Customer Reviews

Year of the Griffin

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm a big fan of Diana Wynne Jones, and I was surprised by the style of this book. Year of the Griffin is the sequel to Dark Lord of Derkholm, and takes place eight years after that book ends. In the book, Derk's youngest griffin daughter Elda goes of to the University to become a wizard; she makes friends with five other students quickly. The book contains some of DWJ's trademarks; funny but not perfect characters, hidden depths to those characters, and a world where nothing is only what it seems to be. But perhaps because of the number of the characters, the end of the story seems more concerned with wrapping up their lives than the plot; the plot, unlike in most of Jones' novels, is secondary to the characters. The book is thoroughly enjoyable, but I would not reccomend it to people who haven't read her work before. If you're a first time reader, try Charmed Life or Howl's Moving Castle or Hexwood or Deep Secret--all wonderful--and come back to this one later. Chances are you will.

I love D.W.J, and this book is great! This time, the main character is Elda, Derk's griffin daughter, who has gone to school at the wizard university. "Year of the Griffin" includes assasination attempts, crushes, pirates, idiot teachers, and new griffins. Read "Dark Lord of Derkholm" before "Year of the Griffin" if you can find it, because that will help you understand it beter. You might find "Dark Lord" in a local library, but it is out of print and might be hard to find. I think that "Year of the Griffin" deserves another sequal.

... although I still haven't quite figured out in my head how their beaks move then they talk because we use lips to form words and they don't have any.

Anyways, this is the sequel to Dark Lord of Derkholm (which you really should read first), and although different in quality is equally as entertaining. I loved seeing the familiar characters pop in and out, and getting updates on them. Although I would have liked to see more of them, I hardly noticed as we were busy getting to know a whole new cast of intriguing character... Elda's new classmates.

I took this book up in the evening just before bedtime. Always a bad idea. I was reading all night! I thought I would have enough self control to stop after a chapter or so but Diana Wynne Jones had me hooked. Right from our first meeting with Elda's new classmates, I was already laughing out loud.

Instead of the questing and defeating the enemies tone of the first book, this book focused more on renewal and growth, of both Elda and her classmate friends, as well as of the University. And as I mentioned before, it was great to hear of all the familiar faces.

I long for a third book from this world! Her fan website says she has promised her sister that she will write one. Can't wait!

I loved this book I couldn't stop reading it all day. I cannot wait untill she writes her next book in this series because a lot of things were left unfinished. All I know is I am going to check everyday to see if a new one is out!

Diana Wynne-Jones' "Dark Lord of Derkholm" remains the cleverest spoof of pretentious fantasies. The sequel, "Year of the Griffin," takes a slightly different turn, focusing on some rather strange young wizards-in-training, as they try to keep themselves in the frying pan rather than the fire.

Because the offworld tours have stopped, money has become scarce. Wizard Corkoran, the new head of Wizard University (who is obsessed with reaching the moon), hopes to soak the parents of the new first years. They consist of a mysterious young foreigner, a pirate girl, an impoverished prince, a half-Marsh girl with a jinx, a runaway dwarf, and the griffin daughter of Wizard Derk. None of them have any money, and quite a few aren't even supposed to be there. To top it off, their magic is anything but normal.

When Corkoran stupidly sends out money-seeking letters to their parents and relatives, the students start trying to magically protect themselves from the Emir, a pirate, the dwarf overseers, and the Romanesque Empire. Add some primitive griffins, a vindictive teacher, and some magic gone horribly awry, and it's a year to never forget... especially when they take an unexpected trip to Mars.

Those expecting a retread of "Dark Lord" will be disappointed; "Year" is more along the lines of "students at a wizard school battle evil," albeit far more imaginatively than most books with that theme. Jones happily mashes together Roman empires, pirates, fantasy dwarves (complete with armor and underground cities), and ties it together with her previous book. Don't worry, reading "Dark Lord" is not necessary, though it is recommended.

Writing is amusing, descriptive and often pleasantly quirky; Jones never stops juggling personal quirks and weird relationships. However, the final chapters are the weakest part of the book. While the conclusion is being cooked up through the entire book, it feels a bit lifeless. The way the problems are dealt with feel a bit contrived. However, the long-suffering tiny assassins and the wandering furniture add the typical Jones sparkle to the proceedings. (Things never go quite smoothly in her worlds)

The quirky cast is mostly quite well done. Elda is a pleasant heroine, although her crush on Corkoran is a little distracting. Felim and Ruskin are delightful, while Olga and Lukim are just engaging. (No pun intended) Claudia and Corkoran, while well-written enough, never really come to life.

While not really on the same theme as "Dark Lord of Derkholm," "Year of the Griffin" is still an entertaining fantasy tale with a bit of botched magic, student crushes, and the occasional dizzy assassin.

Year of the Griffin is one of the finest fantasy books I've read in a while. The characters are so authentic and well-described, you feel like you've known them forever after just a few pages. The plot has all the complex and witty twists we expect from Jones. I think this book is better than Dark Lord because it surpasses fantasy, in that I think even non-fantasy fans would love this book. In fact, I read it to my parents, and they loved it! It's the kind of book that has you laughing constantly, but also touches you emotionally. It can be a little sappy, but it's handled well, and who doesn't like a little sweetness now and then? All in all, I just can't wait to read the next one, and find out what all the characters are up to!

In this sequel to "The Dark Lord of Derkholm", we follow Derk's daughter Elda's first year at the Wizard's University. Elda is an enthusiastic, excitable girl who happens to be a griffin. The story focuses on the shortcomings of the faculty of the Wizard's University (all of whom learned magic purely to service the tours which until recently devasted the country), and the various problems of Elda's circle of friends (whose family/people at home would be less than happy to know where they are).

Year of the Griffin is a fun little romp, but doesn't reach the heights of intensity and resonance found in so many other of Jones' novels. Perhaps because the primary cast is so big, the resolutions of their problems aren't felt so intensely. It also seems like a novel is missing from in between "Griffin" and "Dark Lord", as most of Elda's family are off cleaning up a war on another continent and a number of characters involved in the close of "Griffin" seem to have originated in this "missing period" between "Dark Lord" and "Griffin".

Definitely buy "Griffin" - it's a thoroughly enjoyable romp. But at times it feels like the surface of several novels whose depths we never quite reach.

Dark Lord of Derkholm is a great standalone book, of course, but Year of the Griffin adds to the world, with returning characters and new ones. Elda, daughter of the wizard Derk, sets off to attend the Wizards' University. There, she meets five other students who each have problems in their own societies that they are trying to escape. The result is both humourous and almost disastrous, and all the loose ends are tied up by the novel's end.

This book seemed to be about half as long as it should have been for everything that happened in it. The action sequences are reminiscent of Jones' prequel The Dark Lord of Derkholm, but when there was a lull things seemed to happen offstage a lot. I enjoy the way Diana Wynne Jones writes, in that the griffin characters, although nonhuman, are still people. However, as much as I like the characters and feel for them, the story seemed squashed, as if there was too much happening at once to write in one book.

Warning, very minor spoilers ahead.

In particular the romances wrapped up all too quickly at the end. Lydda's was forgivable, though it feels like there should be another book or a half of one devoted to the trip to the other continent, meeting the griffins there and ending their war, and the trip back. But if this book's last chapter is any indication, love at first sight is incredibly common. Perhaps the author simply isn't good at writing romance; but I felt cheated at the end to see everyone getting paired up, all crushed into about ten pages. Perhaps if the relationships had been scattered through the rest of the book and it were expanded by about five chapters it wouldn't feel so sudden. The author should try to take a cue from other famous fantasy authors, such as Mercedes Lackey and Terry Pratchett, and at least have characters interacting for some time before they fall in love. It would certainly make them ring truer to the reader.

I really enjoyed this book. Dark Lord was a change of pace for me; not what I usually read; but it hooked me. So when I found out it had a sequel, it made my day.
Year of the Griffin is entertaining, funny, somewhat unpredictable, and just plain marvelous.
It was nice to get to know Elda, and her five classmates ensure that the beginning of school will be anything but normal.
The descriptions of their spellcasting were very funny, and I must admit to laughing outloud when Felim was encased in a beehive of books.
I would recommend this book highly to anyone who wants to finish a book with a smile on their face.