You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
quadrille 's review for:
Dark Lord of Derkholm
by Diana Wynne Jones
Reread of a childhood fave! I remember really liking both Derkholm books when I was a kid: it's a tongue-in-cheek version of medieval fantasy that pairs well with e.g. the works of Terry Pratchett or Robert Asprin. The premise and setup is wonderful: a magical world that's beset by tours from our own mundane reality, where witches and wizards and elves and dwarves and dragons all have to sigh and grudgingly put on a dramatic show every single year for the benefit of the tourists, leading them through staid fantasy tropes, battles between the Forces of Good and Forces of Evil included, plus Dark Lord vanquishing and everything.
Derk and his family are also adorable, with Derk like an absentminded mad scientist wizard, Mara his hypercompetent wife, and their human kids and griffin kids all with such clear identities and great bickering sibling dynamics. The 'man behind the curtain' nature of seeing them all scrambling and improvising and trying to put on a successful tour, while being vastly unprepared, was so much fun.
3.5 stars, rounded up; it wasn't quite as good as I remembered from my youth, mostly because it goes long and drags on a bit too much towards the end, but it's still a really fun read. The whole thing is full of self-aware whimsy and playful prose. Diana Wynne Jones was such a delight.
Derk and his family are also adorable, with Derk like an absentminded mad scientist wizard, Mara his hypercompetent wife, and their human kids and griffin kids all with such clear identities and great bickering sibling dynamics. The 'man behind the curtain' nature of seeing them all scrambling and improvising and trying to put on a successful tour, while being vastly unprepared, was so much fun.
3.5 stars, rounded up; it wasn't quite as good as I remembered from my youth, mostly because it goes long and drags on a bit too much towards the end, but it's still a really fun read. The whole thing is full of self-aware whimsy and playful prose. Diana Wynne Jones was such a delight.