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The DWJ Project: Charmed Life
Jul. 16th, 2011 12:37 pmSince I got a request for Witch Week, I postponed the Dalemark books in favor of doing the Chrestomanci ones instead. But never fear, I'll get to them all. :-)
After Eric Chant (nicknamed Cat) and his older sister Gwendolen are orphaned in a steamboat accident, Gwendolen, who is a powerful witch, schemes to have them taken in by Chrestomanci as his wards. But Chrestomanci refuses to let Gwendolen go on learning magic -- Cat, for his own part, doesn't seem to have any -- and so she begins causing trouble, and plotting with some rather unsavory magical types to boot. When Gwendolen pulls off her most spectacular trick, Cat finds himself saddled with the resulting mess.
This is actually the first Chrestomanci book, though it's third chronologically, and decidedly not the first one I read. (That was Lives, and then maybe one or both of Witch Week and The Magicians of Caprona; I can't remember precisely.) I never quite read it with the right eye, though, since I came to it as a Christopher fangirl, and accordingly process Chrestomanci through a lens that didn't actually exist when the story was written. Also, many of the things going on in the story were from the start entirely obvious to me, since I already knew the setting.
Despite me having that odd perspective on it, this is a delightful book. It has all the hallmarks of DWJ's writing, from the whimsy to the interesting world to the deft handling of some really, really unpleasant elements. But saying more involves spoilers, so behind the cut we go.
( Read more... )
Next up: Conrad's Fate.
After Eric Chant (nicknamed Cat) and his older sister Gwendolen are orphaned in a steamboat accident, Gwendolen, who is a powerful witch, schemes to have them taken in by Chrestomanci as his wards. But Chrestomanci refuses to let Gwendolen go on learning magic -- Cat, for his own part, doesn't seem to have any -- and so she begins causing trouble, and plotting with some rather unsavory magical types to boot. When Gwendolen pulls off her most spectacular trick, Cat finds himself saddled with the resulting mess.
This is actually the first Chrestomanci book, though it's third chronologically, and decidedly not the first one I read. (That was Lives, and then maybe one or both of Witch Week and The Magicians of Caprona; I can't remember precisely.) I never quite read it with the right eye, though, since I came to it as a Christopher fangirl, and accordingly process Chrestomanci through a lens that didn't actually exist when the story was written. Also, many of the things going on in the story were from the start entirely obvious to me, since I already knew the setting.
Despite me having that odd perspective on it, this is a delightful book. It has all the hallmarks of DWJ's writing, from the whimsy to the interesting world to the deft handling of some really, really unpleasant elements. But saying more involves spoilers, so behind the cut we go.
( Read more... )
Next up: Conrad's Fate.
