Diana Wynne Jones Dalemark Quartet

[Marina]

Recommended without reservation for able readers of eight and over.
Why is this marvellous writer not as famous as JK Rowling?
Ds has really enjoyed the first volume, Cart and Cwidder and we are working our way through the second, Drowned Ammett.

Yes, she's a brilliant writer.

I never got stuck in to the Dalemark quartet but I do LOVE the Chrestomanci books, especially Charmed Life. She is wonderful although I think the stories have a tendency to go a bit bonkers, and be hard to follow, right at the denouement.

i love both the dalmark quartet and the chrestomanci books, but that's just for reading them myself as DS isn't old enought o read them too. She is fab.
Susan Cooper's dark is rising sequence is also excellent

I raced ahead with ds, I was enjoying Drowned Ammett so much, and I agree with Franny's assessment that the final chapters of The Crown of Dalemark are somewhat confusing. What DOES Kankredin do to the Palace of Tannoreth?
I was a voracious reader when young and I think these books were out then, so why didn't I come across her? I'd never heard of Wynne Jones until Chrestomanci (which we'll get to I'm sure) was recommended on here.
Loved Andre Norton, Susan Cooper, Ursula K Le Guin!

Ah yes Franny. I've always had a sneaking suspicion that to tie up loose ends she has a tendency to just get a character to say something at a very tense moment like "but don't you see...[insert v convoluted explanation here that doesn't make sense but, hey, it's magic]".

Having said that, she's been my favourite writer since I was about 10. Not so keen on her adult stuff but the Chrestomanci books, The Spellcoats and Fire & Hemlock are amazing. I also love how her books really make your brain work (even if the ends are sometimes a bit fudged).

She did have a bit of a resurgence on the back of HP (Collins and OUP did some rejacketing and some op stuff got back into print). I like to think that as a children's bookseller at the time I did my bit, forcing Witch Week and the like on parents and grandparents looking for follow-ups to Harry Potter - though Witch Week is actually much scarier than anything JKR ever wrote. The burning bits really quite disturbed me as a child.

I do agree she is scarier than JK Rowling. Noreth Onesdaughter's fate, even in its reported version, is deeply disturbing. Am hoping ds won't get to the last book too quickly, he's only 8.

Oh good, I always wondered if it was just me being dense. I think her books are superbly and carefully plotted, up until about three quarters of the way through, and then everybody suddenly starts running around very hurriedly, travelling through time and space and doing mysterious things until it is all over. And you haven't a single clue what actually happened.

DWJ rocks, there's something about her prose, esp in howl's moving castle.

my fave have to be the chrestomanci series, tho' felt v sheepish browsing thru the under 12s section in bookshop for my own reading ;-)