Diana Wynne Jones - Reprise

After I reluctantly laid aside Fire and Hemlock on Monday evening, I decided to read DWJ's The Tough Guide to Fantasy Land before involving myself in another of her fictional worlds. I'm afraid that I abandoned it at D, however, as the tone of it was getting on my nerves - although that may just have been the "thunder headache" I had last night, so I've not taken it back to the library yet as I want to try to finish it. In the meantime, though, I've raced through Diana Wynne Jones' Power of Three which proved to be as gripping as Fire and Hemlock !

This is an excellent book that looks in detail at the way groups of different people can make assumptions about others. Both the Dorig, who live in halls under lakes, and the Lymen, who live in mounds under the earth, believe the people of the other race are not to be trusted. And neither group are very fond of the Giants (who are actually human beings, but appear to be Giants, because both the Dorig and the Lymen are so small by comparison). The three groups find their homes are threatened by a plan to turn the hill-surrounded Moor on or under which they all live, into a reservoir. They eventually manage to lay aside their age-old differences and hatred for each other to come up with a plan to save all their homes. What's very interesting is that the coming together of the three groups of people is instigated in the first place by children from each of the three groups. Gair, Ceri and Ayna are the children of the chief of the Lyman clan in Garholt, they join forces with Halla and Hafny, the children of the Dorig King, and with Gerald and Brenda whose parents have homes on the Moor, and together they persuade the adults of each group to work together rather than fighting, although there is the small matter of a cursed gold torque to be dealt with along the way. This book is definitely a must-read, and I think children (and adults) who have enjoyed Harry Potter or His Dark Materials, would also enjoy Power of Three.