House of Many Ways

This is book 3 in the "Howl's Moving Castle" series and it's back in more familiar territory than book 2 was. The setting is pseudo-European rather than pseudo-Arab, and our favorite characters (i.e., Howl, Sophie, Calcifer, etc.) have larger parts in this book than the previous one -- although they're not the POV characters again, this time around.Perhaps because I'd just finished book 2 and knew what it was like, I expected the structure of this book to be what it was. Charmain is a young-ish woman, a bookworm, and she's been given the duty of watching her great-uncle's home while he is away for medical treatment. The great-uncle is a wizard and Charmain has neither household skills nor magical training (her mother doesn't believe it's respectable).She uses the opportunity of being away from home to write to the King and ask to assist him in making a catalog of all the documents/books/etc. in his library, a task she's heard is ongoing. Somewhat to her surprise, the King accepts her help. Early in her stay at the wizard's home, a boy named Peter shows up, claiming to be apprenticed to the wizard. Charmain is rather frustrated by Peter, who attempts all manner of spells but can't seem to get them right, no matter what. Also joining Charmain and Peter at the wizard's home is a small dog, Waif.I rather enjoyed the descriptions of the house. It seems like a total dump at first, with bags of laundry strewn everywhere (the source of all these bags of laundry is never mentioned) and half-empty teapots covering many surfaces. And only a few small rooms, including a kitchen sink without any taps for getting water out! Charmain soon discovers that there is more to the house than there seems. I like the process of discovery of the house's secrets very much, and the idea that the sequence of steps and turns you take in a hallway can make the hallway lead somewhere other than what you expected. I also enjoyed the humor of some of Charmain's and Peter's attempts at housekeeping, some of which turn out better than others.All is not right in this kingdom, though, and Charmain is given a second task as part of an investigation into the kingdom's problems, so there's a bit of a mystery involved, as well. It's nicely worked into the story, and even ties back to some seemingly unrelated events from the earliest part of the book. So the whole thing comes together very well into a unified whole.Charmain isn't my favorite lead character from Diana Wynne Jones, but she's suitably complex. I think the main thing I don't get about her is the notion that she ALWAYS wants her head in a book, to the exclusion of nearly anything else. She's also rather short with Peter, even though he's actually willing to step in and do the housework on occasion (though she often resolves to be nicer to him). However, she does undergo a bit of a transformation and becomes more well-rounded as the story progresses. Peter is reasonably well-developed for a secondary character. None of the other characters have a lot of depth (though of course we know Howl, Sophie, and Calcifer from before, as well as Jamal the cook and his dog from book 2). But this is really Charmain's book.As with the previous two books, I'd say this is fairly suitable for children. The book contains no adult language or situations. There's some violence with respect to magical creatures and transformed magical creatures in this volume that seems a little darker than anything in the previous books, so watch out for that. It's not described in gory detail or anything. It was just a little surprising considering the tone of the earlier books.Finally, if you liked the madcap nature of the final confrontation scenes from the previous two books, well, the author has done it again -- gathered a lot of people (and sometimes a few animals) in the same room for a bit of action, some revelations, and a lot of noise. I think these scenes are always great fun, and this book's final confrontation was no exception.In the end, I think book 1 was the best in the series, book 2 flagged a little for me, and book 3 is a pretty strong comeback, although not quite as near and dear to me as book 1. 4.5 stars.

I adore the creativity in this series! The characters are unique, interesting and sometimes, amusing. The storytelling is so engaging that I don’t want to put the book down for a second. I, also, don’t want the books to end. I highly recommend it.Kindle Unlimited

Loved all the characters, esp Waif, the little scraggly white doggy!!Thanks for the many nights and days of entertainment! I appreciate it!A fun series and a great book!

Charmain Baker has been brought up perfectly respectably, without a hint of magic in her life. It's much to her surprise, then, when she is left in charge of her great-uncle William's house--since he is the Royal Wizard Norland and his house is as magical as he. She and Norland's new apprentice Peter become embroiled in a Royal mystery, make new friends, and see the end of old enemies.Jones is a fantastic writer, and this is a solidly written fantasy. The characters are well drawn, and the plot well written. It is humorous and entertaining, and while not perfect, a fun read, well recommended.Note: While it seems like a stand-alone novel at first, this is actually the third in the Wizard Howl series. Readers without the knowledge of the other two books will find themselves lost in certain situations.

I just love this book. If you love fantasy, you will love it too!!!

This is the third book of the "Howl's Moving Castle" trilogy. I discovered Diana Wynne Jones's books thanks to Miyazaki's brilliant animation of the first novel. Now that I've read all three, here are my thoughts. Wynne Jones is funny, wildly imaginative, and creates fantasy worlds at least as compelling as J.K. Rowling's and Neil Gaiman's. In the "Howl's Moving Castle," she teases us with the possibility that the entire set of fantasy kingdoms is a metafiction created by the hero (or antihero?) Howell Jenkins, a young Welsh designer of computer games with an overbearing sister in law. In the second, she takes us to a world of Arabian Nights tales, in which another young man with big dreams and bossy relatives may have created the whole thing out of his fantasies. The heroine of the third is an obsessive bookworm. You get the picture. The novels feature battles between dueling magicians, characters transformed into animals by enchantments, and of course real animals with magical powers. I suspect that the utterly adorable and irresistable Waif, a little shaggy dog who loyally attaches himself to the heroine in "The House of Many Ways," inspired the equally loveable little dog Heen in Miyazaki's film of "Howl's Moving Castle." Anyway, if you love fantasy and British humor, you're going to enjoy Wynne Jones's books.