Phoenix and Ashes – Mercedes Lackey; House of Many Ways; Diana Wynne Jones

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Phoenix and Ashes – Mercedes Lackey

I had Phoenix and Ashes in my bookpile when I rambled about The Wizard of London and I didn’t even remember that I had it. Oh well…

Anyway, this book is better than that one. It doesn’t skip around and it feels more concrete. This could do with the fact it’s structured around its fairytale a lot more solidly. It could also be because it’s set after both The Wizard of London and The Serpent’s Shadow and is more solid for having all that back story.

Either way, it’s better, although I can’t find much to comment about, except I found it amusing that Alison (the villainess) concocted the Spanish Influenza to prevent the American troops from joining the war. NO ONE EXPECTS THE SPANISH INFLUENZA!
And I may have been reading too much Doctor Who fanfiction, but a friend of Reggie’s is called the Brigadier. I get the general impression that this one is far more convivial than Doctor Who’s…

Oh, and there’s masses and masses of tarot symbology. Rather interesting symbology, as it’s aligned with elements, rather than just meanings.
It kind of makes me want to dig up my mum’s set and its accompanying booklet or to pick up the pieces of paper that sit under my laptop and re-learn my futhark.

I also forgot to mention that Maya, the heroine of The Serpent’s Shadow, plays a minor role in the book as does David Alderscroft (the titular character of The Wizard of London). (I also understand that a character from The Gates of Sleep is mentioned.)
So yay for continuity in that respect, but I still want to see Isabelle or Sarah or Nan rather than David Alderscroft. Especially since Maya has a seat on that council thing and Isabelle was COMPLAINING about that at the end of her book.

I shouldn’t complain about junk food books, but while this was so much more satisfying than the last Mercedes Lackey book I read, it still feels lacking. Unlike, but kind of like this next book…

House of Many Ways – Diana Wynne Jones

I finally got around to reading this sequel to Howl’s Moving Castle of which I am ardent fan of the book version. Not fan enough to write for it except in drabbles and crossovers, but still, I am quite fond of the beautiful Howl and the practical Sophie.

So, while the old cast are not the major characters, House of Many Ways was FUN. I loved getting to see Howl and Sophie PROPERLY again rather than just as a cat and a rug or whatever they were turned into and Charmain is rather endearing. Morgan was utterly adorable and has probably inherited his father’s self-assured sense of beauty which is probably BAD in a child of two. Waif was cute too and Peter was dorkable.
And I don’t particularly care if the way all the Castle books end is bad writing with how all the visible story threads (and quite a few invisible ones as well) tie up into a big happy knot, I like it. The convention suits the story type.

Anyway, I had tremendous fun reading this. Howl’s letter to Great-Uncle William is rather interesting, with dimensional/demented work and Murdoch’s Ear/Merlin’s Arm/Murphy’s Law. Kind of wonder what he’s getting up to now with that door of his…

Finding out that Mr. Baker was using magic under his wife’s nose was fairly priceless too, although not quite as much as getting a nice solid description of Sophie, as I don’t recall ever getting a very clear description of what she looked like. Although my memory is often horrible, I’m pretty sure we didn’t get one in Howl’s Moving Castle, as, you know, Sophie doesn’t believe herself to be that pretty and Castle in the Air doesn’t feature her much. So, she has strawberry blond/red gold hair and blue green eyes, which I may need to remember at some other time.

Fun. Even if I do love Sophie and the succession storylines better than I liked Charmain’s.