Castle in the Air

Absolutely wonderful story. Ties in the original characters from her first story in perfectly and I truly loved how well everything fit together in the end. A wonderful author and you cannot go wrong with any of her stories.

After reading Howl's Moving Castle I was excited to read Castle in the Air. This book lived up to and even surpassed the creativity and beauty of writing that Howl's did. Jones created a cast of creative and individual characters. The main character is completely different from the Howl's Moving Castle. It was as if Jones used the idea from Aladdin and applied them to her world, but in a much more creative way than im describing. This story is a sweet romance with plenty of adventure and action to keep the read interested. Since this is the second book, you should read the first so you can have knowledge of this world and of the characters.

Don't you just love it when you start reading a book and can't put it down? The pages fly by as you get sucked into it. Happens to me whenever I pick up one of Jones' books. I've never read any fantasy that is so deliciously clever and truly imaginative, really full of surprises and twists and turns in every chapter. This book is the "sequel" to the beloved Howl's Moving Castle, but with all the characters' identities hidden. More than that, it plays as a nice opposite to the themes of the first. While HMC dealt with Sophie gaining an attitude and strength of will, the male hero here (Abdullah) is mostly successful because he doesn't have an attitude; instead he is overly polite and complimentary. Abdullah is a carpet salesman who spends his days imagining a more exciting life of riches and a beautiful princess (get the title?). One day, his dreams start to become true with the purchase of a magic flying carpet and meeting the princess of his dreams, who is then stolen from him. Abdullah has to chase down the djinn who--by order of his evil, but not very smart brother--has stolen her and all the princesses of the world. Abdullah is "joined" by an irritable genie who curses all his wishes, a cat-obsessed wily old soldier, and a magical black cat and her kitten. Just a great, wonderfully told, absolutely clever and unpredictable fairy tale. Grade: A+

The following was written by YM, age 11 (Grade Six): This is the second book in a two-part series, the other being Howl's Moving Castle. I enjoyed this book because, until the end, it is a story in itself, as none of the characters are the same, it takes place in a different country, and few references are made to the country where the last book took place. Right at the end of the book, all the main characters from the last book are revealed, and it all starts fitting together like a jigsaw puzzle. One thing I did not like, however, is that in Howl's Moving Castle, the King of Ingary says Strangia and High Norland are about to declare war on Ingary, and then in the next book the war has already taken place and the characters are talking about it. I think this would have made a good middle story in a trilogy, if the author, Diana Wynne Jones, had continued on the apparent theme of using totally different characters at the beginning of the book and then introducing the characters from the last book right at the end. --YMP

Don't be put off by the naysayers here. "Castle In The Air" is a lovely, if lightweight, sequel to the utterly wonderful "Howl's Moving Castle," if only because it's a send-up of the Arabian Nights tales (much as HMC was a deconstruction of traditional fairy tales). It's true; the HMC characters don't show up until the last half of the book, but when they do, it's the best dovetailing of stories since Edward Eager's Tales of Magic quartet. I wish to God someone would make live-action movies out of these books (although I'm sure the Japanese anime version of HMC due in spring 2003 will be great).

I VERY much enjoyed this book! It is full of detailed and mythical encounters that I loved to read! Her description and creativeness in going about the plot made this book one I highly reccomend.I did enjoy Howl's moving castle a little more but I felt that The Casle in The Air was almost as good!I do not regret spending my money on this book and if you enjoyed Howl's moving castle I could almost garuntee you'll like this book!