Yeah of the Griffin

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A hilarious fantasy sequel to The Dark Lord of Derkholm, set at the Wizard University, and centred around six fantastical students. From the 'Godmother of Fantasy', Diana Wynne Jones.

The Year of the Griffin is the sequel to the Dark Lord of Derkholm, set in the same world several years after the abolition of commercial 'fantasy world' tourism from our world.

Running a University for Wizards was never going to be easy. And with no money, no staff and no idea what he's doing, Wizard Corkoran is struggling. Especially when his students, handpicked from the wealthiest families around, turn out to be rather different than expected.

The daughter of the world's Ruling Wizard is an enormous Griffin; King Luther's son is penniless. The emperor's sister is a jinxed exile, and the dwarf is a runaway slave.

And that's all before the assassins start arriving...

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Infused with all manner of enchantments, this boisterous spoof of the campus novel reads like a cross between David Lodge and a particularly buoyant incarnation of J.R.R. Tolkien. Standards at the Wizards' University have fallen grievously in recent years: under the leadership of Wizard Corkoran (a charismatic slacker preoccupied with dreams of moon travel), the school's main goals seem to be to enrich its coffers and graduate classes of mediocre bureaucrats. Into this unpromising situation bounds first-year student Elda, griffin daughter of the powerful Wizard Derk (the eccentric breeder of flying pigs, winged horses, etc., previously seen in Jones's Dark Lord of Derkholm). Elda becomes fast friends with other new students, among them a rebel dwarf, a penniless crown prince, the Emperor's jinxed half-sister and two youths who must hide their true identities. A newly kindled passion for the great works of magical literature and a shared struggle against such foes as a tyrannical professor and a band of trained assassins deepen the bonds of the students' friendship. One exuberantly inventive adventure follows the next all the way to the pleasing conclusion, in which matches are made, secrets revealed and numerous loose ends tied up. Great fun. Ages 10-up. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

School Library Journal Review

Gr 6 Up-It has been eight years since Mr. Chesney's Pilgrim Tours ended, and wizard Derk's world is still recovering from the devastation described in Dark Lord of Derkholm (Greenwillow, 1998). Derk's griffin daughter Elda has just begun her studies at Wizard's University, without her father's permission and despite his belief that the university is no place to learn anything. In fact, several members of Elda's class are attending without their families' knowledge, and the misdeeds ensuing from various attempts to retrieve or retaliate against the young wizards provide most of the dramatic thrust for this hilarious ensemble piece. Jones cleverly intertwines elements of humor, fantasy, and character development, as in the case of Crown Prince Lukin, who accidentally makes large holes in the ground whenever he does magic. Lukin's jinx produces some of the book's funniest moments, but it also reveals much about the young man himself. Readers new to the series will enjoy Year of the Griffin without first reading the previous book, though they will certainly want to backtrack to learn more about Elda, her family, and the Pilgrim Tours. The foreshadowing is so deft that the rather complicated climax makes perfect sense, while still leaving plenty of room for another sequel.-Beth Wright, Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, VT (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Gr. 7^-10. The sequel to Dark Lord of Derkholm (1998) retains the goofiness of its predecessor, continuing Jones' spoof of traditional fantasy conventions. Set at the poorly managed Wizard's University, the story follows the exploits of a select set of students, who manage to create enough havoc with the magic to ensure that the problems at the school are eventually on the way to being straightened out. The main characters are the griffin Elda, daughter of the great human wizard Derk; Lukin, crown prince of Luteria; Claudia, half-sister of the Emperor of the South; Olga, daughter of a former pirate-turned-gangster; Felim, brother of the Emir; and Ruskin, a dwarf revolutionary. Throw in, among other things, assassins hunting Felim, rogue griffins, magic jinxes, dwarf forgemasters, and senators of the Empire determined to execute Claudia, and there's mayhem and mirth aplenty. References to Dark Lord may entice readers to seek out that book, but the detailed characters and situations allow this novel to stand on its own. There's also a chance for yet another sequel. With instructors and antics to rival those in the Harry Potter books, this book may help impatient Potter fans cope with the wait for Harry's next adventure. --Sally Estes

Horn Book Review

(Intermediate, Middle School) Now that the world she portrayed in Dark Lord of Derkholm (rev. 11/98) is no longer being ravaged by adventure-seeking Pilgrim Parties, Diana Wynne Jones has turned her imaginative attention to the Wizards' University, which Wizard Derk decried in the last book as being a crucible of stodgy thinking and poor magical theory. Just because Derk's a wizard, though, doesn't mean he gets any respect-behind his back his wife manages to enroll their youngest griffin daughter Elda in the university. Elda's tutorial group is composed of five other students who don't want relatives to know where they are: Lukin, the impoverished crown prince of Luteria, is forbidden by his father to learn magic; Felim is hiding from the Emir, who would send assassins after him; Claudia, half-sister to the Emperor Titus, is the object of the death-wishes of the Senate; Ruskin is a dwarf learning magic secretly in order to lead a dwarf revolution, and Olga will say nothing about her background. The trouble begins when Corkoran, the incompetent chair of the University, spills the beans in a begging fund-raising letter home. Tipped off to better magical theory in some old books, Elda and her fellow students set about creating ingenious spells to trap the seven assassins now after Felim, and in doing so, square off against Wermacht, the narrow-minded professor of the old guard. Before the uproarious action is over, there have been coups in the Empire and in the dwarfs' caverns, several romances, the fulfillment of an old prophecy, a trip to the moon gone wrong, and a sea change at the university. Diana Wynne Jones skillfully pulls together an enormous cast, a dozen convergent plots, an entertaining and well-developed setting, and her trademark humor for the rousing finale. Jones's command of her material is so exceptional that a certain other magical aspirant might well find it fruitful to spend time studying at this school of wizardry. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Book Review

The sequel to Dark Lord of Derkholm (not reviewed) continues to spoof traditional fantasy, this time satirizing the “school for magic” genre. Nine years after the wizard Derk shut down the demonic Mr. Chesney’s devastating Tours, Derk’s precocious but naïve griffin daughter Elda enrolls in the Wizards’ University, only to discover its crumbling infrastructure, stripped library, and stunted curriculum reflect a faculty intent on stifling innovation in favor of utilitarian mediocrity. Elda assembles the requisite motley assortment of stalwart friends, sketchily presented in reverse stereotypes: the poverty-stricken prince, the beautiful, compassionate commoner, the meek imperial princess, the revolutionary jargon-spouting dwarf, and the vaguely Eastern target of fanatic assassins. After a brief pep talk on free enquiry from Derk, the six rapidly outstrip their tutors’ magical prowess, and are soon foiling various nefarious villains, inciting the overthrow of a repressive regime, stopping wars, and inventing interplanetary exploration. Meanwhile, each reveals the obligatory dark secret and overcomes personal trauma, and all are neatly paired off in a denouement of sudden, nigh-inexplicable romances. This is all fun, frothy stuff, and Jones writes with a deft hand and a wicked sense of the absurdities inherent in the conventional formulas. Teens harboring doubts about their teachers’ competency and sanity will revel in it. But the breakneck pace makes for perfunctory characterization and a muddled narrative, delivering neither the inspired lunacy nor the sophisticated twisty plotting that her fans expect. Like a chocolate-covered marshmallow, this is tasty fluff, but unsatisfying. (Fiction. 11-14)