12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hatching magic, December 5, 2006
Diana Wynne-Jones has been writing for decades, but her most enduring creation is still Chrestomanci, the nine-lifed enchanter who regulates magic all over the worlds.
And she's still in fine form in "The Pinhoe Egg," the sixth entry in the series, which has her strange magic, wacky humor, and an England radically different from the one we know. And Cat -- the timid hero of her first Chrestomanci book -- finally gets to take center stage.
Marianne Pinhoe is there when her grandmother, the manipulative Gammer, goes completely insane. When Gammer's house is put on the market, young Cat Chant accompanies a friend to look at it -- and he and Marianne find a strange egglike thing in the attic. She lets Cat takes it home, and a shadowy creature visits him, asking him to take care of her child.
But strange things are happening around Chrestomanci Castle -- the "Big Man" is kidnapped briefly, and there are plagues of frogs, illness, and general bad luck among the Pinhoes. A silent feud is going on between two secret witch clans -- and Cat finds himself in the middle of a magical conspiracy that goes back centuries.
Diana Wynne Jones has always been great at creating magic conspiracies that never quite go the way you expect. "The Pinhoe Egg" dangles mysteries and hints in front of the reader, about why the witches stay secretive, and what their "sacred trust" is, and you won't guess until the final pages.
Jones spins up this elaborate fantasy with her usual attention to detail, solid dialogue, and insights into what make kids tick -- from adolescent crushes to frustration that nobody will listen. Shealso brings a new kind of magic -- dwimmer -- into the storyline, along with flying machinery and a baby griffin called Klartch, who provides a lot of the humor ("Weep! Weep! Weep!").
Technically Cat was the hero of Jones' first Chrestomanci book, but he really didn't do much. In "The Pinhoe Egg," he gets in on the magical action -- gunfights, spells, horseback riding, rescues and feeding milk to Klartch. Marianne is a solid counterpart, and Chrestomanci is dapper, funny, and far more intelligent than the Pinhoes give him credit for.
"The Pinhoe Egg" is as enchanting as the main characters. Another highly enjoyable novel in a series that came long, long before Harry Potter... and still hasn't got a weak link.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Review for Adults Who Still Like Kids' Lit... I couldn't put it down!, November 14, 2006
However, a deal of that is probably due to my liking for the characters of Chrestomanci (Christopher) and Cat. The story is entertaining, if a bit gruesome at the end, and the new characters are pretty well fleshed-out (except I kept getting all those Aunts and Great-Aunts jumbled in my mind!). The one thing that puzzled me is that in earlier Chrestomanci stories (The Lives of Christopher Chant and Charmed Life), people are always coming and going from towns near Chrestomanci Castle, with no problems, but in this book [where the background of the story has been going on for many hundreds of years] people have trouble getting to some of the towns without an escort from the Pinhoe family. I'm not familiar with the geopolitical setup of English towns; perhaps there really are this many different small towns within eyeshot of the Castle. Otherwise, a great read, worth staying up late to finish.
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21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
SPOILER ALERT, October 13, 2006
I'm only writing this to warn you that the review right below mine (if it hasn't been removed) has MAJOR SPOILERS. It reads like a book report and gives away the entire book. I guess that's great if you want to know what your kid is reading, but terrible if you wanted to read the book yourself.
There's another review a bit further down that has one fairly solid spoiler in it as well.
So, be careful, tread lightly, read at your own risk, etc., etc.
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