Drowned Ammet

i was looking in the teenage section in my local library looking for the diary of anne frank after being told it was there by the computer. I was looking for a book of similar width and this book caught my eye, which when i looked, only one person had read since it had been bought so i got it not particarly thinking i'd like but you don't judge a book by it's cover. I began reading this book and after the first page i considered putting it down and taking it back-i'm glad i didn't. The fantasy story is brilliant and i thoroughly enjoyed it. The quiet mitt with the "common as muck" name starts his life in the country and is forced to move to the city as the evil and ruthless earl of holand rises the taxes and they end with no money at all. Mitt is troubled at his first years in holand by the children who picked on him. Then his father dies and he wants to get back at the people who's fault it is. he decides from there on that it was to be his lifes meaning, to back at the free hollanders. His mission finally comes when he is older approxiametly 14 (this is uncertain as the author never says how old mitt is, a downfall) it goes tragically wrong but he goes on the run and an amazing chain of events follows. the ending is very open and there is a need at the end to read the next book.

For years, Mitt has been waiting and waiting for the day when he would finally carry out his plan of revenge upon three men who informed on Canden, a kind Free Holander, which is a person who is against Earl Hadd of Holand. But when all of his years of careful planning, smuggling gunpowder, and his mother sewing him a disguise all go down the drain, and someone else kills the earl, Mitt doesn't get his chance at revenge. Instead he is running for his life. When he finds himself stuck on a pleasure boat out for some sailing, among his enemies, he doesn't know what to do. So he does the only thing he can think of: put them both at gunpoint and force them to cooperate. Then it's off to the North for all three of them. Soon the three youngsters encounter gods, terrible enemies, a horrible storm, and a surprising growing friendship between them all. They must all realize that they'll have to trust each other if they ever want to come out of this adventure alive. This book was a wonderful installation in the Dalemark Quartet. I recommend this book for fans of Cart and Cwidder, which is the first book in this quartet, and fans of Diana Wynne Jones and great fantasy books and series.

Drowned Ammet is, for my money, Jones' best novel of all. Mitt is an engrossing hero, and the gritty sense of reality that runs through the book makes his flaws tolerable, and his heroism all the more admirable. A stunner.

I read Drowned Ammet when I was 14. I found it strange because it deals with a society that doesn't exist, but in a realistic way - not the jokes and silly stuff you find in a lot of fantasy. Just like in the real world, you think you know what the place/people are about, then you learn you were mistaken, and have to think twice about who you trust. It's more of a mystery than anything else, about two ancient gods, and why the town believe in them. Diana Wynne Jones is my favourite children's author of all time, and this book really pulls at your emotions when you finish it. Stick with it until the end - there are lots of surprises. this is a book for kids who want to find out, to see through tricks, to think about something new.