Customer Reviews

The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Volume 1: Charmed Life / The Lives of Christopher Chant

5 star:		(107)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ever since the publication of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit," people have imagined wizards as tall, elderly men with long gray beards, loose robes and pointed hats. Diana Wynne-Jones shatters the cliched image with Chrestomanci, a dapper Englishman who happens to be the nine-lived magician in charge of all the magic -- in all the parallel worlds.

"Charmed Life" is the story of Cat and Gwendolen, siblings who are orphaned in a tragic steamboat accident. While Cat is shy, Gwendolen is the opposite: She is an unnaturally powerful witch, and intends to rise high enough to rule the world. She thinks that she's got it made when Chrestomanci brings her and her brother to his castle. But Gwendolen has met her match in Chrestomanci -- and a magical war of wills has begun!

"The Lives of Christopher Chant" is the backstory of Chrestomanci. Once he was an ordinary boy, whose ambition was to become a cricket player. But when he is tested by a powerful magician, Christopher Chant is found to be Chrestomanci: An amazingly powerful magician with not one, but NINE lives. The problem is, Christopher doesn't want to be Chrestomanci -- and he's already enmeshed in a wizards' smuggling ring that may spell doom for his new friends...

Diana Wynne-Jones is at her best here: the books are funny, dramatic, well-characterized, well-written and well-plotted. The parallel worlds are well-thought out, such as Chrestomanci's world, where magic exists rather than science as we know it. As in many of her books, she shows unusual insights into the thought processes of both young and adolescent children. While readers may sometimes want to smack the lead characters, it's hard not to like the heroes and despise the villains.

After reading this two-pack, readers should immediately read the next two books in the series, as well as the new short-story collection. Chrestomanci is too good to be missed.

My husband read both of these books to our 8-year-old daughter (3rd grader) and they were both entralled by the stories. Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnia, and A Wrinkle in Time fans will most likely enjoy these chronicles.

It's got parallel worlds, enchantment, and humor. We meet and watch Christopher Chant's life unfold among different worlds. He has a big job on his shoulders -- to keep people from abusing their magic abilities.

My husband excitedly told me about the story, something he doesn't do unless he enjoys it. He's a Star Trek, Lord of the Ring, and Star Wars fan. So, fathers or adults who enjoy those will probably get a kick out of these.

I discovered these wonderful books quite typically...I was a Harry Potter fan, and I was looking for something similar to read while waiting for the fifth book...and I had read 'Dogsbody' by Diana Wynne Jones before. So, I stumbled upon these magnificent books. I totally adore them! If I were hardpressed to pick between the two, I would choose 'Charmed Life', but both stories are great. Chrestomanci is such a wonderful character, and the world that D.W. Jones creates is much more original than that J.K. Rowling creates. Of course, I shall always be a Harry Potter freak, but these books are much better. There is so much intrigue, action, humor, and wonderful characters, that I have read them over and over again.
I highly, highly reccommend these books (and Volume II as well) to *anyone* who enjoys Harry Potter, fantasy, or just a good story.
Read them...you will NOT be disappointed!

I bought this book some ten years or so ago. It was my favourite book for about five years until I leant it to a "friend" who liked it so much that she never gave it back. I'm so happy that this book is back in print because I still yearn to read it. Which goes to show just what an absolutely amazing book this is and this isn't even my favourite DWJ book. That, incidentally is Dogsbody which was also stolen. Anyway back to the review, this book has everthing for lovers of fantasy and magic alike:- parallel worlds, extra lives, spoilt megalomaniac children and of course lots and lots of magic. It is one of the Chrestomanci books and I recommend that anybody who reads and loves this book, should also try reading The Lives of Christopher Chant, Witch Week and The Magicians of Caprona by the same author. I have read the other reviews and what has struck me is that every reviewer seems to have read all of her other books, as have I. Diana Wynne-Jones has a knack of creating such warm, real characters and writes with a lot of humour. She is the kind of author who inspires such loyalty from her readers. Go on-read this book. We can't all be wrong!

In my opinion, Diana Wynne Jones is simply one of the best YA fantasy writers out there. She ranks right up there with Lloyd Alexander and Philip Pullman. The intelligence and creativity of her work is consistently remarkable, and Charmed Life is a wonderful example of the scope of her imagination and plots.

Charmed Life, an entry in the Chrestomanci series (which can be read in any order without any knowledge of the others--others include Witch Week, The Lives of Christopher Chant, The Magicians of Caprona), is a charming British YA fantasy that far predates the Harry Potter mania. Fans of Harry Potter might like this; it has a similar enough plot--young orphaned boy with awful relatives is taken to a place where his talents can begin to expand. Young Eric, familiarly known as Cat, even slides around on magic mirrors (as opposed to magic broomsticks). However, Charmed Life is in every way superior to the Harry Potter books. For instance, the world's concept is much more profound and interesting. The world Cat inhabits is one in which magic abounds and technology is a bit backward-- not this world as we have known it at any point in time. Rather, it's a version of our world had key events been changed. (For example, a possible alternate world would be if Napoleon had succeeded in his campaigns. We would probably live in a world with a primary language of French.) Secondly, again unlike the HP books, there are no completely evil characters. Diana Wynne Jones has a talent for creating idiosyncratic, realistic people, and even those who are...less than wonderful, have their moments of niceness. And even the 'nice' people have their faults. Good doesn't always automatically win, and Cat is hardly a faultless protagonist.

Diana Wynne Jones takes common themes and imbues them with so much life and color and humor that the result-- Charmed Life (among many others) is compulsively likable. Who else could successfully mix enchanters, shrieking furniture, violin-turned-cats, maid-turned-frogs, silverware, family mysteries, alternate worlds, adventure and wit save a master magician such as Diana Wynne Jones? If you haven't read anything by her but like your fantasies good and British with dizzyingly intricate plots, do try her work. I particularly recommend Howl's Moving Castle, Hexwood, and, of course, Charmed Life. These are books that deserve to be read...and reread...and reread...

Ailanna

I read Charmed Life when I was in fourth or fifth grade, and immediately bought a copy of my own to read again and again. I loved all Diana Jones's books, but this one was my first and my favorite. Fifteen years later I still feel fond of Cat and resentful of his hellion sister Gwendolyn, and I still wince at the hilarious atrocities she perpetrted at Chrestomanci castle. A children's book that doesn't patronize children, but instead indulges their sophisticated sense of humor and appreciation of the travails of a bildungsroman hero is a rare treat indeed. I still keep my old copy so that some day my children can learn to love Jones's wonderful books too.

I first got this book from my good friend who kindly lent it to me. It was hard for me to get into at first but after that it was all history. I would sit up all day and half the night seeing what happened. This book has more twists in it then a roller coaster.

The first book, Charmed Life, is about a young boy named Eric "Cat" Chant and his older sister Gwendolen. Cat and Gwendolen are forced to move into a strange castle with their even stranger relatives after their parents die when the ship they are riding on sinks. I would say it was luck that Gwendolen and Cat survived, but it wasn't luck that saved them. You see, Gwendolen is a witch. Magic runs strong in the Chant family lines.

Unforuntately Cat was skipped when the magic was being distributed, or was he? He can't cast a spell to save his life.
Gwendolen, on the other hand, can do almost any spell with out even thinking. When the two get to Chrestomanci Castle Gwendolen is forbidden to do any magic and instead is being taught math and history. This dosen't sit well with Gwendolen though, for soon after arriving at the castle she runs away.

The biggest suprise happens to Cat though. Even though he can't do much magic it turns out that he is the second strongest enchanter (enchanters are the strongest of all magic folk) in all of the Twelve Related Worlds, right behind Chrestomanci.

Cat has private lessons with Chrestomanci learning things about himself even he didn't know. Even with all this knowledge and power how can he hope to protect and control the Twelve Related Worlds from a ruthless young witch bent on destroying him?

The second book, The Lives of Christopher Chant, takes place at least 25 years before the first book. As you may have guessed the main character is Christopher Chant. Like Cat, Christopher can't do even the simplist of spells. Christopher starts having strange dreams, where he is crawling through this strange land, covered in rocks and fog. He goes into different valleys that lie in "The Place Between" as he calls it. Some valleys are like deserts, with Goddesses and snake charmers. Others are islands in the middle of the ocean where he likes to build sand castles and talk to mermaids. He goes all over the worlds and nice people talk to him and give him things. He calls theses worlds "Anywhere's".

As soon as his uncle finds out he begins sending Christopher to these worlds on "expirements" to bring things back. Christopher makes many friends, inclduing the man his uncle sends out to meet Christopher in these worlds every Thursday to perfom these experiments. It is not until many years later, after Christopher has moved into Chrestomanci Castle with the Chrestomanci, that he finds out what he has truly been doing for his uncle and where he has been going. It turns out that "The Place Between" is the World Edge and the "Anywheres" are the Twelve Related Worlds.

Christopher is the only person in all the worlds who can travel to the Twelve Related Worlds and bring things back, things that are forbidden in the Twevelth World, where he lives. He is being taught by the Chrestomanci but that may not be enough. How can he hope to control the magic and protect all the Twelve Related Worlds against an avaricious enchanter who has been abusing Christopher for years?

I would strongly advise everybody to read this book. Hopefully my reviews didn't give too much away.

It's a shame that this book (or books rather) isn't more popular. Until I stumbled upon volumes I and II in a bookstore, I had never heard of them before. Diana Wynne Jones is fairly well known, but her work seems to have taken the backseat to other wildly popular childrens books. This is unjust! Charmed Life and the Lives of Christopher Chant are both well written and refreshingly original. If the books have one flaw, it is that they start out fairly slowly. Since this is all plot building and setting the scene, it doesn't become that terrible of a distraction. If you do decide to read this book(I hope you do!) then here's some advice: Even though Charmed Life is before The lives of Christopher Chant in the book, chronologically Charmed life happens after Christopher Chant. If you like to read things in order, keep that in mind, otherwise you know what has happened to the characters in T.L.O.C.C. before you read it.

The Chronicles of Chrestomanci
By: Dianne Wynne Jones

The Chronicles of Chrestomanci is a Harry Potter for people who are bored with Harry Potter. It tells the life and times of the Chant family. The Chant family is a well-to-do family in London with an interesting secret. They are a family of sorcerers and sorceresses. In the first part, A Charmed Life, we hear about young Eric Chant, and his sister Gwendolen.
First you must understand what Chrestomanci IS. It's pronounced KREST-OH-MAN-SEE. Second, Chrestomanci is the MOST powerful enchanter in that world. That world.
Anyway, Eric, (a. k. a Cat), and his sister Gwendolen, a powerful young witch, are adopted by the Chrestomanci. They don't know he's a relation of theirs. Cat's special "talents" appear when he undoes one of Gwendolen's spells.
You see, Gwendolen asked for lessons in witchcraft, and was refused. This caused her to rebel. She wreaks havoc upon the household. Molehills, darkness, and trees are ingredients for disaster.
What happens when Cat discovers his true potential? Who knows?...
In the second book, The Many Lives of Christopher Chant, we go 25 years into the past. This book details the lives of Christopher Chant, a relative of the Chants in the first book. In fact, he's closer to the first than you think. A hint? Silver. Anyway, Christopher meets a relative whom he idolizes. He thinks he can do no wrong. Little does he know how wrong they are. He is sent to Chrestomanci Castle, which has a Gabriel De Witt as Chrestomanci.
He then discovers how messed up people can be. He meets his one friend, a Goddess of Asheth, and together they must stop the one person that Christopher looks up to. Can they? Or will they be swallowed up in this deadly game of magic?

This book is wonderful! It is basically two books in one, which is great because the two stories go very well together and right after you finish the first, you'll want to start the second.

"Charmed Life" is about a boy called Cat, or more formally Eric, who becomes an orphan when his parents drown in a boat accident. His older sister, Gwendolen, is a witch, and when the two move in with their neighbor, Gwendolen begins to take magic lessons. Cat has no magic at all, and is often pushed out of the spotlight by Gwendolen. Then they go to live at Chrestomanci Castle, home to the great enchanter Chrestomanci. After waging a private war on Chrestomanci, Gwendolen jumps into another world and leaves a double with Cat. Cat and Gwendolen's double have to figure out how to save Chrestomanci and the magical community when Gwendolen and her friends on Coven Street try to take over.

"The Lives of Christopher Chant" is about the present Chrestomanci in Cat's time 25 years earlier. This gives you some background on Chrestomanci and is even better than the first book. Christopher Chant is a spirit traveler who can bring things back from his travels and is quite solid on his travels, and this has never happened before. Christopher's Uncle Ralph sees a neat way to exploit him and has him carry back tremendously expensive and rare items such as dragon's blood back from other worlds. It all ends up great.

I would recommend both of these books very highly.