The Merlin Conspiracy

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The Merlin Conspiracy, by Diana Wynne Jones

It was time for some comfort reading, and The Merlin Conspiracy was very nice to have this week.  It's sort of a sequel to Deep Secret, in that it takes place in the same unimultiverse, but you don't actually have to have read Deep Secret to love The Merlin Conspiracy.

We have two narrators: Roddy, who lives on the Isles of Blest and travels with the King's Progress (and is a teenage girl), and Nick, who lives in our world's England and wants to learn magic.  Somehow he winds up on the dark paths between worlds.  His and Roddy's stories make a helix pattern, twining around each other ever more closely.

Blest is a fulcrum of magic for the multiverse, so it's very important that its King takes good care of the land and makes sure nothing goes wrong with the balance of magic.  His chief advisors and magicians, though, intend to make things go very wrong indeed, and Roddy, with her friend Grundo, are the only ones who realize.  Events really do rest on a fulcrum of one person, so that tiny actions have enormous consequences.

Like so many DWJ books, the plot is so complicated and well-done that it's very hard to summarize well.  It's just really good, so don't miss it.

Comments

  1. Christine HardingNovember 13, 2012 at 1:39 AM

    I loved this - one of my favourite Diana Wynne Jones novels. I liked the way the story veered between Roddy and Nick, and the way it incorporated older myths and legends, and the way it shows that magic (and power) can come at a price, and people have a responsibility to use their gifts and position wisely.

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