Customer Reviews

Castle in the Air

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Having a favorite obscure British children's fantasy author is a bit like having a favorite obscure British band. At first, they're your own private secret. The kind of thing you try to get all your friends into. You get all their best work. You belong to their fan club. And you wonder why no else has ever been as intelligent as you are in finding them. Then, one day out of the blue, they hit it big. At first you're elated. FINALLY, the world has come around to your point of view. You feel utterly vindicated. This feeling lasts for about three days, then comes crashing down around your ankles as you come to realize that now everybody and their mother wants a piece of YOUR discovery. Such was the case with me and Diana Wynne Jones. I was perfectly content to keep a large Diana Wynne Jones section in the children's library where I work. I'd recommend her to any child who was suffering from Harry Potter withdrawl. Then "Howl's Moving Castle" was made into a film and everything changed. Now she's the hottest item since sliced bread and everyone wants a piece of her. I wouldn't be surprised if "Archer's Goon" gets turned into a mini-series and "Dogsbody" ends up animated on Saturday morning cartoons. Until that happens, however, I'll continue to read and recommend her works. "Castle In the Air" is actually the sequel to "Howl's Moving Castle", and is in many ways more readable than its predecessor. There's nothing quite as delightful as discovering a new book by your favorite author. Even if everyone else in the world thinks that author's cool too.

Abdullah leads an unremarkable life. He's one of many carpet dealers in the city of Zanzib and he does what he does rather well. He never makes a profit, but his stock has been getting more and more impressive as the years have gone by. Mostly Abdullah dreams, though. He wishes he was a prince or had a beautiful princess to love. It seems that everything's going to stay the same until one day a shifty looking fella sells him a magic flying carpet. While asleep on it one night, the carpet takes him to the beautiful Princess Flower-in-the-Night, with whom he falls instantly in love. It's really just his bad luck that a passing djinn steals her soon thereafter. To rescue his princess, Abdullah must match wits with genies, desert ruffians, cats, soldiers, wizards, and roughly thirty kidnapped take-no-prisoners princesses. Fortunately, he has the cast of "Howl's Moving Castle" to help him.

I don't mean to start conjuring conspiracy theories, but it seems to me that the 1992 Disney film "Aladdin" definitely swiped a few of its better ideas from this 1990 publication. The flying carpet belonging to Abdullah has a great deal of personality and charm about it. The genie is prone to as much mischief as it can muster. You have a handsome young hero who lies to a princess about being a prince himself and a princess who's not afraid to take charge when needs be. But here the comparisons fall short. "Aladdin" for all its charms is a very simplistic movie. "Castle In the Air", by comparison, is complex. It has the obligatory Jonesian twist endings (one that fans of its predecessor will appreciate immensely) and a hero that remains a nice guy in spite of all the nasty critters, creatures, and heavenly beings about him. I especially enjoyed Jones' attention to djinn details. This book doesn't delve into the matter of genii and their kin as deeply as Jonathan Stroud's, "Bartimaeus Trilogy", but she's at least familiar with her King Solomon.

The real question here is whether or not fans of "Howl's Moving Castle" will consider this a sequel or not. After all, even though the characters from the previous book really do appear in this one from page eight onwards, they're not particularly recognizable until page 195. This is bound to disturb those readers that want something identical to "Howl's". To them I say, tough beans. Jones isn't the kind of author you can pin down and ask to do something as dull and rote as a mindless sequel. If she's going to continue a story then she's going to do it in her own inimitable way. Those readers who've not read "Howl's" may find "Castle In the Air" to be less to their liking than if they had read it. A word of warning to those who care to listen.

If anything, I was a little worried as to how the Middle Eastern community would feel about this book. Though Zanzib is obviously a fictional location, it borrows heavily from "Arabian Nights" and other tales of that nature. People like Abdullah are prone to flowery language and lofty speech. This may not be to everyone's liking, but since I've looked through every single review of this book on Amazon.com one by one and not found anyone else seeing this as a problem, I must assume that this is, if anything, a small flaw.

In the end, this is a truly enjoyable book and one that stands on its own two feet with little difficulty. Unlike other reviewers, I didn't find the ending trite or too neatly tied together. I just thought the book was a truly enjoyable tale with people you enjoyed reading about and a some descriptive passages that play out beautifully. Maybe it's not Jones' best book ever written, but it's certainly one of the most fun.

One of Diana Wynne-Jones' less impressive works, "Castle in the Air" is nevertheless a funny and entertaining read, full of memorable characters and tight plotting. A little too tight in places, but never quite becoming irritating. Mediocre Diana Wynne-Jones is still exceptional.

Abdullah is a dreamy young carpet merchant with a slew of nosy, overbearing relatives and a prophecy made at his birth; they see him as wasting his life, which is quite humble to say the least. But his fortunes change when he is sold a magic carpet by a mysterious stranger. The carpet takes him as he sleeps to a secluded garden, where a naive, beautiful young woman called Flower-in-the-Night is. Unsurprisingly, Abdullah and Flower-in-the-Night fall deeply in love. Unfortunately, her rich father wants to marry her off to a prince.

Abdullah tries to elope with Flower-in-the-Night, only to see her carried off by a hideous djinn. He ends up on the run from her father with a mercenary soldier, the flattery-hungry carpet, a malicious genie who makes every wish go wrong somehow, and a mother cat and her kitten. Soon they end up enmeshed in a bizarre tangle involving wizards, djinns, demons, genies, dogs smelling of squid, and a slew of princesses with minds of their own.

Though this is a sequel to "Howl's Moving Castle," the characters from that book take over half the book to show up. Instead, we are treated to Wynne-Jones' entertainingly skewed version of the "Arabian Nights," with the hapless and sweet-spoken Abdullah slogging to the castle. Jones manages to affectionately poke the Middle-Eastern setting and its various customs, while spinning the story outward to encompass "Howl's Moving Castle" as well. Her humor is especially present here, with the revolt of the many princesses, Flower-in-the-Night insisting that Abdullah is a woman, the ultra-sensible Princess Beatrice, Abdullah's constant gushing over the carpet, Abdullah's intended brides, and many other amusing items.

Abdullah is the Everyman hero, who simply wants to marry a princess and live a life of luxury; evidently he never expected to have to work so hard for it. The genie is crabbily endearing, especially when one considers that he will try to turn every wish against the one who makes it. The unnamed soldier is a gruff Han Solo character with a weak spot for cats. Flower-in-the-Night is a great heroine: despite her initial naivete, she has a quick brain and the ability to cow even a demon. And as you read this, remember that no one in it is quite who they appear.

What are the problems? Well, the extended sequence with the soldier and Abdullah caring for the cats is rather dull in places. Also, the ending is just a little too neat and happy. While I don't like dangling threads that are simply left, it seemed like every thread was tightly wrapped up at the expense of realism.

However, "Castle" is an amusing and endearing read. A delightful read for fans of fantasy, wizards, and the Arabian Nights.

"Castle in the Air" is the sequel to "Howl's Moving Castle", both of which are two of my favourite Diana Wynne Jones books (and according to an interview "Howl's Moving Castle" is one of hers). I strongly suggest reading this preceding novel before tacking the sequel as several of the characters and plot twists found here will not be fully appreciated without knowing the previous story (which is a mistake I made).

Diana Wynne Jones takes the setting and atmosphere of "Arabian Nights" and creates her own story filled with flying carpets, deserts, exotic princesses, genies and djinns (although what the difference between these last two species are, she unfortunately never clarifies - I think that genies are contained within an object of some kind, whilst djinns are more god-like). Abdullah is a humble young carpet merchant, with meddling relatives and a strange prophesy recorded at his birth. But Abdullah has no such interest in these things; his favourite past time is day-dreaming about his pretend royal lineage, beautiful princesses and luxurious surroundings.

But once a stranger sells Abdullah a so-called magical carpet, things begin to change. After sleeping on the carpet, he awakes in a night garden in the company of the lovely Flower-in-the-Night. Needless to say, the two fall in love and whilst trying to figure out the logistics of the carpet, they plan an elopement. But on the intended night, Abdullah is horrified to witness Flower's kidnapping at the hands of a hideous djinn. Being pursued by the Sultan and all his guards, and still finding that his daydreams are coming true, Abdullah soon finds himself in strange company: traversing the northern land of Ingary (the setting of "Howl's Moving Castle") with a dishonest soldier, a tricky genie and a rather strange cat and her kitten.

He soon finds out that Flower-in-the-Night is being held in a castle in the air (once the former moving castle of the wizard Howl) by a wicked djinn named Dalzel who is sending his captive brother Hasruel out to collect all the princesses in the world for potential wives. The princesses of course, are not going to put up with this - but it's up to Abdullah and the previous cast of "Howl's Moving Castle" to put everything right.

Some other reviewers have complained that the characters of the previous books do not appear until after halfway through - odd, since Sophia, Howl and Calcifer are present almost right from the beginning: not in the forms that you might expect, but they're there and their personalities are just as strong. Suliman and Lettie are there as well and play a small, but vital role in the playing out of the story. Abdullah is a pleasant enough character, but Flower-in-the-Night is a gem: someone intensely naive and sheltered, but intelligent and educational. The brother djinns are also fascinating in terms of their relationship and predicament - I just wish there was more of them, and the soldier is an intriguing enigma.

Touches of Diana Wynne Jones's wonderful humour are sprinkled throughout, from the soldier's near-worship of the two cats, to Flower-in-the-Night's insistence that Abdullah is a female. The climax is a little rushed, and I'm not exactly sure how the genie discovered that where Hasruel's life was, but over all "Castle in the Air" is a great sequel, and a great book. But read "Howl's Moving Castle" first!

I VERY much enjoyed this book! It is full of detailed and mythical encounters that I loved to read! Her description and creativeness in going about the plot made this book one I highly reccomend.I did enjoy Howl's moving castle a little more but I felt that The Casle in The Air was almost as good!I do not regret spending my money on this book and if you enjoyed Howl's moving castle I could almost garuntee you'll like this book!

"Castle in the Air" is supposed to be the sequel to "Howl's Moving Castle", but I didn't feel that the connection between these two books is very good. First of all, the main characters of "Howl's Moving Castle" don't appear until the end of the book. In addition, when the characters finally do appear, its seems as if they had undergone a personality change. Speaking of personality, I didn't feel that the characters were well developed. In fact you never really care for the main character of this book, especially after you learn of his urges to kick cats. Whether he finds his princess or gets turned into a toad, it's all fine as far as the reader goes because the reader never gets a chance to feel any sympathy for the character.

As far as the action goes, it never develops into a coherent story. It just seems like an endless stream of minor incidents thrown together. When you finally get to the end, you'll groan at the simple trick used to resolve the final confrontation with the villian. Not even an elementary school student would fall for it, but it works in this story.

In the end, my recommendation is to pass on this book. If you haven't read "Howl's Moving Castle", I recommend reading that instead. If you have, don't get this book. It doesn't add anything to "Howl's Moving Castle". It shouldn't be labeled as a sequel.

Having read 'Howl's Moving Castle' I scooped up this tentative "sequel" as soon as I could. Though the main characters are different, the world and timeline within the two novels are the same - and many familiar faces appear throughout.
'Castle in the Air' is the polar opposite of 'Howl's Moving Castle' in terms of the culture and nuances of the lead characters. Whereas Howl & Sophie were active/aggressive, Abdullah & Flower-of-the-Night are more passive and intellectual figures; Abdullah is very much a dreamer, and part of the entertainment is not in the actual events of the story, but in how he dreams of them occurring.
I found myself just as absorbed in 'Castle in the Air' as I was with 'Howl's Moving Castle', though the loss of the quirky and over-the-top personalities of Howl, Sophie, Calucifer, etc., were felt. And while the romance betweem Abdullah & Flower was acceptable and cute, it lacked spark - though this reticence to over-do the love story may infact reflect the Indian-style culture that Wynne wished to present. That aside, I would recommend this book for any fan of Diana Wynne Jones' fiction, for she really has a unique grasp on fantasy and original characters.

Abdullah is an ordinary man leading an ordinary life in a far off kingdom of Zanzib. He works in the family business as a carpet salesman next to a squid seller named Jamal and his squid loving dog. Abdullah spends much of his time in collecting rarer and better carpets to sell, daydreaming about a charmed life, and avoiding the ongoing demands of his relations, who ask that he wed soon. One day his routine is interrupted by a man who sells him an ordinary looking carpet he claims is enchanted and it doesn't take long before Abdullah realizes he wasn't conned. That night in his urge to protect this asset he sleeps in his stall on the carpet and in his slumber murmurs the enchantment necessary for the carpet to take flight where it whisks him off to a palace garden. Stunned, but not completely out of control of his faculties he befriends the beautiful princess Flower-in-the-Night and agrees to help her see more men, seeing as how she has never seen any prior to him (save her father) and presumes Abdullah is a woman. After bringing her some portraits of men Flower-in-the-Night agrees to wed Abdullah, but their engagement does not come to fruition because the Princess is spirited off by a mischievous djinn named Hasruel steals her off to a castle in the sky owned by his brother, an equally monstrous djinn named Dalzel.

Determined to keep his beloved in the richness she is accustomed Abdullah had sold his merchandise off, but that seems utterly pointless now as he lapses into a depression that makes him an easy target for the soldiers of the sultan. Dragged before this monarch Abdullah admits he could not protect her from the djinn and is thrown into the darkest dungeon at the sultan's disposal. He summons the carpet which aids in his escape but lands him in the desert near an oasis where some evil looking men try to harm Abdullah. They are in possession of one magical genie in a corked bottle which Abdullah manages to make off with, but he leaves the carpet behind. In talking with the genie he realizes he can have one wish a day, but that he can't be transported to Flower-in-the-Night directly, so he instead wishes to be taken to the nearest person who may help in finding her...and this is how Abdullah from Zanzib winds up in the magical war torn land of Ingary, on a quest with a Strangian soldier and a couple of cats, seeking out the help of anyone who can help him be brought together once again with his beloved.

The sequel to Jones' amazing book "Howl's Moving Castle" warms up slowly to the reader. It's one of those books you can equate to a favorite pair of pants you have to break in. At first it seems uncomfortable and like you may not enjoy it but gradually as you get to know the material better you find that it's just right. Certainly it doesn't have that specific "magic" (pun intended) of the first novel, but as all of the ends are tied up you realize that it has just as many surprises as the original. I was certainly not expecting that the old characters would turn up in the manner that they did, although after they made their appearances I was not surprised. Jones has a knack of working in her old tricks, and certainly curses that cannot be talked about are present in her never-ending literary bag. Yes, it's not "Howl's Moving Castle", it does lack something... but it is a worthy sequel nonetheless, and any fans of the original will relish in the chance to rediscover the old characters and see just what they have done with their lives after the first book.

I am a big fan of hers and I normally like how her plots and characters are at times confusing and strange but this is too hard to follow. I Loooved Castle in the air and if you liked this then you will enjoy any of her other books but I can see how a fan would be disapointed. They would expect better. By the way, she rarely centers on the main characters from a previous work in a sequel.

Sequels are never as good. I don't think I wasted my money on "Castle in the Air," since I love Diana Wynne Jones, but this is not the book of hers that I would recommend to someone. Read its predecessor, "Howl's Moving Castle" - possibly my favorite children's book of all time; I still read it once in a while to smile - or "Charmed Life," or "Dogsbody". Wynne Jones is a wonderful author, with a light precision of tone that amazes me, and she is very skilled at introducing seemingly insignificant details at the beginning of a book that grow in resonance and importance until you realize they are central to the plot. She is also marvelously good at characterization. Buy your children Diana Wynne Jones, they will thank you - and you will enjoy reading her yourself.

The following was written by YM, age 11 (Grade Six):

This is the second book in a two-part series, the other being Howl's Moving Castle. I enjoyed this book because, until the end, it is a story in itself, as none of the characters are the same, it takes place in a different country, and few references are made to the country where the last book took place. Right at the end of the book, all the main characters from the last book are revealed, and it all starts fitting together like a jigsaw puzzle. One thing I did not like, however, is that in Howl's Moving Castle, the King of Ingary says Strangia and High Norland are about to declare war on Ingary, and then in the next book the war has already taken place and the characters are talking about it. I think this would have made a good middle story in a trilogy, if the author, Diana Wynne Jones, had continued on the apparent theme of using totally different characters at the beginning of the book and then introducing the characters from the last book right at the end.
--YMP