The Diana Wynne Jones Project

[swan_tower]

Okay, folks. So I mentioned a while ago that I think I'm going to re-read the complete works of Diana Wynne Jones.

How should I go about doing this?

She wrote multiple different series, and a whole lot of stand-alone books. Should I read them in chronological order of publication? That would, in some cases, break up series by rather large amounts. Read all the series first, then tackle the stand-alones, in chronological order or not? Go at it any which way, grabbing whatever tickles my fancy? I'm really not sure how best to approach it. The one thing I'm sure of is that I'll start with either Fire and Hemlock (beause it made me a writer) or The Lives of Christopher Chant (because it was the first one I read), but recommendations for what to do after that would be welcome.



For the first time, it occurs to me to wonder if my subconscious had The Lives of Christopher Chant in mind when it came up with the title for "The Deaths of Christopher Marlowe."

Comments

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I vote for "as you feel like it." Most of her series aren't all that closely connected, and don't have to be read together. I think the only real exception is the Dalemark series, and arguably Derkholm/Griffin and Howl's Moving Castle/Castle in the Air.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I like reading series together, though. It helps me think about the ways the books fit against one another.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Hmm. You might want to reserve the Chrestomanci series for later, then, since it has something like ten books in it.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Or do it first. :-) (Aside from being a bit disappointed by Conrad's Fate, I quite like that series.)