SCHOOL FETES ARE THE BEST PLACE TO GET BOOKS. Some poor deluded person will always have donated something that you deeply desire, and you will pick it up for the ludicrous price of $1! It feels almost illegal, like at any point, as you are hugging your bag of books to your chest and scurrying past the milkshake stall, you will be stopped by large men in security uniforms.
"Sorry," they'll say. "There's been some mistake here. The universe doesn't believe you should be acquiring so much literary enjoyment for so cheap a price. Hand over the books."
Uh, this has never happened to me. Obviously. But I can never shake the feeling that it might.
The excellent thing about these particular editions of Diana Wynne Jones's books (stay with me, this is relevant) is that their garish spines stand out beautifully in the Children's Books section, even though Children's Books are pretty damn colourful as a rule. When I saw this one, I leapt in, realised that it was one I hadn't read yet, and made a loud noise of gleeful acquisition, startling everyone else in the vicinity. Most of whom were...children. Funnily enough.
"Sorry," they'll say. "There's been some mistake here. The universe doesn't believe you should be acquiring so much literary enjoyment for so cheap a price. Hand over the books."
Uh, this has never happened to me. Obviously. But I can never shake the feeling that it might.
The excellent thing about these particular editions of Diana Wynne Jones's books (stay with me, this is relevant) is that their garish spines stand out beautifully in the Children's Books section, even though Children's Books are pretty damn colourful as a rule. When I saw this one, I leapt in, realised that it was one I hadn't read yet, and made a loud noise of gleeful acquisition, startling everyone else in the vicinity. Most of whom were...children. Funnily enough.
Eight Days of Luke is a very short book, so I expect my review will be short also. In fact I'm pretty sure the above blathering about fetes will comprise the majority of it.
Basic plot summary: David enjoys spending the holidays with his family about as much as Harry Potter does, so when a mysterious boy called Luke shows up out of the blue, claiming that David has released him from some kind of imprisonment, he's pretty pleased to have some company. Until some strange people start showing up and threatening him. (And even then, he's mostly pleased that his holidays are looking a lot more interesting.)
If you're at all familiar with Norse mythology -- which I am in a vague sense only; I had to look up a few things to fit the pieces together -- then you'll love this one to pieces. The mystery is satisfying, the plot bounds along at a satisfying rate, David is a very teenage teenage boy, and DWJ pulls off one of her best family portraits in showing us both the grubby psychology of his relatives and the ways in which David observes and thinks about their games and behaviours.
It's quintessentially Wynne Jonesian, which means it reads kind of like an Enid Blyton book and American Gods got drunk at a party and reproduced. (Neil Gaiman has gone on record re: how much he was and wasn't influenced by this book, which came out long before American Gods was written.) Plus there's a lot of talk about cricket, which I always like to see in my British fantasy.
And that's about it! Short & sweet.
Basic plot summary: David enjoys spending the holidays with his family about as much as Harry Potter does, so when a mysterious boy called Luke shows up out of the blue, claiming that David has released him from some kind of imprisonment, he's pretty pleased to have some company. Until some strange people start showing up and threatening him. (And even then, he's mostly pleased that his holidays are looking a lot more interesting.)
If you're at all familiar with Norse mythology -- which I am in a vague sense only; I had to look up a few things to fit the pieces together -- then you'll love this one to pieces. The mystery is satisfying, the plot bounds along at a satisfying rate, David is a very teenage teenage boy, and DWJ pulls off one of her best family portraits in showing us both the grubby psychology of his relatives and the ways in which David observes and thinks about their games and behaviours.
It's quintessentially Wynne Jonesian, which means it reads kind of like an Enid Blyton book and American Gods got drunk at a party and reproduced. (Neil Gaiman has gone on record re: how much he was and wasn't influenced by this book, which came out long before American Gods was written.) Plus there's a lot of talk about cricket, which I always like to see in my British fantasy.
And that's about it! Short & sweet.
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