Archer's Goon (Paperback)

by Diana Wynne Jones (Author) "The trouble started the day Howard came home from school to find the Goon sitting in the kitchen..." (more)
Key Phrases: rubbish vans, ginger boy, museum yard, Miss Potter, Ginger Hind, Town Hall (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
Wickedly witty...a very funny, very suspenseful astral tale. (Publishers Weekly )

Unpredictable and spiced with unexpected humor...Archers Goon leaves readers wanting more. (starred review) (School Library Journal )

Hilarious fantasy. (Horn Book Magazine )

The writing in Archers Goon is fine and the scenes and characters fresh and well-drawn (Washington Post Book World )

A highly original fantasy...A most intriguing book. (Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books )

A gloriously full-blown fantasy of brilliant dimensions . . . Jones humor and wit are as subtly riotous as ever. (ALA Booklist )

Product Description
"Face the facts!
This town is run by
seven megalomaniac wizards!"

When Howard Sykes comes home to find a giant thug -- the Goon -- in the kitchen, life turns upside down. Archer, one of seven siblings who control everything in their town from electricity to the police, has sent the Goon to collect the two thousand words Howard's father owes him. Suddenly, the Sykes family is caught in the middle of the wizards' battle for power -- and only Howard can save them!

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Greenwillow Books (February 18, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0064473562
• ISBN-13: 978-0064473569
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #270,689 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #23 in

  Books > Children's Books > Authors & Illustrators, A-Z > ( W ) > Wynne-Jones, Diana

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A clever story filled with magic and realism, June 12, 2003

By	Glen Engel Cox "www.engel-cox.org" (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Archer's Goon (Hardcover)

I had been wanting to read Archer's Goon for quite some time, following my discovery of Jones' Chrestomanci series and generally feeling that she was my type of writer, something that hadn't been dispelled by the enjoyment of a couple of her other novels like Eight Days of Luke and Howl's Moving Castle (which, I believe, is soon to be a motion picture). But Archer's Goon had been originally published in 1984 and no one had seen fit to bring it back into print. I searched in vain at used book stores while at the same time refusing to pay for overpriced copies over the Internet.

Then J.K. Rowling happened (the analogy to a force of nature is intended), and young adult novels with magic in them have returned to the bestseller lists and the bookshelves. HarperCollins likely combed through their backlist to find this, and I'm glad they did, for it finally gave me an affordable chance to read this novel.

The anticipation was well worth it, too. The book starts immediately with the introduction of the Goon of the title (an oversized ogre of a man) crowding the Sykes household, which consists of the protagonist Howard, aged 13; his little sister Awful; their live-in sitter Fifi; their father Quentin, a writer; and their mother Catriona, a music teacher. Archer sent the Goon there to collect 2,000 words from Quentin, something that Archer...and Archer's brothers and sisters...believe is keeping them from ruling the world. Wait? What was that again?

Yes, Archer is a wizard, and so is the rest of his family. But none of them trust the others, although they've divided the town up into different areas that each of them "farm": for example, Shine controls crime, Torquil music, Dillian law and order, Erskine the sewers, and Archer controls electricity and gas. But one of them is keeping the others from branching out and controlling the world, and it has something to do with those 2,000 words that Howard's father Quentin provides every month. Unfortunately, Quentin refuses to write those words for any of those people--not wanting to help them take over the world--and the wizards begin causing all sorts of problems for the Sykes family very quickly.

The pleasure of Jones' books is how the magic is integrated as a natural part of her worlds. While the characters who aren't magicians still see the magic as surprising, they quickly come to accept and even understand it. In the context of a children's book, such ready acceptance of the irrational mirrors the arbitrary world around young people, which oftentimes seems, if not actually is, illogical: Why can't I stay out late? Why don't we ever see dad's brothers for holidays? Why don't we always let the answering machine answer the phone, even when we are here?

Archer's Goon has plenty of twists in it, as Howard and Awful learn more about the world around them, including how their parents react to each other and the two of them, not to mention the secret of the Goon. I recommend this one highly.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How can this be? How CAN this be?, December 11, 1999

By	"fantasyfan" (Sandy, UT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Archer's Goon (Paperback)

This is one of Jones's best. With an incredibly surprising ending--and its anticlimax that is almost as good. One of the best and most captivating beginnings in existence. Incredible characters, from stubborn Quentin Sykes to the Goon himself to our minor but no less valuable and amusing Fifi. Awful is one of the best children I have ever read (the way she's portrayed, not the way she behaves) and Howard is an incredibly simple, yet complicated character.

DIANA WYNNE JONES IS ONE OF THE BEST AUTHORS IN EXISTENCE. READ ALL HER BOOKS--NO FOOLING< NO JOKING< NO LIES--THEN BUY THEM ALL--DITTO.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Totally fun (and not outta print anymore!), February 6, 2004

By	Christa Carlson "bookzinator" (Moorpark, California United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book was way fun to read, full of humor, magic and character. Amazing to think that when Diana Wynne Jones wrote this even SHE didn't know what was going to happen.

Howard Sykes comes home one day to find a goon- a huge dirty guy, anyway- sitting in his kitchen, saying that he comes from Archer, and refusing to move until he gets the 2000 words Howard's father owes him.

But the words got misplaced by Fifi, a college student who stays at the Sykes's house. So Fifi, Howard and Howard's little sister, Awful (who can live up to her name at times) go to find it.

Well, one thing leads to another and they soon find out that the whole town is run by 7 wizards (who are all related).

For me to give you a play by play here would take too long, but if you're thinking of reading this or just looking for a great book to read, I HIGHLY recommend this.