Reviews

The Lives of Christopher Chant by Diana Wynne Jones

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klara_anderson's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

aliciasrealm's review against another edition

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5.0

I've read this book too many times to count! This is absolutely the best novel in the Chrestomanci series, full of fascinating characters, the most insane magic, and traversing through the multiverse.

wyvernfriend's review against another edition

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3.0

Christopher comes from a world with magic, only it appears that Christopher himself is unable to use magic, only in his dreams he is different, travelling worlds that are unlike his own and finding people that interest him. Things change when his uncle finds out what he can do and involves him in experiments.

Not a bad read but I didn't quite engage with the characters, kept my interest but didn't fully engage it.

karenholmes's review against another edition

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5.0

Although marked as the 4th book in the Crestomanci series, Diana herself has advised her readers to read this one after Charmed Live. It goes back in time and undertakes the back-story for the Crestomanci at Cat/Eric's time. At the beginning I had a hard time, not following Cat's story, because I wanted to know what had happened to him after Charmed Live, but then, I just fall for Christopher and forgot all about Cat.
Christopher grows a lot during the book and learns from all of his mistakes in a nice and relatable way. The exploration of the different worlds is widened and we get glimpses of most of them.
What I found mind blowing is that until the very end I can't think of these young characters as the old ones that appear in Charmed Live.
Diana Wynne Jones' way to add layers to the fantasy without complicating things is amazing and her characters are all very visual and easy to identify.

ihateprozac's review against another edition

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5.0

This book has a similar plot to the first one in the series, Charmed Life, in that it follows the soon-to-be Chrestomanci's struggles to adjusting to life as a nine lifed enchanter in Chrestomanci Castle - except this time it's Christopher Chant instead of Cat/Eric Chant.

It's also similar in that Christopher was an obnoxious little brat about everything in the castle, and he acted like such a disrespectful twat and thought the most important thing in the world was cricket. That being said, he does grow up dramatically and watching his maturity unfold is quite wonderful. It happens very slowly and doesn't seem preachy or wannabe inspirational at all.

I loved this book mainly because it dealt mainly with the theme of travel between different worlds. In Charmed Life I was intrigued by the 12 series' of worlds and couldnt wait to hear more. I long for the day when it's announced that other worlds and other dimensions exist - although hopefully not in a style akin to The Mist by Stephen King :| I loved that all these worlds were so radically different, some had been industrialised and some were simply old-school fantasy with mermaids and dragons.

Series 11 was the most intriguing of all, and I'm glad they explored it during the book because the author had been fairly tight-lipped before that. I loved the idea of a world that had sealed itself off from the others and that conducted nefarious activities behind closed doors (or portals/gates, if you will). Travel through time and space is a theme that I can't possibly spend enough time wondering about, and Diana Wynne Jones does it in such an intriguing and cute way :)

I mentioned in my review of Charmed Life that I'd read a couple of books in the series before, probably #3 and #4. In those ones Chrestomanci had come into his full power and title and was quite an eccentric character. It's great to read book #2 and compare it to those ones, but also to compare it to his character in #1 - particularly seeing how he developed his manner of looking vague all the time.

Overall, this is a great kids fantasy book! Diana Wynne Jones has a knack for developing complex fantasy worlds with easily understood mythology. I find a lot of the time that I pick up an adult fantasy novel and the mythology is terribly complex and never fully explained, so that I feel like I'm reading a different language and wishing for a glossary (J R Ward actually added a glossary for each of the Black Dagger Brotherhood books which helped a LOT).

I really wish more people were exposed to this series. I picked it up at the library years ago as a total fluke while I was browsing the teen section, and I'd never even heard of it before. I ended up falling in love with it, and I wish more people would too.