Blest London was quite a bit different because they’d never had the Great Fire. There were thatched cottages in Mayfair and the parks were all in strange places. [p. 312]
(Re)read immediately after Deep Secret: my memories, as usual with rereads lately, were extremely vague, but I'm not sure I noticed on first reading (nearly 20 years ago) how very different it is to Deep Secret. For one thing, it comprises two first-person narratives, both from teenagers: Arianrhod, known as Roddy, who's part of a peripatetic royal court in the Britain-analogue Isles of Blest; and Nick Mallory, late of Bristol and the Empire of Koryfos, who is still keen to be a Magid but who seems to have completely forgotten his beloved sister Maree ...
Roddy and her friend Grundo (whose mother is up to No Good) discover a dastardly plot against the Merlin, who has, in this world, equal status with the Archbishop of Canterbury. They become separated from the Court and embark on an epic quest-journey around the Isles of Blest, hoping for aid from several of Roddy's powerful relatives. (I had forgotten just how Powerful her grandfather was.) Eventually they invoke a wizard, and get Nick, who is still unable to travel between worlds on his own, but has nevertheless managed to get into plenty of trouble. Notably, he's apparently incurred the enmity of the powerful wizard Romanov, who lives on 'an island made from at least ten different universes in at least seven different centuries' because he is avoiding his (ex-)wife.
It's fair to say that Nick and Roddy do not immediately hit it off. There are plenty of distractions, though: dragons, imbued silverware, city spirits, a prehistoric ghost with a shattered hip (about whom I would happily read whole novels), and several personable animals including an elephant named Mini.
A friend suggests that the difference in tone and ambience is because this was published and marketed for a younger audience than Deep Secret, which was apparently intended for an adult audience. I still think it's odd that Nick has so thoroughly forgotten Maree that she doesn't rate a single mention in The Merlin Conspiracy. I did love the specifically British mythology and folklore, though, and the glimpses of this other not-Britain with its straighter coastlines and huge white church where Nick expects to see St Paul's Cathedral, and the royal Progress which keeps the realm healthy. There is also a subplot concerning magical influence, slavery and consent, which I think is well-pitched for a young adult audience without being grossly simplified.
And hey, it's Diana Wynne Jones: it felt like greeting an old friend after too long an absence.
No comments:
Post a Comment