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Title: The Game (Firebird)
ISBN: B001C2HXYQ
Author:
Diana Wynne Jones
Publicate Date: 2007-03-01
Publish: 2007-03-01
List Price: $11.99
Average Customer Rating: 3.5
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $4.99
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $5.27
Amazon Merchant Price: $4.99
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| Customer Review: |
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1: great book
This book is an easy and entertaining read. Originally purchased to give to my daughter for her 7th birthday as she is doing accelerated reading, and wanted to proof it for myself. I think I will hold it for her next birthday as 7 might be a bit too young but that would depend on the child. Great way for younger kids to be able to read about magic, mythical creatures, and learn some mythology at the same time.
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2: Surprisingly mediocre
This author can almost always be relied upon for solid, if not brilliant, fantasy reads, but this one is a pale imitation of Percy Jackson and the Olympians (the Gods leaving mortal children with superpowers all over the earth who gradually learn to control their powers). It deservedly should go into the remainders bin.
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3: More like an outline for a possible series of novels than a stand alone story
I am a big fan of Diana Wynne Jones -- at her best there is no one who writes better (easy reading) fantasy in the English language. This novella (too short to be called a novel) is not her best. She has a grand concept here (though one that is not entirely unique as a similar notion is employed in Neil Gaiman's American Gods novels): that the collective beliefs we call myths take on a life of their own, in a parallel series of realities she calls the "mythosphere." Some individuals can "slip" in and out between their mythical existence and the world we call home.
Given that premise, "The Game" seems like a rough draft of a possible opening story that would introduce such a universe. The problem is that she published it, and it appears to stand alone. On its own this novella doesn't really do justice to the grand idea behind it.
The story only hints, for example, at what might happen when mythical beings from different strands interact. It doesn't go very far in clarifying the precise relation between the "mythosphere" and "mundane existence" and doesn't explain how these realms connect -- as another reviewer mentioned: the time scales of both seem to be very different but there is no indication of how that affects the characters' experiences of "mundane" reality. It also never really fleshes out the characters and especially the main character -- except to depict her as the standard type of fantasy hero/heroine: an orphan who is raised by adults who don't understand her and fear what she can become, finally gets a chance to escape and meet others like her and discover that her destiny is great.
Part of the problem is that what Jones is trying to do is keep the true identities of the characters a mystery until the very end when we are supposed to discover who they really are, and have an aha! moment that explains why they are the way they are. But to make that work we have to really connect with the character first on mundane terms before we discover their "extra-mundane" identity -- Jones did this very well in "Dogsbody" where I really felt that she gave me a window into the inner life of a dog before showing that this was no ordinary dog. But another major part of the problem is that we didn't get a long enough or clear enough view of what it was like to enter the mythosphere -- her descriptions didn't bring this to life for me but only seemed to sketch it. This is in contrast with her wonderful Chrestomanci series where I really felt like the world she described of parallel universes and some who could move between them was a living world.
I think she could have developed this world into something as compelling and real as the Chrestomanci world, and that this would have made a nice introductory story if it were developed a bit more. Even though we only have a glimpse here of what might have been it remains an imaginative and exciting set of possibilities she allows us to glimpse, and remains worth reading for that reason.
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4: An Enjoyable Novella Where Myths, Fairy Tales, Legends and Fables Live Side by Side
Hayley, a young girl living in London with her loving grandad and strict grandma, is bored with a life entirely bound by her grandma's rules. Then a street musician named Flute, who doesn't live by the usual rules, walks through a wall into her garden. He shows Hayley the mythosphere--something she had only heard about from her granddad--a place where all the myths, legends, fables and fairy tales exist. Hayley finds it fascinating, but is disturbed by the grim turn that many of the stories in the mythosphere take. Then Hayley's grandma gets angry at her, although Hayley can't figure out why, and Hayley's packed off to live with family in Ireland. There she finds a boisterous collection of aunts and cousins and a game that the cousins' play, which is a sort of scavenger hunt in the mythosphere, where participants must gather everything from Cinderella's glass slipper to Beowulf's drinking horn. It's not all fun and games, though, as events quickly lead to Hayley discovering family secrets, what happened to her parents, and why everyone is so afraid of Uncle Jolyon.
THE GAME is an interesting concept, as it weaves together so many myths, fairy tales, fables, etc., and puts new faces on old gods. The mythosphere is especially fascinating and it's a shame that Jones didn't spend more time exploring it. The novella's short length means that the pace is relatively quick and you don't have to wait long for answers. And, as always, Jones is an excellent writer. On the downside, it does leave many unanswered questions, which I can't really get into here as they're too spoilery, but basically once I found out the truth about Hayley's family I started wondering how they acted, for the most part, like such normal people. It also wrapped up much too neatly (probably due to the novella's length) and there were way too many characters to keep proper track of all of them (especially the aunts; I stopped even really trying to sort them out after they were introduced). While it's not my favorite Jones work, this is a solid, enjoyable novella.
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5: great idea but not developed
I'm a fan of Diana Wynne Jones, but I was disappointed by this one. Hayley, the main character, joins her cousins in a game in the mythosphere. You can read about the plot in some of the other reviews. The mythosphere, a place where all the myths have some sort of physical reality, is a wonderful idea, and I hope Jones goes back to it. But in this book there's no character development and very little at risk, so the story just doesn't hook the reader. And though the book is intended for children, say 10-13, it assumes a familiarity with myth that American children, at least, will not have. There isn't even enough description--I wanted to know a lot more about the mythosphere, and about the objects the children gather there.
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