a generous offer, but it was a threat, really. Grundo is dyslexic. Unless he thinks hard, he writes inside out and backward. He was threatening me with half a page of crooked writing with words like inside turning up as sindie and story as otsyr.
Anything but that! I thought. So I decided to start with Grundo -- and me. I am Arianrhod Hyde, only I prefer people to call me Roddy, and I've looked after Grundo for years now, ever since Grundo was a small, pale, freckled boy in rompers, sitting completely silently in the back of the children's bus. He was so miserable that he had wet himself. I was only about five myself at the time, but I somehow realized that he was too miserable even to cry. I got up and staggered through ...
Neil Gaiman, author of Coraline
Diana Wynne Jones is, quite simply, the best writer of magic there is, for readers of any age.
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