The Castle in the Air - Diana Wynne Jones

Diana Wynne Jones' The Castle in the Air is the sequel to Howl's Moving Castle, which I reviewed when I first read it in December. I re-read "Howl" before reading The Castle in the Air, mainly because I love "Howl", rather than because I thought I'd forgotten the story. Initially I could not work out how "Castle" could be a sequel to "Howl", given it heavily featured a young man named Abdullah in a hot desert country. However, to my relief, Sophie turned up a few chapters in - admittedly in disguise initially, as did Lettie, Wizard Suliman, Prince Justin, Calcifer and Howl (last of all) !

The story largely centres around the aforementioned Abdullah and his fantasical daydreams, in which he is really a prince (not a carpet merchant) who falls in love with a princess, and how they start coming true after someone sells him a magic carpet which only works when someone snores ! Unfortunately, just as Abdullah is about to elope with Flower-in-the-Night (the princess about whom he'd dreamed), she is kidnapped by Hasruel, a Djinn who, although he's supposed to be good, is in thrall to his weak brother Dalzel, who has stolen his life. Hasruel has kidnapped a number of princesses and other illustrious ladies for Dalzel, who wants one of them for a bride. Abdullah sets out to rescue Flower-in-the-Night with the aid of the magic carpet, a Genie (of the granting wishes kind) and a soldier whom he meets after requesting the Genie to take him to someone who can help him find Flower. It turns out that the soldier is someone else in disguise, and he picks up a black cat with strange powers and a kitten, and both of them are really humans in disguise; there's a lot of disguises in this book, but it was a good read and quite suspenseful.

I found myself wondering if Studio Ghibli would be inclined to make an anime film version of "Castle" once they've finished their Earthsea project. I believe the DVD of Howl's Moving Castle is now available, so I will rent that from my local rental store once I've finished watching Buffy's season 7 (ie. next week) and I'll report my thoughts on the film in due course.