31. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
An excellent read, although I didn’t love it as much as I love her Chrestomanci series. Actually, in many ways, Howl is very much like Christopher Chant, with his fancy clothes and his sarcasm. Howl’s Moving Castle begins like a fairy tale, and although it moves away from that structure as the story goes on, it never really loses all of its fairy tale motifs.
The main story was interesting and fun, but the book left quite a few loose ends dangling. Howl’s origins, his relationship with Miss Angorian, and the extent of his knowledge of Sophie are never explained. It’s quite a contrast to the meticulous world-building in the Chrestomanci books, but I’m not sure that it’s an inferiority. Although the gaps in information made me curious, they didn’t bother me much, and I haven’t really come away from the book with the feeling of something missing. All in all, I’m looking forward to reading the sequel, Castle in the Air, when it arrives at my local library this week.
Books read: 31/300 (10.3%)
Pages read: 7,950/75,000 (10.6%)
Days passed: 27/365 (7.4%)
By the way, if anyone’s looking for cheap books, I have a post about my favourite online discount bookstore at my book blog.
X-posted here.
(well, technically I didn’t, but you wrote it and I’m happy because I really wanted to know a little more about this book)
Lore wrote, on January 29th, 2007 at 5:47 pm: