Saturday, March 9, 2013

DWJ March: Review of Spellbound


It turns out that the first book I finished for Diana Wynne Jones Month wasn't even written by her except for one short story at the end. It was Spellbound, a selection of fantasy tales "chosen by Diana" that I picked up at Half Price Books a couple of years ago simply because her name was on it. With eighteen short stories or excerpts of books from Rudyard Kipling, Eva Ibbotson, L. Frank Baum, E. Nesbit, Tove Janssen, Patricia C. Wrede, Joan Aiken and more, these stories were apparently chosen by Diana as the best of fantasy (in her opinion, of course). Unfortunately, there is no foreword or afterword talking about why she chose these particular stories, although one gets the gist of it after a while. As you read, you start seeing echoes of Howl's Moving Castle and Castle in the Sky and The Ogre Downstairs and Witch's Business and so many more of her stories and you realize that Diana's broad selection of fantasy tales were all written because they were subjects and ideas that she loved. Diana's story in this collection, "What the Cat Told Me" seems to bear the seeds of Earwig and the Witch and I loved it.

I didn't think there was a dud in the bunch (well, maybe that one based on Spenser's The Faerie Queene) except for the poor production quality of the book. It has a gorgeous cover and nice paper and, well, extra sentences and also some missing ones. For some reason, in more than one place in the book, one or two sentences are repeated. It's confusing the first time it happens and annoying the next few times. As for the missing paragraph or possibly page, that was really unfortunate. If this book had better editing and an informative foreword, I would recommend it unreservedly. My TBR has once again grown by leaps and bounds. I finally found out who the Moomins are, I immediately wanted to re-read The Silver Chair, I decided on Which Witch? for Z and my RIP read-aloud this year and I've lamented never reading Five Children and It.

There is one personal statement from Diana at the start of the excerpt from The Seven Towers by Patricia C. Wrede --
I know it is annoying to be given only the start of a story, but it is a long book and I did want to introduce you to my favorite sorceress. Here she is at her most typical.
If that isn't reason enough to pick up Wrede's book immediately, I don't know what is.

So, if you want an insight into Diana's taste in fantasy (though you likely already know it from her own work) and don't mind some wonky editing, see if you can find a copy of this book.

Learning more from my favorite witch,
K

6 comments:

  1. I randomly picked this book up at the library just this week. Same as you, I saw DWJ's name on the cover and decided to check it out. It was published under the name Fantasy Stories here in the UK and seems to be part of a wider series of books like this by the publisher (Adventure Stories, Animal Stories, Ghost Stories, etc...)

    I haven't read any of it yet, but I'm hoping it will provide much fodder for my "to read" list. :)

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    1. I bet it will! It was strange too because I actually read one of the books (The Marvelous Land of Oz) just last week. I was glad to know it was DWJ-approved. :)

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  2. I am looking for a copy of The Seven Towers now! Thanks for this review. I'll see if my library has a copy of it, I'd like to see what fantasy she chose.

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    1. It's definitely interesting to see what other stories authors enjoy/appreciate in their own genre. I don't trust authors that say they don't have time to read. :)

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  3. It's been ages since I read this book-- if I even DID read it. I bought it thinking it was short stories BY DWJ, and when it turned out not to be...well, who knows if I went through with it or not. After reading your review, I'm looking forward to (re?)reading it!

    Plus, I think now that I've actually read books by some of the authors in THIS book (Patricia C. Wrede and Eva Ibbotson, for example), I'm going to really like this book. Yay!

    - Anastasia @ Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog

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    1. I was in the same boat as you. When I first picked it up, I don't think I'd read many of the authors except for maybe Baum and Lewis. Now that I've read Wrede and Ibbotson and Aiken and others, it was a much better experience.

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