14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Comedy, sci-fi, fantasy--and much, much more., August 31, 1998
By A Customer
Global warming, world wars, nuclear fission: Did you ever stop to think that any of these were not exactly natural? That perhaps someone else, some outsider was manipulating Earth for reasons unknown? That's part of the premise of "A Sudden Wild Magic," a hilarious sci-fi/fantasy novel set on Earth, a parllel universe, and a small orbiting dimension known as Arth.
When the Ring--a society of benevolent witches and wizards, and quite sophisticated ones I might add, who guard Earth without the knowledge of ordinary humans--discovers the existence of a "pirate" universe, one manipulating Earth's climate and politics in order to gain answers for problems in their own world, they decide that these pirates must be stopped. This is to be accomplished by sending a small commando crew into the citadel of Arth, an offshoot of the pirate universe, where they will learn the otherworlders' plans and stop them. Of course, nothing goes as scheduled, and the invading crack force is diminished into a scant handful of women who, their original plans gone awry, decide to wreak as much havoc as possible. And how do they plan to succeed with no weapons, no sorcery, no nothing? Well, in a citadel devoted to (enforced) celibacy and where food is your basic nutritive...substance...a pretty face and a good cook can do a *lot* of damage. Wait: There's more coming. Add several centaurs, a young ruler who's fed up to the eyeballs with training at Arth (the food is bad enough, but it's the celibacy that's really getting to him), and a megalomaniac witch who sorcerously cloned her son several years ago, and you begin to get a general idea of the time you're in for. And it only gets better...
Fascinating and comedic characters abound in this book: Gladys, a quirky old woman who talks to cats and gods with equal nonchalance; Jimbo, her other-dimensional pet; the rigid High Head of Arth and his perennially put-upon aide, Edward; Mark, a Ring mage with what you could definitely call a split personality; and Zillah, a young mother with a wild, strange power of her own. Even minor characters appear fully drawn, such as Sim the crooked mechanic, or the king of the Pentarchy who looks something like a clerk and likes to shop while invisible. Philo the gualdian (a race very similar to humans, but the eyes are different) and Josh the centaur are charming.
The variation in this book is incredible--there are terrifying moments, serious ones, humorous episodes, and literally laugh-out-loud moments. (Picture a citadel of formerly sober and sedate monks doing the conga, and you'll see what I mean.) This is a book to be read once through for the story, once for the language, once to savor it, and several more times, merely because it deserves it. Enjoy, enjoy! And don't annoy any ether monkeys...
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Don't Judge a Book. . ., April 18, 2003
I love Diana Wynne Jones' work, but I actually avoided reading this book for YEARS because of <shame!> the cover. The pastel color scheme and curly pink title script just seemed to repel my hand every time I encountered it on the shelf. I finally got around to reading it, though, and I loved it. It is set in the same universe as *Deep Secret* but I'm pretty sure it was written before that book, so the universe is not as well-articulated. I would have liked to know more about some of the characters, but otherwise it was a rollicking good read. It follows, among other things, a handful of witches out to sabotage a pocket universe full of celibate men (hilarity ensues), in order to save the earth from global warming (among other things).
If you already like D.W. Jones' books, don't miss this one. If you've never read any of her books, you might do better to start with *Deep Secret* or the Chrestomanci books. And if you pick up a copy with the pink title and pale aqua-colored book jacket, don't be misled-- it's still a good book.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful book by my favorite fantasy author, May 21, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: A Sudden Wild Magic (Gollancz Sf S.) (Mass Market Paperback)
It starts out on Earth with a magician named Mark Lister and he finds proof for his theory that there is a "pirate universe" that started World War II, caused Chernobyl and Global Warming, and other major problems on Earth in order to find solutions to similar problems on their worlds. He goes to another wizard in the Inner Ring (a society of magicians who make sure that nothing too bad happens on Earth), Gladys, and convinces her that he is right. Then after much planning, they launch a capsule full of people armed with virus magic to try to stop the pirate universe. There, the people run into problems because half of the people die in crossing and so does the virus magic, so they have no way of stopping their enemies. In Arth (the pirate universe) there are other people who are also out of place. They become friends with Zillah (one of the people from the capsule) and her baby son Marcus. Very complicated with many sets of characters because the action goes back and forth from Earth (Mark's point of view)to the pirate universe (point of view of the people living there). Very good!
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