Dark Lord of Derkholm (1998)

I really loved the idea here and I've read a companion book (and found it pretty amusing). However, it was a sllllloooow slog. 500 pages and the story hasn't really taken off 180 pages in? I'm sorry. I don't have time for that right now. I wanted to get into it -- I absolutely adore her "Howl's Moving Castle" but I couldn't get into this one. And I'm sad about that. ( )

I absolutely adore this book, it is a hilarious, loving parody of high fantasy, while also being a fun adventure. The characters are fantastic. I would recommend it to any fantasy fan. ( )

Chesney's Pilgrim Parties are getting out of hand. It has been forty years since Mr. Chesney, a man from another world, came over and made a pact with a demon and has forced the various nations and peoples to participate in his global theme park. Every autumn hundreds of different parties are brought in on package tours where they can experience life in a fantasy land. They must gather clues to defeat the Dark Lord and save the world with the help of their Wizard Guide. Their journey can involve tangling with pirates, escaping fanatical priests, battling the forces of evil, or just spending time with slave girls. This comes at a great personal cost to the actual inhabitants of this world. Wizard High Chancellor Querida believes she has a plan to stop it. The only problem is the Oracles have decreed that success will come only if Wizard Derk and his son are this years Dark Lord and final Wizard Guide. What could go wrong?

Wizard Derk is a bit of an outcast, having nearly caused a disaster while at the University and scandalizing the Wizarding community with his magical hybrids and personal brand of life magic. In present days he has stayed out of the way of Tourists and raised seven children with his wife, the wizard Mara. Five of those children are griffins. He's also created a menagerie of thinking animals and unusual plants with varying degrees of success. His son Blade is showing magical talent, but Derk is unwilling to send him to the University that treats differences like a disease.

This is a desert island book. 'Dark Lord of Derkholm' was and still is perfection. I have read it dozens of times over the years, and used to read it at least once every year. I need to start doing that again. The book is warm and funny and argues towards the better nature of people. I don't mean to go treacly about this, but I'm struck again at how compassionate this book is and how persuasively it shows the good that comes from embracing unique talents and different ways of thinking. Some times it fails, but the world is better off for the trying. 'Derkholm' covers some dark territory and gets messy, too, of course. The book is perfection every way I look at it.

Also, I will never stop chuckling at the Sarcastic Geese when they appear on the page: easy-peesy.

Fantasyland

Next: 'Year of the Griffin'

Previous: 'Tough Guide to Fantasyland' ( )

This one was generally as delightful as it was when I read it the first time 10 or 15 years ago. The one caveat I have is that Derk seems a little less sweet and harmless and a little more of a potentially creepy mad scientist. The creating of all kinds of weird magical animals (and magical people/animals like griffins) seems dubious morally, especially if I think about it in real-world terms instead of fantasy world terms.

It's not a major deal, but it did occasionally throw me out of the story. ( )

I’ve actually been trying to get my hands on a copy since high school—yes, i know—and I wasn’t disappointed for a second. This was a pleasantly fun read from start to finish, and surprisingly deep and adult-friendly for a middle-grade novel. But then it’s a Diana Wynne Jones book so I should’ve expected nothing less. I loved how everyone was instantly relate-able (or unrelate-able, as the case may be) and the real sense of frantic chaos while everyone’s rushing to prepare for the Pilgrim Parties. I liked that the bad things that happen to the main characters provoke believable reactions. I liked that while I called some of the plot points, I didn’t call others, even after reading however many fantasy novels it is by now and knowing the tropes involved. I loved that I grinned through the whole thing because it was just so. much. fun! Except maybe for Derk himself.

Read-alikes: Castle Hangnail by Ursula Vernon, The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede, Terry Pratchett’s children’s books

9/10 ( )