Unexpected Magic: Collected Stories

Whimsical stories, some definitely fantasy or science fiction but most of them not firmly genre, where weird things happen to children or animals, or occasionally chidren AND animals.

I don't usually like short stories much, and this is no exception: I liked the final novella best ("Everard's Ride"), and it may simply be a question of my taste in form rather than anything else. I suppose there is less scope for world-building, which is something I always like, and that Diana Wynne Jones is very good at.

In these short stories, the world is usually a provincial British middle-class environment that feels very stifling to me. The children are usually plagued by unreasonable adults; mothers are absent (and not mentioned), fathers are show more usually strict and unsympathetic (with some exceptions, usually in secondary characters' parents).

The animals are usually cats, including one first-person narrator - with the notable exception of the walking stick in "Carruthers", which counts as an animal for these purposes.

There is much whimsy, which is fun but not quite enough to make a story shine in my view. Children escape the dreary environment through their imagination, which sometimes takes tangible shape, and which is always described as being "real" from the inside, i.e. from the child's point of view.

The age of the main (kid) character is never specified in the stories, and I wonder if this is a device to allow identification by a wider range of readers or something more organic to the stories; personally though, I would have preferred a firmer indication of whether we're talking pre-schooler or teen.

In conclusion, a pleasant read, but not one of the best Wynne-Jones books I've read by far. show less

This collection is made of mainly of previously published material, but this makes a good way to get reacquainted all in one spot. Jones' unique blend of tongue in cheek humor and punishments that fit the crime are well represented here. Although not all the stories are equally strong, this is an excellent representative collection of her non-Chrestomanci-related material. I was pleased to rediscover "Little Dot," and "Aunt Bea's Day Out," and "No One" are new favorites.

I thought I was the world's biggest Diana Wynne Jones fan, but apparently even I have my limits. I'm not sure the short form shows her off to best advantage, and after a while (a short while) some of the stories seem awfully repetitive. Yes, I enjoy her style and savour that consistent tone, but so many stories feature difficult characters and exasperated protagonists. It's there in her novels too, but I read those spaced apart. This felt like a cake, where the first slice tasted great, but you shortly realise there are still 12 more slices and no one to help you eat them--by the end, that great cake didn't feel so great.

So read it--but buy it (mine was from the library), and let some time pass between stories. Read one a month, say, show more and after a year and a half you'll have had such a treat. But back-to-back, it's too much of a muchness.

(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, I'm a bit more ruthless. show less

Rating: 3.5 of 5

Overall, I was delighted with these stories. Most swept me away immediately. My favorites were:

What the Cat Told Me - How could I *not* enjoy a story from a cat's POV? My fave quote, "But Boy wouldn't listen. He had to have Princess. Or else he would go into a trance and see her that way. I understood then. Boy wanted kittens. Very little will stop boys or cats when they do."

The Master - Actually enjoyed this "it was a dream" story because it was more a prophecy aka warning. It was the one story I would've liked to keep on with to see if she listened to that warning.

The Plague of Peacocks - I love it when nosy do-gooders get their comeuppance.

Side note: This was my first exposure to Diana Wynne Jones, literary that show more is. I watched Howl's Moving Castle with my daughter years ago. show less

I had started this collection a few times but hadn't progressed past The Plague of Peacocks. This time through, I skipped a couple of stories that I had just read in another collection, reread a couple of favorites (The Girl Jones, What the Cat Told Me and Dragon Reserve, Home Eight) and took my first trip down Everard's Ride. I adored these stories (and one novella) so much that I can't even find words to explain. My journal has little hearts next to all of the story names. I even think that Jenny's Law (DWJ is always better on reread) is going to be proven wrong for once because there's no way that I could love Everard's Ride more. I already love it the most possible. And why did Dragon Reserve, Home Eight never become a full novel or show more series?!

http://webereading.com/2014/08/short-story-summer-update-two.html show less

Jones has an extremely vivid imagination, which in many stories she applies to mundane starting points that skate off into sheer fantasy. Other stories occur in a more usual fantasy universe. "Everard's Ride" has overtones of "The Faerie Queen" and other classic medieval-heroic fantasies; I found it quite engaging and enjoyed the characters and their relationships.

The title is so apt in both senses, in that in DWJ's worlds anything can happen (and usually does) plus that for the reader the stories can (and do) provide the magic that may be missing in their own more prosaic world.

The stories are a little uneven, as they are aimed at different audiences (those who like whimsy, or cats, or were once in a bygone age bemused by word processors). The novella, Everard's Ride, for me was misplaced in this collection: first, its additional length made the paperback physically awkward to handle and, second, its setting and plot convolutions were a mismatch with the unidirectional flow of the other tales; it should really remain separately published as standing on its own merits.

That all said, my show more favourites were the novella and the autobiographical story, 'The Girl Jones', which opened the collection. show less