Year of the griffin by Diana Wynne Jones
Reviewed by Joie
Magic, once again, is at its work in the magical world of the Wizard Derk and his family. Years fly by with wings, yet barely anything is accomplished as only young wizards with deep pockets attend the famed University. One wizard with dreams too large for the earth, plans for the moon. Retirement leaves the university without capable staff. Curses and jinxes on students cause small magical catastrophes, and horrible family relationships combined with insane money making plans cause assassins, hidden gifts, pirates, and journeys to the moon to rage out of control. This world is Year of the Griffin, by Dianna Wynne Jones.
A chaotic sequel to the famed, Dark Lord of Derkholm, Year of the Griffin goes to the first year of a group of varying friends. Elda, Derk's daughter, is a golden griffin, along with dwarfs, marsh people, royalty, and jinxed humans all come together. They become a strong band of friends, especially when problems like lack of real magic instruction, assassins, and hostile overseas griffins, begin to take a hold in the badly supervised Wizard University. Worse of all, Corkoran, a wizard with an insane goal to get to the moon, schemes up money making plans to help the University's finances. All the chaos drags in Blade and Kit, Elda's two older brothers, and royalty clashes in the University.
This book is brilliant and manages to hold, maybe even out shoot expectations for a sequel of the legendary Dark Lord of Derkholm. Charming old characters come back, as well as fresh new ones. The magic comes together as new, inventive young wizards break the old, limited standards of magic. Diana Wynne Jones creates a sequel that has just as much imagination as the first. You laugh at strange, messed up spells, and you feel anxious during various unfriendly people attack. And not all are people. I recommend this book to anyone who likes Dark Lord of Derkholm. That same crazy, lovable chaos, that reveals the best in normal and the worst in the false comes back, during Year of the Griffin!
Posted by library at June 14, 2008 12:41 PM