The Merlin Conspiracy - Trick or Treason?
Diana Wynne Jones is without a doubt and by universal assent the very best author of fantastic fiction currently writing. She admits to preferring to write for children, because children can handle more complex plots and weirder distortions of the world than adults. At least, so I remember from reading an interview with her that I no longer can find. (Oh, and for the obligatory comparison with J.K. Rowling: there is no comparison. Rowling writes mundane boarding school schmaltz with a bit of mundane magic thrown in. If her characters weren't so engaging, nothing would be left. With Diana Wynne Jones you never know what's going to happen. If you like your books tame, stick to JKR, if you like real imagination, order DWJ's back catalogue when you buy this book.)
The Merlin Conspiracy is billed as Diana Wynne Jones' first childrens novel in a decade, and perhaps it is, in the sense that the main protagonists are children. On the other hand, it is a sequel to the for-adults novel Deep Secret, which I hadn't identified as a for-adults novel, either. Oh well, it's more important that The Merlin Conspiracy is 473 pages, and that it's a bit too short. I have a nagging feeling that some editor wanted a bit snipped off the end. As other reviewers on the various review sites have remarked, the end is a bit abrubt. Shortish — I would have liked it drawn out a bit more.
That said, from the first page to the last, the events fairly fly around ones ears at a rate of knots, the plot thickens until it's as thick as a brick, but still absolutely lucid, and the development of the main protagonists, Nick, whom we have first acquainted in Deep Secret, and Roddy, a new introducee, show themselves from their best, most interesting side. As usual, Diana Wynne Jones is spot on in their description of a teenage boy. I mean — Nick immediately knows he fancies Roddy when he sees her, but when he finally folds her in his arms, he knows he's got not just a big, warm, wet-with-tears body, but also a personality that pricks. And he likes it.
In a delightful variation on the usual children-keep-mum-and-dad-outside-their-conspiracy trope, the children in this book try to tell the various responsible adults everything they find out. Only the adults don't listen at all, not even either of Roddy's two grandfathers, and one of them is Gwyn ap Nud, the lord of Death, and the other is a Magid.
Even the most obnoxious characters, the Izzies, nine-year old twin witches have their finest hour where they show themselves to their best advantage. Perhaps Roddy's cousin Grundo should have received a more thorough thwapping, but that's my opinion. Also in my opinion, Nick doesn't need to be ashamed about the decline of Loggia. Giving slave workers a good future as the brilliant artists they are is more important than keeping an abusive economic system intact.
Well, scene after scene, world after world, elephant and goat, millenia-dead witch and transparent beings of magic, they all follow each other in quick succession. Here's no stint of imagination — it's a wonder it all fitted in only 473 pages.
If I've whetted your appetite, then click on the cover and order this book. And the rest of Diana Wynne Jones' works, if you haven't read them yet.
