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House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones
House of Many Waysby Diana Wynne JonesRelease Date:
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Charmain finds herself house sitting for a wizard, in a house where every door leads to multiple places, depending on which way one turns. Between the magic house and her new job at the royal library, she becomes entrenched in magic and the search for the missing royal treasury.
In this sequel to Howl’s Moving Castle, we once again move to a new continent, but we see the return of old favorites like Howl, Sophie, and Calcifer, as well as a few characters from Castle in the Air, namely Jamal and Princess Hilda.
When this book showed up in my mailbox, I excitedly pulled out all my Howl world books and reread them in anticipation of House of Many Ways. I probably need to reread it before truly judging it, but upon finishing it I didnt’ feel as much of a need to reread as I did with Jones’ other books. The story is complex, but not as intricately laid out as the first two. There were certainly plenty of things going on and creative magic, but still I felt like something was missing.
The best part of this book was the reappearance of Howl and Sophie. On its own, this book was a decent enough read, but not anything too special. I didn’t feel that connected or interested in Charmain. Howl on the other hand is amazingly hilarious. I was constantly giggling. Now, it’s spoiler time. Like the last book, Howl is not himself, but unlike Castle in the Air, the reader knows this as soon as he appears on the page. But, still, a bit of spoiler space before I talk about how amazing he is. After this point, the spoiler will be mentioned more than once. As soon as we see Howl’s other shape, we do find out it is him (well, within a few paragraphs), but since this happens about a fourth of the way through the book, I figured spoiler space was called for.
—Spoiler Space—
So, again, the best part of the book was Howl, Calcifer, and Sophie. Why? Because Howl decides he’s going to relive his childhood and spends most of the book running around as a five-year-old "angelic" boy. This of course drives Sophie crazy, who not only has to take care of their toddler son Morgan, but deal with Howl’s shenanigans. The baby was supposed to be left with Howl and Calcifer while she went to help one of their princess friends from Castle in the Air, but about ten minutes after Sophie arrives at the castle, little Howl (calling himself Twinkle) and Calcifer arrive with Morgan, pleading that babysitting was far too hard.
In some ways, I really felt like this book was just an excuse to write more about Howl, Sophie, and Calcifer. Nothing wrong with that, but then the plot and new characters that were added in didn’t really stand on their own . I think the difficulty I had just writing up a summary for the book says something about the lack of focus of the novel. I’d rather that Jones’ would have dropped the pretend of a different main character and just let the good ones glow. If she returns to this world, I’d really like to see a book about Morgan, all grown up.
Ratings Reasons:
Action 4 - The pacing wasn’t bad and there were plenty of plot twists and a bit of intrigue, enough to keep me reading.
Romance 1 - Okay, there is some leftover romance from the fact that you know about Howl and Sophie, but there is no main romance. Which rather disappointed me.
Characters 3 - I liked Charmain all right, as well as the rest of the cast, but I didn’t fall in love with any of them. Best part was Howl, Sophie, and Calcifer.
Overall 3 1/2 - Read it for Howl, Sophie, and Calcifer. Seriously, if you like the other books, you need to read it for them. But as an independent book, I just didn’t really care about its original elements.
Extras:
Diana Wynne Jones has written a million books. Well, at least thirty. I’m not going to list them all here. The important ones to know about though are the two other books that take place in this world, and those are Howl’s Moving Castle and Castle in the Air (June 2008).
Like the other books, Jones incorporates fairytale like elements into this world, this time looking at the more homey fairytales, with elements like weefolk and brownies. The two that are mentioned are lubbocks and kobolds, but I can’t seem to find any basis for the lubbocks online. It’s possible that Jones made these creatures up.
Parents: 10+ Nothing harmful, dangerous, or otherwise. Though they might think twice before they enter a room!
I can totally understand your review of this book The first book by DWJ I ever read was “Howls moving castle” and then i quickly read Dogstar,The 9 lives of Cristopher Chant” and The power of three.All excellent reads..but her later work is lacking IMO.Its quite odd how a brilliant author becomes less good the more writing experience she gets…Dont you agree?
Enough of my ranting…just a thought
crichoux reply on July 12th, 2008:
Certianly a lot of authors have a period of time where their writing has hit its peak. Sometimes its their first books, other times its after they’ve been writing a while and finally have all their tools at hand. But I agree most authors have a period of writing that I like best.
I read this one purely because I saw it as a sequel to “Howl’s Moving Castle,” and I admit I was expecting them to be the main characters, but alas, it was not to be. I still enjoyed it, because of Howl and Sophie, but I have to say if they hadn’t shown up, this story would have quickly been relegated to the “Don’t-ever-read-again-b/c-you-were-bored-to-sleep” pile.
crichoux reply on July 12th, 2008:
Yep, thats about how I felt. Still, Twinkle makes up for the rest of the plot.