n Dark Lord of Derkholm, Diana Wynne Jones introduced a magical land full of wizards, dragons, winged pigs and the off-world tourists who exploited them. Under the command of the officious Mr. Chesney and his captive demon, endless groups of vacationers from a more mundane world came to fight the year's designated Dark Lord, generally laying waste to everything about them in the process. It took an eccentric wizard named Derk and his extended, powerful, squabbling family--half of them human, the other half magical constructs, including a flock of genetically engineered griffins--to eventually set things right.
In this sequel, Mr. Chesney is long gone, but his legacy lives on. The mismanaged, impoverished Wizards' University is still turning out students stamped to Mr. Chesney's mold, capable of producing a few practical effects on command, but academically bludgeoned away from understanding the true possibilities of magic. The new roster of students, including Derk's griffin "daughter" Elda, an emperor's half-breed sister, a sheepish prince with a rogue talent for creating giant pits, and a revolutionary dwarf, find to their chagrin that the university's chairman is too busy planning a magical moon trip to pay attention to the university's horrible food, its slovenly, abusive teachers, and its students' unusually messy family problems. Most of the latest batch of wizards-to-be ran away from one or more overbearing authority figures to study magic, and their parents or guardians or enemies are hot on their trails, sometimes with armies, sometimes with assassins.
When the school is not actually being attacked, it's being browbeaten by scheming politicians, dwarves and kings come to claim their lost children.
The school's wards were meant to handle such incursions, but in the chaos, they've fallen apart. So Elda and her new friends, having barely learned the rudiments of magic, are forced to improvise ways to protect themselves and each other. The result is Jones' usual slapdash brand of screwball comedy, with 10 magical crises and 20 brands of fantastic lunacy piling on top of each other on any given page.
Sophisticated story--small stage
J.K. Rowling's sudden popularity has a lot of people asking "Okay, how do I keep my kids reading now that they've gone through all the Harry Potter books?" The most obvious answer is Diana Wynne Jones, who was writing charming, artfully clever books about student wizards, oppressive parents, fantastic creatures and wild magic 20 years before Potter was a gleam in Rowling's eye. Jones' latest book is a case in point, a witty, fast-moving yarn overwhelmingly packed with sudden twists and turns, improbable and astounding and deftly executed. More than any magical world she has ever created, this one is packed to the gills with exotica and excitement, to the point where it's surprising her characters can turn around without stepping on a manticore or tripping over a basilisk. Where Dark Lord of Derkholm poked fun at fantasy adventure gaming, Year of the Griffin is almost a parody of the Harry Potter tropes, though never a mean-spirited or disrespectful one.
But while young Harry Potter addicts will get along well with this book, older Jones fans are likely to be a bit disappointed at its short length and glossy surface. One of Jones' greatest strengths is her ability to write at a level that older kids can understand but adults can enjoy and appreciate as well. Dark Lord, one of her best books in years, was wickedly inventive, epic and surprising; Griffin, by contrast, is a chummily familiar story set on a much smaller stage. It's a short read, with a tendency to gloss over important events in quick, sometimes almost curt, summaries. The abrupt and happy ending, in which love at first sight abounds and virtually everyone pairs off into deliriously happy couples, may be a bit much even for younger readers.
Still, like so much of Jones' work, it's a smart, gleeful, thrilling ride for kids and adults alike. Jones doesn't quite achieve her usual giddy heights with this book, but she at least provides the expected allotment of surprises, suspense and sly silliness.
