Recent Diana Wynne Jones Read & Reread

There are a few authors that, over the past few years, I start and then, for one reason or another (mainly COVID), time runs away from me. One of them is Michelle Paver, and the other is Diana Wynne Jones. The plan was to slowly read the Chrestomanci series throughout the course of 2019 and 2020. 

However, COVID hit and I got sidetracked. 

But, recently, I had the itch to read The Magicians of Caprona and, after a few pages, I remember that I tried to read the first chapter a few days after reading Charmed Life, the first in the Chrestomanci series. Now, I have a kindle bind-up of the series and this collection is in publication order, not series order (apparently, this is book 4 in the series, though in publication order, this is book 2). 

Set in the dukedom of Caprona where spells are slippy and the warring families of Montanas and the Petrocchis blame each other for everything that is beginning to go wrong. But the visiting Chrestomanci thinks it's an evil enchanter at work, but no one seems to be listening. 

I'm going to be honest with this one: I did struggle with this one. I didn't warm to the story in the way I hoped. I'm not sure why. I just didn't warm to the story, though one or two characters I liked almost immediately. 

But I am hoping to enjoy the next book in the collection - Witch Week - when I get round to reading it soon. 

Well... that was the plan. To read Witch Week. But when I saw the audiobook of Howl's Moving Castle had a discount on Audible, I knew I had to snap it up. I didn't exactly warm to it on my first reading as I put too much pressure to like it as this is The One. The One where, if you chatted about Diana Wynne Jones's best book, most people would say this. And, when I read the first time, I was a little underwhelmed by it. 

So imagine my surprise when I went into this and found myself enjoying this hugely. It's still not my favourite fantasy, but I enjoyed this hugely. The characters are vain, selfish but there's something wickedly delicious about this world and these characters. So much so that I was considering getting the audiobook of the sequel, Castles In The Air. However, I have heard a few things about that one so I decided to dodge that. 

However, I do have a few other Diana Wynne Jones titles on my kindle and, slowly, I hope to tackle them over the next few years...