#DWJMarch: Howl’s Moving Castle

I’ve read Howl’s Moving Castle at least twenty times, but this time it was on audiobook! Now it’s my new favorite way to reread this book too many times.

Jacket Blurb: Sophie has the great misfortune of being the eldest of three daughters, destined to fail miserably should she ever leave home to seek her fate. But when she unwittingly attracts the ire of the Witch of the Waste, Sophie finds herself under a horrid spell that transforms her into an old lady. Her only chance at breaking it lies in the ever-moving castle in the hills: the Wizard Howl’s castle. To untangle the enchantment, Sophie must handle the heartless Howl, strike a bargain with a fire demon, and meet the Witch of the Waste head-on. Along the way, she discovers that there’s far more to Howl—and herself—than first meets the eye.

I haven’t heard this narrator, Jenny Sterlin, before, but she did an outstanding job. When I read this book I usually hear the voices from the Ghibli film (even though that makes no sense) but Sterlin’s voices for Sophie, Howl, and Calcifer especially were spot-on based on their descriptions in the book.

I was absurdly pleased by Howl’s Welsh accent, even though obviously he should have a Welsh accent and if he didn’t it would be INCORRECT. Concept: Welsh Howell Jenkins reading the dictionary. We could make billions. 

The other standout audio moment was when Sophie is yelling “Be daffodils!” in a rage (Sometimes you just have to work out your anger through botanical experiments resulting in weedkiller). Sterlin’s delivery cracked me up.

I’ve talked about my favorite quotes from this book in another post. “What a stupid way to treat a building!” is my current favorite exclamation. But there are just so many good one-liners that it’s ridiculous, and hearing them was so much fun.

 

In other March Magics news, I’ve started listening to Year of the Griffin and I’ve started rereading Fire and Hemlock, but I’m not sure if I’ll finish either/both of them this month. I’ll most likely do another post later this week on Hexwood (which I finished) but I’m not sure what, if anything, else.

#DWJMarch: Dark Lord of Derkholm

Happy Day 9 of Social Distancing. The locals are very restless, but Diana Wynne Jones’ books are keeping them from rioting. For now.

Kit is looking fine.

I listened to the audiobook of Dark Lord of Derkholm, thanks to hoopla, narrated by Gildart Jackson. I’ve previously listened to Dracula by the same narrator, so that was a little jarring at first, but I really like his narration and voices.

The only exceptions were some of his creature voices. The narrator chose a sort of nasal, bird-like voice for the griffins, which I understand in principle, but in practice it can be unpleasant to listen to after a while. He gave the dragons and demons very gravelly, scrape-y voices, so those could be a little tiring too.

Jacket blurb: 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.

I know I keep saying this about all the DWJ books I’ve read this month, but it’s been a few years since I first read and loved this one, too. The most surprising parts for me this time were how Dark it is (even though that’s literally in the title) and how upsetting the Derk/Mara subplot is! Fortunately, all works out in the end. Sort of. Except for all the bodies. There are a lot of bodies.

I honestly can’t believe how MUCH is packed into this book. It’s simultaneously a) deconstructing the entire post-Tolkien epic fantasy genre; b) introducing at least 8 main characters; c) giving each of those characters subplot growth arcs; d) introducing and explaining all of the different fantasy races and their subplots; e) satirizing the modern world and modern colonialism; f) criticizing modern habits like the glorification of violence, subjugation of peoples for their own good, racism, classism, etc etc etc.

Somehow Dark Lord of Derkholm succeeds juggling all of its many balls. And it’s fun and magical, too.

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I hope March Magics is going well for you all!

I’m currently listening to Howl’s Moving Castle (via Library2Go), and then I’m going to listen to Derkholm’s sequel, Year of the Griffin (back to hoopla).