Customer Reviews

Dark Lord of Derkholm

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I just finished this book last night (stayed up past my bedtime again), and I had to look and see what other people thought about it. I was surprised by the different reactions. If you like Diana Wynne Jones, you'll probably enjoy this one (my husband, while reading it, said, "She's brilliant!") but if you don't like involved, complicated (at times confusing) plots, then you might want to stay away from it. I did enjoy it a lot, but not so much that I'm going to give it a blanket recommendation. It's not for everyone.

I was especially intrigued by the idea of a human family with griffin children. I think that was my favorite thing about the book. I also enjoyed the sarcastic geese and the Friendly Cows, and all the other animals.

The whole exploitation thing was well done. When I was reading about how everyone had to change their lives around and knock down towns and things for the tours, I said to my husband, "This reminds me of the Olympics!" (We just drove through Salt Lake City recently and didn't enjoy the experience).

I didn't think the gang rape scene was too bad--you get that idea, but it doesn't actually SAY that Shona was raped (Shona, not Sukey). The whole business with the soldiers was all very creepy and unpleasant.

I gave this book 4 stars because it is a bit disjointed and hard to follow at times, and ends with a pretty serious deus-ex-machina. Jones has a tendency to end her books (from what I've read so far) with great earth-shattering changes that happen all at once. At least the demons and the gods had been established earlier in the story, so they didn't just come out of nowhere.

My daughter got this book for her birthday, and I immediately borrowed it. Truly wonderful - a very funny and affectionate send-up of D&D. But my daughter had a hard time getting into the story. Probable cause: after a rousing start there's a fair amount of set-up time for the complicated plot, and lots of characters to keep track of. For Christmas, the same friends gave my daughter "Year of the Griffin." This time it was love at first sight. "Year of the Griffin" begins with a group of new students arriving at school, so the introduction of the characters is very simple and straightforward. After finishing "Griffin," my daughter returned to "Dark Lord" and read it straight through. While that's the wrong order chronologically, it might be the right order for some readers. (I know this book has nothing to do with ballet. But it's only natural for ballerinas to enjoy fantasy, right?)

Thank-God. I have been waiting for so long for a new Diana Wynne Jones book to come out. She is by far the best young adult-fantasy author there is out there. I have read about half of her books and I know that the others will be great(If only I could find where to buy them!) This book was no exception. I felt as though I was right along side Derk and Blade in their adventure. I was absorbed right into the pages of the book. I felt Derk's sorrow at all the losses he encountered, and I could feel the magic coming right out of the book and onto my skin. I could not put it down at all. Have fun reading it!!!!

I wasn't expecting much when I first picked up this book, but it turned out to be a thoroughly enjoyable read. "Dark Lord of Derkholm" keeps a nice pace so you are not bored once, and there are several good laughs through out the story. This book is a wonderful spoof on the whole concept of the evil Dark Lord versus the good guys. I believe people of most ages would definitely enjoy reading this book.

I was shocked to see several truely awful reviews for a book I consider a masterpiece. It is very funny, while at the same time utterly gripping. Certainly the fact that it is simultainously a spoof and a high fantasy confuses some readers, but that is the delight of the book. I laughed and cried (literally). I have read it twice and my 13 year old son has read it at least three times (once a year). Although he has already devoured every fantasy (and quite a few nonfantasys) imaginable, he keeps coming back to Dark Lord like an old friend.

The way I came about this book is rather interesting. I found this in an English book store in Taiwan and was so completely enthralled by it that I had bought the sequel by the time I had to fly back to the US a few days later!

I think the book is not just great fun, but it has its darker side. In fact, I see this as one of Jones' grimmest books, which is odd because many people approach a book by Jones assuming they were written for pre-teens and only pre-teens and that they are good fun. Sadly, it is when readers attempt to put a work like Dark Lord into neat boxes such as "Juvenile Fantasy (TM) (R) (C)" when they find that her books wi ll tear its way out of hard-and-fast categories and bite them squarely in their bottoms.

It is easy to see that this is where most of the negative criticisms on this page come from. Having said that, dismissing this book as overcomplicated and vague is simply absurd if one realizes that her books were meant to be very unusual, fleeting, and surreal.

In fact, the author herself states in several interviews that the reason she writes the way she does and gets away with it is that generally, pre-teens have the easiest time accepting fantastic worlds and ultimately the best minds for cracking a difficult plot like Dark Lord's.

"Children are used to making an effort to understand."
--Article in The Medusa by DWJ

Adults?

"I...relied on my readers having the nous to pick up the situation as they went along...Adults are different. They need me to do all that for them."
--The Medusa

Having said all that, this is a wonderful book that, after having bored myself to death with the likes of Melanie Rawn, David Drake, Eldon Thompson, and David Gemmel, I come back to read again and again. Nothing excites me like fantasy well-done, and Diana Wynne Jones delivers in this book. I am particularly fond of the griffins, who are more human than a lot of people I know.

A couple of other grittier and darker reads I recommend are Garth Nix's Abohorsen series (for younger readers too) and a sci-fi, Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton (very graphic, readers strongly cautioned).

For supreme humor, try Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, any fantasy humor lovers best friend. Alternatively, try the Artemis Fowl books by Eoin Colfer.(Both should be suitable for most readers, but younger ones may need parental approval for Pratchett.)

I just finished this book and it's wonderful! I love Diana Wynne Jones novels, I started with the Chronicles of Chrestomanci long ago and just got around to this series. The Dark Lord of Derkholm is a fantastic story, it's really funny, too. It starts off with our two heroes, Derk and his son Blade, being introduced; arguing with each other as they will from time to time throughout the book. This is a fun story about a world of people who have been made to turn their country into a theme park for the tourists from another world. These "Pilgrim Parties" come through once a year to be guided through on tours through this magical world. The Pilgrims come from a world not too much unlike our own. But the Pilgrim Parties destroy much of the world on their way through each year. So this year, the rulers of this world decide that they have to put a stop to it... thus Derk is made the "Dark Lord" this year, and the chaos ensues...
Overall this is a story about a very interesting and loving family and the trials that they must endure to save their own world... all the while, not really having any idea what they're doing. It's incredibly funny and it's a very touching family story underneath. I loved it!

Plot summary:
There is a portal between the world we know and a world of magic. A capitalist entrepreneur, Mr. Chesney, controls the portal and uses it annually to transport adventure-seeking tourists to experience Magical Pilgrimages, in which the usual figures of Dark Lord, Enchanted Temptress, Wizard Guide and so on are supplied by the denizens of the magical world--against their will and to the complete disruption of their usual lives.

This is where the fun starts, for denizens of the magical world have feelings and motivations much like ours. That is to say, how would YOU like to live forever as a "cast member" in Disneyland? That is their fate--except that they are rebelling against it at long last.

The central characters of the story are the Wizard Derk and his family. Derk is a master of biological wizardry--he's a gene splicer. His children are both human and griffin (one of the best parts of this story). We get to know each of the children in turn as they help their father fulfill the burden Mr. Chesney has placed upon him, sometimes with heartbreaking results.

Diana Wynne Jones is marketed in the book world as a young adult novelist, but I (an adult) have thoroughly enjoyed every one of her books.

Positive elements:

Characterization is very good--the children (human and griffin) are well drawn and believable. The plot twists and turns in a satisfying way. Some of the magical creatures are very funny (flying pigs?). I particularly liked the way Jones meshes mundane reality and magical comeuppance.

If you haven't read a great deal of fantasy, some of the humor will pass you by, as the book gently mocks the conventions of the genre.

Have you ever wanted to explore a fantasy world? Well, you can by joining a tour that takes people from our world to a totally different world where fantasy is reality. Or is it? A struggling fantasy world supplements its income by offering tours to offworlders, but they have to follow strict guidelines--evil (the Dark Lord) must wear black and live in a ruined town, he must ride a dark steed, enchantresses must be sexy and wear revealing gowns, etc, etc. When Derk is chosen to be this year's Dark Lord, he turns the world upside down as he and his family struggle to meet the standards of the tour without ruining their home, and the results are amusing and chaotic.

This creative and original book approaches fantasy as it's never been approached before. Jones slyly inserts quite a few comments about fantasy stories and writers, while still portraying a wonderfully entertaining story.

A problem I found with Jones' writing, is that she introduces all of her characters at once, sometimes making a reader have to flip back a couple pages to remember which character is who. Other than the slight confusion of introducing them, Jones' characters are wonderfully developed, each with his or her own distinct quirks.

I suppose the ultimate reason I liked this book was because of the originality of the whole plot. A definite read for someone who is focused enough to stay with the plot as it twists and turns.