The Homeward Bounders (1981)

I had a very strange experience recently. I’ve been re-reading Diana Wynne Jones’s book, in order to write them up for my Official Read-through Index (which, erm, hasn’t been updated in awhile). So I read Homeward Bounders, which is utterly tragic and well-written and yet I don’t love it as much as some of her other books. Then a few days later I started Mister Monday, the first in the Keys of the Kingdom series by Garth Nix. As I was reading along I began to notice certain similarities. Both feature young boys, of about the same age, who are challenged to take up something larger than themselves, oversetting a shadowy group which is controlling (to some extent) Earth. Both are separated from their families, although the end results are quite different. And then there’s the really weird one(slight spoiler alert): both books figure Prometheus as a helper of the main character, although he is not specifically named in either (just surrounded with really, really significant clues).

Is it me, or is that just slightly bizarre?

Actual reviews of the books: As I said above, Homeward Bounders is, in my opinion, utterly tragic and although it’s about a twelve-year-old feels like a much older read. Of course, this makes sense given Jamie’s experiences and the difference between his personal timeline and the rest of the world. I appreciate it, but for some unknown reason it’s just not my favorite.

Mister Monday is much more squarely in the younger group. I found it engaging and fast-moving, but wasn’t wowed by the prose or all of the characterizations as an adult reader. I know it’s the first in a series (which I will probably keep reading) but it felt like it was setting up a lot for the future. I did find the way Nix handled the end really interesting–what Arthur’s decisions and motivations are. It seemed a little more realistic than some children’s fantasy series. I was also interested in the overlap of the different mythologies. Arthur Penhaligon seems quite close to Arthur Pendragon, and with the image of the key as a sword it’s hard not to think of that group of legends.

Book source: public library ( )

I'd lost this for ages and it mysteriously reappeared just recently, so I treated myself to an indulgent afternoon of rereading it. I like the way it binds together old myths in a new way, although it is ultimately quite a sad story. It makes me reflect on the fact that there is always a Them in our lives and only constant vigilance and awareness of that that can keep things real. ( )

A boy named Jamie is wandering through his city when he hops the fence of a strange building. The garden is completely silent and the building is occupied by men in hooded robes. Jamie comes back another time, determined to find out what is going on in this strange place. Unfortunately, the men are Them, beings that play with the fates of those on many worlds. Jamie's discovery has made him a liability to their game and so they throw him out into the boundaries of another world. He is able to travel between worlds but cannot ever join in to their lives in any meaningful way. He is always tugged out of the world when a move is completed -- after hours or months. He, and others like him, are all "homeward bound". If they make it back to their home world, they can rejoin the game.

This was actually quite a sad book. Jamie is only twelve when he begins wandering through worlds of danger, war and desolation. And from the first pages of the book, we know that things aren't exactly going to work out for him. Still, it's heartening when he finds comrades in his journey and Jones really does a fantastic job with this story. It was well built and compelling.

http://webereading.com/2010/10/have-you-heard-of-flying-dutchman.html ( )

Wow, what a downer ending! I read this one as a cooldown from the depressing but amazing slog that was Native Son, and I definitely did not get that. The story is about Jamie, who happens upon a silent garden with a triangular windowed building in the middle of a city. Inside the building, he meets Them and They kick him out of his world for seeing them. They're playing some kind of a war game with the world, and he becomes a random variable. They tell him if he gets back Home, they'll let him "reenter play."

He travels between the worlds, and gets pretty good at it. He meets Helen Hara-usquar, who has an arm she can turn into just about anything. Then they meet Jaris, who is a slave and demon-hunter in training, who is pretty much in love with his owner.

Overall, it's a little Euro-centric, but it's pretty awesome, aside from a ridiculously downer ending. ( )

Jamie stumbles into a game played by powerful non-humans. The players sweep Jamie into the game as a pawn and he finds himself popped from world possibility to world possibility. He is desperate to find his way home in this nightmare version of Groundhog Day.