Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones

[meganbmoore]

Abdullah is a (mostly) humble carpet merchant in the city of Zanzib. His father, being very disappointed in him due to a prophecy at his birth, left him only enough money to set himself up a small stall in the bazaar, leaving most of his money to his first wife’s sons. Things start to change, though, when a man sells him a flying carpet. That night, he sleeps on the carpet, and wakes up in a palace garden, meeting a princess named Flower-in-the-Night. He thinks it’s a daydream, but the next morning he can’t find his sleeping cap, and he realizes that it was real. He keeps visiting her at night, and they (naturally) fall in love and plan to elope. The night they plan to elope, however, a djinn kidnaps the princess from the carpet.

Abdullah is arrested, but manages to escape and sets off to find her with the carpet, acquiring a djinn in a bottle, a size-changing cat and her kitten, and an ex-soldier turned conman and thief. For the first two-thirds, it’s a fairly obvious retelling of several Arabian Nights tales, most notably Aladdin. It is, however, very well done, and very charming. A hero whose survival skills and heroic abilities are limited to his wits and his flowery (and occasionally bargaining) tongue! A grumpy djinn who tries to make every wish go horribly bad! A magic carpet that will only fly when flattered! The only real drawback is that Flower-in-the-Night wasn’t really developed beyond the generic “damsel in distress princess” before being kidnapped.

But then we get to the last third, and we move into the awesome territory. 

SPOILERS!

Advertising it as a sequel to Howl’s Moving Castle did, I think, make some identities obvious. Calcifer as the carpet that needed prompting especially. I actually thought that Howl was Midnight, and Sophie was Whippersnapper (mind you, I was thinking this was something that had been done to them…) and then Howl as the djinn if that wasn’t the case. And then Sophie and Morgan were revealed to be Midnight and Whippsnapper, and I decided Howl was either the dog (even though that was a bit too obvious) and Howl the djinn.

But the princesses! Already planning to rescue themselves! And having to protect their rescuers and being put out at having to rearrange their plans! And I loved the soldier deciding he’d rather have the practical and no-nonsense princess instead of the pretty young princesses, because he thinks they’d get along better. Really, I almost would have rather the book be about them in captivity and plotting their escape, with the rescuers showing up near the end. But that’s me being me.

And I love Sophie lovingly listing off Howl’s character flaws, and then saying they weren’t vices, they were just Howl. As fond as I am of Howl, I suspect that I’m in the minority in that I love Sophie about 20 times more. But Howl and Sophie as parents? That has concerning potential. (A frank and practical but vain coward, perhaps?)

And even though she wasn’t around much, I do think that Jones was able to make it clear the Flower-in-the-Night was choosing Abdullah for himself and not girlish daydreams, but I still wish she’d been around more and had more development. 

Comments

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

I love them equally!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

But can you imagine Howl being tolerable without Sophie?

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

err, yes.

Then again House wouldn't stand out from most of my (RL) friend, I have a high level of tolerance.

oh no, you're not.

[calledinvain.livejournal.com]

I love Howl, but I adore Sophie. Castle in the Air is a good book (in retrospect. When I read it right after Howl all those years ago, I wasn't as giddy.)
thankfully, House of Many Ways seems to fit the HMC world/canon, a bit more.

Re: oh no, you're not.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

If it wasn't labeled as such on the cover, I think it wouldn't be obvious it was a sequal until "wait...don't I know this?" over halfway through. And I think it would read better that way, because then you wouldn't be looking for Howl and Sophie.

[fairest1.livejournal.com]

Sophie is awesome. Incredibly awesome. I could have read another few chapters in the first book of just her making hats.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Even when she was dull, she was more interesting than many "fascinating" characters, if you know what I mean.

[fairest1.livejournal.com]

The mundanely awesome ones, the characters that make you just a little disappointed when they go off on adventures and stuff because you enjoyed reading about their day-to-day lives so much.

[chomiji]

I'm glad you found a DWJ you liked!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Actually, it's 5 like(all but 1 more-than-like) and one "don't dfislike, but have problems with the voice."

Come to think of it, though, I think I read HMC and the first 4 Chrestomanci books while you were on vacation a while back.

[chomiji]

Ahhh, I see.

The funny thing is, of the Chrestomanci books, Witch Week is the only one I come back to really often, although I sometimes get the urge to read The Lives of Christopher Chant over. The DWJs I really like are some of the other ones ... . I think that although the Chrestomanci books are enjoyable for me, they lack a certain intensity that books need to have if I'm to love them.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I think my favorite of those was The Magicians of Caprona, but there might be a slightly malicious reason behind that. While I appreciate what Shakespeare was saying about the follies of youthful infatuation in Romeo and Juliet I rather despise how it's held up as a Great Romance, and so much gets compared to their "love story," and think they're a pair of twits. And The Magicians of caprona was rather "Romeo and Juliet with magic...and if they had brains."

With Week was proof that DWJ is one of several authors who JKR should issue official thanks to for "inspiration."

The only one I have problems with is Charmed Life, because I couldn't stand Cat or Gwendolyn, and Cat's persistent refusal to realize anything was wrong even when people told him there was something wrong, and then his going from spineless and powerless to confident, independent and powerful in one page kept me from ever warming up to him.

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

Sophie>Howl, it is true.

You should read House of Many Ways, I'm maybe halfway through and both Howl and Sophie make an appearance! And the heroine is such a bookworm she picks up a book whenever she is in a distressing situation.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

But that's only logical!

[amewarashi.livejournal.com]

I admit I love Howl because he's quite an oddball for a love interest, he makes me laugh, and I might or not have developed this thing for wizards in general. But Sophie IS the most awesome thing.

I really enjoyed this book regardless of the cameos (I was told not to expect it to be a direct sequel beforehand, so I wasn't disappointed), and the whole princesses thing was neat. And yay Beatrice/Soldier!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Beatrice/Soldier was great.

I think the "Sequel" bit should be removed, if only because it distracts us while we look for Sophie and Howl.

[lastseptember.livejournal.com]

I felt Castle in the Air was a bit too wandering, I assume that was intentional, but alas, did not work for me. I figure out Sophie's identity straight away. In a weird way, I've always seen her in that light...

I've met men a bit like Howl, though not so endearing, and I cannot help but agree with you: some men just need a certain type of woman to keep them from being silly.

I, too, loved the princesses. I love how Jones can in so many ways say: "Girls can be just as good/better than boys."

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Aside from Christopher Chant and Howl, I haven't found DWJ's male character's to be as interesting as her female characters (I find Howl less interesting than Sophie, but more interesting than most of her other characters...but I'd find Howl boring without Sophie...) This is even true of Fire and Hemlock, which is a good story and has a sympathetic heroine, but it's written so strongly in her voice, and she so strongly opposed to anything she associates with being female (even if she doesn't understand what that means) that I find it hard to read.

That, however, is increasingly normal for me.