Derkholm duology: whimsical fantasy at its best
About
Dark Lord of Derkholm and Year of the Griffin duology is authored by Diana Wynne Jones. See also The Tough Guide to Fantasyland.
Diana Wynne Jones (16 August 1934 – 26 March 2011) was an English novelist, poet, academic, literary critic, and short story writer. She principally wrote fantasy and speculative fiction novels for children and young adults. Although usually described as fantasy, some of her work also incorporates science fiction themes and elements of realism. Jones' work often explores themes of time travel and parallel or multiple universes. Some of her better-known works are the Chrestomanci series, the Dalemark series, the three Moving Castle novels, Dark Lord of Derkholm, and The Tough Guide to Fantasyland.
Her work has been nominated for several awards. She was twice a finalist for the Hugo Award, nominated fourteen times for the Locus Award, seven times for the Mythopoeic Award (which she would win twice out of those seven nominations), twice for a British Fantasy Award (won in 1999), and twice for a World Fantasy Award, which she would also win in 2007.
Blurb
Dark Lord of Derkholm
Everyone - wizards, soldiers, farmers, elves, dragons, kings and queens alike - is fed up with Mr Chesney's Pilgrim Parties: groups of tourists from the world next door who descend en masse every year to take the Grand Tour. What they expect are all the trappings of a grand fantasy adventure, including the Evil Enchantress, Wizard Guides, the Dark Lord, Winged Minions, and all. And every year different people are chosen to play these parts. But now they've had enough: Mr Chesney may be backed by a very powerful demon, but the Oracles have spoken. Now it's up to the Wizard Derk and his son Blade, this year's Dark Lord and Wizard Guide, not to mention Blade's griffin brothers and sisters, to save the world from Mr Chesney's depredations.
Year of the Griffin
It is eight years after the tours from offworld have stopped. High Chancellor Querida has retired, leaving Wizard Corkoran in charge of the Wizards' University. Although Wizard Corkoran's obsession is to be the first man on the moon, and most of his time is devoted to this project, he decides he will teach the new first years himself in hopes of currying the favor of the new students' families—for surely they must all come from wealth, important families—and obtaining money for the University (which it so desperately needs). But Wizard Corkoran is dismayed to discover that one of those students—indeed, one he had such high hopes for, Wizard Derk's own daughter Elda—is a huge golden griffin, and that none of the others has any money at all.
Review
Dark Lord of Derkholm
This was a delightful read! The opening chapter was one of the most memorable ones I've read recently. It set the tone of the book nicely.
The characters and whimsical nature of the book were woven nicely with the plot. I did find some chapters a bit boring in the second half, but overall I enjoyed reading this book.
Year of the Griffin
The first chapter set the tone again in this wonderful sequel and I enjoyed this a lot more than the first book, perhaps because the academy setting continues to be a favorite trope for me. I wish this book was longer than the first one.
The central plot revolves around 6 students from various backgrounds - each of them has a different reason for joining the university. The teaching staff are competent/incompetent to various degrees. Magical shenanigans and the resulting ruckus 🤣 🤣 was the biggest highlight for me.
Other characters from the first book show up now and then. Overall this was a delightful read.
My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
What others are saying
From James Nicoll Reviews for Dark Lord of Derkholm:
Jones is juggling a couple of different goals here. She’s mocking the stock tropes of extruded fantasy product, that vast legion of books about rag-tag collections of adventurers who have to save their worlds from this week’s Big Bad. She’s also exhibiting a loving family, something that’s oddly rare in fantasy; one gets the sense that many characters spring up out of the ground after the spring rains. It would easy for one goal to undermine the other. Jones manages to balance the two quite effectively.
From Becca's review on goodreads for Year of the Griffin:
I really love this book. It's funny, sweet, and really ties up the story well. Maybe Jones did a little bit too much pairing off, but it's so cute that I don't mind. I also love the moon shot more than I can say, as well as the anti-assassin spells, food spells, and pretty much every other episode in the story.
Bingo
/r/Fantasy/ 2021 bingo categories (applicable for both books):
- Comfort Read (HM)
- Title: _____ of _____