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lizshayne 's review for:

Drowned Ammet by Diana Wynne Jones
3.5
challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This series seems to be Jones before she gets, for lack of a better word, twisty in her plots. They're not pulling a bunch of threads together to construct a massive "everything comes together in the last few moments" perfectly the way her later work does.
This is, if anything, her attempt at writing Tolkienian fantasy. Which, for all that she is his student, is not her strong suit. But you can see the echoes of Tolkien in it except that Tolkien already knows the answers - what do you fight for, what is the numinous, by what right do I fight?
Jones' characters are trying to answer that question.
She does have his ability to make the landscape sacred, though.
Also I wonder if anyone has kept track of how often the mythological figures of the land turn up in Jones' works?