Diana Wynne Jones is dead

Quoth

the only thing of hers that i was less enthusiastic about was Fire and Hemlock

it was such a strange take on the Tam Lin myths and had this weird... not pedophilia exactly but just a strange sort of relationship between the main characters, and the ending was good but somehow not satisfying to me

it is still a great book but it was just not my thing, i think

tynic

mensch-o-matic wrote: »

I haven't actually read Howl's Moving Castle but I've read Archer's Goon and it was amazing

I also tried to read another book of hers about a girl who inexplicably becomes some kind of ghost and tries to piece her life back together but it bored me so much I couldn't even finish it; does anyone remember that one?

The Time of the Ghost. I actually really like that book, but you have to wade through a certain amount of weirdness before it starts making sense. Not for everyone, probably.

edit: actually it's not dissimilar to Fire and Hemlock in some ways, but without the bizarre central relationship which I basically agree with Quoth about.

Muse Among Men

I used to really like her books as a little girl though it has been ages since I have read any of them. Sad

I should revisit some of her novels.

glass irony

Neil Gaiman's post about her is beautiful. I especially like this:

She's a wonderful author to read aloud, by the way, as I discovered when reading her books to my kids. Not only does she read aloud beautifully, but denouments which seemed baffling read alone are obvious and elegantly set up and constructed when read aloud. "Children are much more careful readers than adults," she'd say. "You don't have to repeat everything for children. You do with adults, because they aren't paying full attention."

TurnpikeLad

The first Diana Wynne Jones book I read was the Power of Three when I was 8 or so. I remember telling my parents she was my favorite author the next week, after I read Dogsbody.

She kind of still is, at least, as much as I can say I have a favorite author.

Quoth

i reread Howl's Moving Castle and i just really love how she lets the relationship between Howl and Sophie unfold

it's like Beauty and the Beast but sort of backwards?

she's also amazing at having characters misinterpret things in a perfectly reasonable way and then find out later that they're totally wrong, especially when an adult tells them something

or they'll get something right and then all the adults insist they must be wrong

SO GREAT

joshua1

Awwww.....


I used to read Darklord of Derkholm and Year of The Griffin roughly 3 times a year, until the year before last when I lost the books.

I had always hoped in my heart of hearts that she would return back to that little world she had crafted.

And I could never EVER find a cheap/good copy of her Guide to Fantasy Land.

thorgot

A duck! wrote: »

When I was young I had many of the Chrestomanci books read to me, and I learned to read very early just so I could go through books like those and The Hobbit. I'm sad to hear this, because most of my earliest memories revolve around that series.

Same here. I was read and then read every DWJ book when I was growing up. I continued to read her new and old books for nostalgia and they continue to be excellent. She will be missed by a lot of people.

Sassori

I told some of my friends about this last night and they were pretty upset.

It's a shame.

Tofystedeth

My elementary school library had 3 of the Dalemark books, I think it was Spellcoats, Cart and Cwidder, and Drowned Ammett, and I read them a couple times each. Though I will admit I didn't understand everything that went on in some of them. They were kind of downers to me then though I did like them. Now I need to go and reread them and all the rest of her stuff that I haven't.