The Year of the Griffin - Softcover

Diana Wynne Jones

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0575070471 ISBN 13: 9780575070479

Publisher: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 2000

Synopsis

The Wizards' University is short of money. Nothing comes in from tourists any more since Mr Chesney's offworld tours have stopped. High Chancellor Querida has left Wizard Derk and his family to run the world and handsome Wizard Corkoran to run the University. Corkoran is really only interested in being the first man to walk on the moon, but he does send begging letters to the students' parents. But Wizard Derk's daughter Elda turns out to be a large golden griffin, King Luther's son is penniless, the Emperor's sister has been disowned by the Senate and the dwarf, far from owning a hoard of treasure, turns out to be a runaway slave. And then the first reply from a student's family arrives - in the form of assassins ...The situation is definitely out of control.

About this title

Review

In the very strange Pilgrim Parties of Diana Wynne Jones's Dark Lord of Derkholm, tourists from the next universe would come to wizards' lands expecting to have exciting battles with dwarfs, dragons, and the powers of darkness. Sadly, wizards were forced to host these hokey yet horrific pseudoadventures, and in the process, laid waste to their lands. But as its sequel Year of the Griffin begins, we learn with some relief that the mercenary Mr. Chesney's magic tours had ended eight years previous. While that is excellent news, the Wizards' University is now decidedly short of funds.

Wavy-blond-haired Professor Corkoran has plenty of schemes for extracting money from his students' families. But he always has plenty of ideas, and none of them work. Besides, he is too busy researching how to be the first man to walk on the moon to do much of anything else. As his new crop of students shows up, Corkoran is in for a surprise. Not only do none of them have any money, but one is a huge griffin, "brightly golden in fur and crest and feathers, so sharply curved of beak, and so fiercely alert in her round orange eyes that at first sight she seemed to fill a room." (Meet Elda, softhearted yet gigantic daughter of Wizard Derk.)

The hilarious goings-on begin when Corkoran's moneymaking schemes backfire horribly, and the motley crew of would-be wizards begin their studies. Comical tableaux involving spells that create deep pits and smelly winged monkeys alternate with suspenseful (yet always amusing) scenes involving tiny assassins who mean business. Jones's satirical pokes at academia, racial intolerance (the greenish and jinxed Claudia has mixed blood), and hierarchical societies (Ruskin is bucking the tyranny of the forgemasters to become the first dwarf wizard) keep the story lively, as do the realistic portrayals of her very odd and endearing cast of characters. You definitely don't have to have read Dark Lord to enjoy this wonderful sequel, but you may not be able to resist going back to it. (Ages 12 and older) --Karin Snelson

From the Back Cover

EIGHT YEARS AFTER the end of Mr. Chesney's offworld Pilgrim Parties, the Wizards' University is in a shambles. Wizard Derk's griffin daughter Elda and her fellow first-year students encounter tyrannical tutors, boring lectures, and truly terrible refectory food. But things get even worse when the University sends a letter to each of their families begging for funds. Now Elda and her friends must contend with a band of trained assassins, a flock of renegade griffins, and an unexpected trip to the moon. Even with all the magical means at their disposal, will they make it through their first year?

About this edition

• Publisher: Victor Gollancz Ltd.
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0575070471
• ISBN 13: 9780575070479
• Binding: Paperback