Drowned Ammet (The Dalemark Quartet, #2)

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Drowned Ammet (The Dalemark Quartet #2)

3.85 of 5 stars 3.85 · rating details · 1,707 ratings · 65 reviews

The people of Holand are bitterly crushed by the tyrannical rule of Earl Hadd, whose armies of spies, informers, secret police and cruel rent-collectors terrorise the countryside. Mitt, the son of a Free Holander, had grown up with the idea of joining the Freedom Fighters and avenging the wrongs done to his father. But when his part in the plot to assassinate the tyrant Ea...more

Paperback, 314 pages

Published 1993 by Mammoth (first published 1977)

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Mar 16, 2013 Paola (A Novel Idea) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Originally posted at A Novel Idea Reviews

Rating: 4/5

Dalemark has been divided into the liberal, freed0m-loving North and the tyrannized South for time immemorial. Mitt is just another young boy caught up in the oppressive regime of the Southern Earls, who live in luxury while the people starve. His father was a member of the Free Holanders, an underground resistance force in the city of Holand, but was captured and killed when his own brothers in the resistance turned him in. Mitt feels that his...more Originally posted at A Novel Idea Reviews

Rating: 4/5

Dalemark has been divided into the liberal, freed0m-loving North and the tyrannized South for time immemorial. Mitt is just another young boy caught up in the oppressive regime of the Southern Earls, who live in luxury while the people starve. His father was a member of the Free Holanders, an underground resistance force in the city of Holand, but was captured and killed when his own brothers in the resistance turned him in. Mitt feels that his one goal in life is to bring an end to both the cruel Earl Hadd and the Free Holanders—which he certainly attempts, only to watch everything go wrong. He finds himself on a runaway pleasure boat called Wind’s Road, but he isn’t alone; two of Earl Hadd’s grandchildren, determined to run away, are also on board. Mitt must find a way to survive the treacherous ocean and bridge the gap between himself and his enemies.

Diana Wynne Jones’ Dalemark Quartet is a really big departure from her usual humorous fantasy work, because it’s more on the epic scale of high fantasy than the whimsicality of Howl’s Moving Castle. She’s an author with a lot of depth and imagination, needless to say. I really liked this book, especially because I had read Cart & Cwidder (the first book) long long ago and I always like to return to familiar places. Drowned Ammet takes place about a year before the events of Cart & Cwidder, and in the fourth book of the series, both Mitt and Moril will be main characters. I am definitely looking forward to it, because Mitt has swiftly become one of my favorite characters ever. He’s just so bad-tempered, good-hearted, and altogether extremely likeable to me. But don’t ask me how I’ve owned 2 of this series’ books for like 7 years but never read the other half of the quartet. I think I just got distracted, haha. Anyway, Jones is just as excellent with serious fantasy as she is with funny fantasy like Chrestomanci. I won’t give much else away, only that she can definitely step up to the plate and make something totally epic. (less)

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Feb 05, 2012 Leah rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, young-adult

Diana Wynne Jones has a way of writing that just speaks to me perfectly. She gets inside her characters and explains them from the inside out and puts everything just the way you feel it yourself, if you could get it into words.

Her early books, such as the Dalemark Quartet, are clearly tentative ventures into the territory she would boldly explore later on, with many of her themes noticeable here: children growing themselves up with no help (and often active hindrance) from parents, people not...more

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Jun 30, 2009 Katharine rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: childrens-lit, fantasy

Unfortunately after raving about the complexity of Diana Wynne Jones's writing, I found an example of what happens when she doesn't quite get it right. Drowned Ammet has some of the same themes that made Cart and Cwidder so much fun, but it lacks the irresistible appeal. The main problem is that DWJ is usually good at POV – and that's where most of the complexity comes from, because she has the ability to make you see through a character's eyes. But she fails to do this for some reason with the...more

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Aug 04, 2010 Punk rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ya, fantasy

YA Fantasy. Huh, I was expecting this to follow the action of the first book, but it's got all new characters and only mentions the events of the first book in passing. However, it does feel like more of a complete story than Cart and Cwidder did.

Mitt is the son of a farmer, but when Earl Hadd raises their taxes Mitt's family is forced to move to the city. After his father joins a freedom fighter's group and disappears, Mitt get sucked into a plot to assassinate the earl. That goes horribly wron...more

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Apr 10, 2009 Amy rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, ya

Part 2 in the Dalemark trilogy, it's a fast read that covers a lot of action and some rather dark questions, but somehow manages to dodge really dealing with any of them. I kept thinking the book was going to start looking at the consequences of being raised your whole life for revenge. Or maybe discuss the way someone's social class changes their life, regardless of whether they want it to or not. Or even why it is that people can be so dominated by fear that they cannot stand up for themselves...more

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May 24, 2009 Daria rated it 5 of 5 stars

Although this may have started out in a long, slow narrative, I knew Jones wouldn't dissapoint me! After the Festival, as things begin to speed up for Mitt, Ynen, and Hildy, so do they for the reader. By the end I had decided to give this book a well-earned 5 stars. There were surprising lessons on morals and faith etched into this tale, as well as those of courage and friendhip. The characters were billiantly unexpected, the best of them being Old Ammet and Libby Beer, who grow to awe the reade...more

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Feb 10, 2013 Nikki rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, children-s-and-ya

Diana Wynne Jones doesn't make the worldbuilding too easy to follow. I remember reading in her collected non-fiction writings that she found that children made the leaps her books require much more easily than adults do. So I try to think like a child when I read her work (it sort of pleases me, the way people are often so snobby about children "not understanding" adult literature -- which I did, on some level at least, from the age of nine -- that perhaps this is something children understand b...more

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Sep 11, 2012 Rachel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012

Originally reviewed on RED Book Reviews.

Story: Mitt lives in poverty with his mother, in a earldom where the earl is pretty much a tyrant. Because he's a "free soul" (his mother's words), he plans to kill the tyrant earl on the day of the Sea Festival (incidentally, his birthday). Things go wrong, and stuff happens, and he ends up ... well, that would be spoiling it rather, so I'll stop now.

Thoughts: This was Diana Wynne Jones, the most consummate story teller I've read, so of course it was goin...more

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Nov 22, 2011 Julie Davis rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Second in the Dalemark series, this doesn't follow up Cart and Cwidder's story. Mitt was the happy son of a happy farming family. He grows up unhappy because the evil Earl Hadd's high taxes drove his family from the farm into a city tenement. His dreams of assassinating the Earl are what drive his actions. Meanwhile, two of the Earl's grandchildren, Ynen and Hildy, are also quite unhappy, albeit for different reasons. We know they will all meet up. It is just unsure how that will happen.

This boo...more

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Mar 02, 2012 ~Geektastic~ rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned, fantasy, favorites, series, 2012, kids-and-ya, reviewed

This is the second installment in Diana Wynne Jones’ Dalemark Quartet, and it is the volume that really hooked me and prompted a back-to-back marathon reading of the series when I was 14, and a similar re-read in 2012.

Drowned Ammet is essentially the story of Mitt, or Alhammitt Alhammittson to be more precise (don’t worry, the odd name has significance but doesn’t show up much). After Mitt and his family are forced to leave their farm by increasing rents, they move into a rundown tenement in the...more This is the second installment in Diana Wynne Jones’ Dalemark Quartet, and it is the volume that really hooked me and prompted a back-to-back marathon reading of the series when I was 14, and a similar re-read in 2012.

Drowned Ammet is essentially the story of Mitt, or Alhammitt Alhammittson to be more precise (don’t worry, the odd name has significance but doesn’t show up much). After Mitt and his family are forced to leave their farm by increasing rents, they move into a rundown tenement in the city of Holand, the heart of the repressed and tyrannized South. When Mitt loses his father, a freedom fighter in the struggle against the corrupt Earl Hadd, he concocts a plan to avenge his father and become a freedom fighter in his own right with the Free Holanders. After years of planning, Mitt undertakes a dangerous mission, but ends up embroiled in a much larger conflict when he goes on the run and meets a couple of young nobles with problems of their own.

This installment in the Quartet is very different than its predecessor, Cart and Cwidder. Part of this is due, I think, to the fact that C&C is the “set-up” volume of the series, using Moril and his family of travelling musicians to introduce readers to the world of Dalemark, with its pre-industrial timeframe and political complications. Both volumes are strongly character driven, but Mitt is a more complicated and detailed character than Moril, and we see more of his early life and development. We know what drives Mitt, probably better than Mitt himself. Since C&C did the world building grunt work, DA is now able to expand upon the earlier impression and give depth to Dalemark by providing further insight into the social structure and belief systems that become increasingly important as the story continues into the 3rd and 4th volumes.

In the beginning of the tale, Mitt can seem a bit unsympathetic. He’s angry and, with the typical short-sightedness of youth, tends to jump to conclusions. But he’s an underdog, and he slowly but surely reveals a decent person beneath his pinched expression and quick temper. He has a conscience, and the brains to understand that the way something seems is not necessarily the way it is. Honestly, I love Mitt. He’s strong and resourceful, but not in the unrealistic way of many fantasy heroes. He’s also young and inexperienced, and it is fun to watch him learn that the world isn’t black-and-white, but complicated and morally ambiguous. When Mitt meets Hildy and Ynen (I still haven’t figured out exactly how that name is supposed to be pronounced), we see how the other half lives, and it’s not all sunshine and daisies.

Hildy and Ynen are the grandchildren of the terrible earl Hadd. When their grandfather dies, the children use the confusion to run away from their respective problems; Hildy from betrothal to a stranger, and Ynen from feelings of general uselessness within his scheming family. When they are thrown together with Mitt, each must come to terms with their own unhappiness and determine their ultimate place in the world. Just when you think the three are coming together as friends, a fourth is introduced to the party and things get very, very complicated.

As I mentioned in the beginning, this was the book that made me really want to read the whole series. The characters are well-formed and the story is equal parts political intrigue and coming-of-age. There are some weaknesses, which are mostly issues of balance and pacing. Often, the action scenes are rushed and understanding of a complex situation occurs too quickly for real appreciation of the process or the implications. But these are generally minor grievances in a book obviously aimed at a young teen/tween audience and produced very early in Diana Wynne Jones’ career.

This being a re-read of a much beloved series, I am loath to critique it as much as it may (or may not) deserve. More than a decade later, I still find this series entertaining and enjoyable, which is exactly what they’re supposed to be.
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Aug 20, 2010 Kaion rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: series

Prickly, would-be bomber-assassin protagonist!

Yes, you read that right. Even in perhaps her most typical young-adult high fantasy series, Diana Wynne Jones still has her touches of subversion. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Drowned Ammet shifts the action to the port city of Holand, where young Mitt joins the secret resistance in hope of avenging his father's death. He shares the focus with Ynen and Hilda, who as high-born grandchildren of Earl Hadd suffer less but at closer range from his dic...more

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Jan 21, 2009 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

If Cart and Cwidder had hidden depths, Drowned Ammet is all depths, and they're right out of the open. This second book in the quartet ratchets up the danger of the North/South conflict, and also brings the gods right out into the open.

Mitt is a wholly sympathetic and fascinating character, snappish and sarcastic like so many DWJ characters are, but with a well-tuned moral compass and a vivid inner life. He shares the narration with Hildy, who is decidedly less sympathetic at times, at least in...more

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Jan 15, 2013 Melissa Proffitt rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own, young-adult, fantasy, favorites

I discovered this book at the same time The Crown of Dalemark came out. Not only had I never heard of it, I didn't realize that the other two books in the series were even part of a series. Drowned Ammet is by far my favorite of the Dalemark stories. Mitt is exactly the kind of person I feel drawn to in fiction, concealing his pain even from himself, acting prickly to push people away but still hoping that someone will be his friend. There are few truly noble characters in this book, and I love...more

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Jul 05, 2008 Joy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 20c, british, fantasy, teen

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Sep 28, 2009 Maureen E rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, simply-superb, young-adult

Drowned Ammet is startling, especially if you didn’t know that the four books all focus on a different character. We’d just gotten used to Moril and Brid and Dagner and Kialan and all the rest of them, when suddenly we’re starting all over with this Mitt boy, who’s someone completely different. Different, but wonderful nonetheless. There’s something about Mitt I really love. I think it’s his ability to do all the wrong things for all the right reasons and the right things for the wrong reasons....more Drowned Ammet is startling, especially if you didn’t know that the four books all focus on a different character. We’d just gotten used to Moril and Brid and Dagner and Kialan and all the rest of them, when suddenly we’re starting all over with this Mitt boy, who’s someone completely different. Different, but wonderful nonetheless. There’s something about Mitt I really love. I think it’s his ability to do all the wrong things for all the right reasons and the right things for the wrong reasons. He’s also one of those characters who’s incredibly frustrating because he will be an idiot–not in smartness, but in personality, if that makes sense–but is incredibly rewarding when he does get it.

Anyway. Mitt. Born and bred in Holand, one of the South Dales. When things start going wrong, he and his mother do their best to survive and to do the right thing as they see it. It’s an interesting story in the way it details a group rebelling against a tyrannical overlord–a device which has certainly been overused, especially in fantasy–but in an unconventional way.

The other two main characters are the grandson and granddaughter of the Earl of Holand. The way their path intersects with Mitt’s and how the three grow to a relationship with each other is a fascinating one, but I can’t say much about it because that’s what Jones does.

One of the moments I found fascinating comes at the end of the book and is a major spoiler, but I’ll just say that it made me think a lot about how we construct stories for ourselves and how one person’s version of events is going to be dramatically different from another person’s.

As a side-note: I’m reading these books in publication order rather than internal chronology. I feel fairly strongly personally that this is the better order to read them in. I don’t know if Jones herself has expressed an opinion.

Quote from Drowned Ammet:
“Mitt did not quite forget his perfect land. He remembered it, though a little fuzzily, next time the wind dropped, but he did not set off to look for it again…When an inkling of it came to him in silence, or in scents, or, later, if the wind hummed a certain note, or a storm came shouting in from the sea and he caught the same perfect note in the midst of its noise, he thought of his lost perfect place and felt for a moment as if his heart would break.” p. 9(less)

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May 30, 2011 Jacque rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: adventure, fantasy, to-buy, young-adult

At first I was disappointed that this book was not a continuation of "Cart and Cwidder", it has the same feel and is in the same world. The more I read the more I liked this story also. The heros are so brave and make such hard choices that you almost think they are adults, but than something will happen to remind you that they are really just children. I think it is amazing that this author can portray the, way a pre-teens mind works so clearly, on the edge between adulthood and childhood.

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Jun 24, 2009 Patrick rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult

These are great old books. The plot develops very slowly and the characters are developed differently than a Harry Potter or a Fablehaven, almost types as much as individuals, but I ended up liking them a lot. I like how the magic has been very subtle until being more fully revealed in both climaxes. The development of the overall story and what will happen with the north and south marks, a king, etc. looks to be very interesting. I will be reading the final two books in the series.

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Dec 07, 2011 Kathi rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

As I think I commented after reading the first book in the Dalemark Quartet, this book reads like a long short story. That's good in that it moves right along and keeps your attention. That's also not so good in that it's somewhat simplistic, at least until the last section in the Holy Islands. It didn't help that I found Mitt to be obnoxious through most of the book. But I certainly plan to continue the series, if only to see how the separate stories come together.

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Jan 22, 2013 yengyeng rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: playground, lifelessons, otherworldly

This is my favourite of the series. Mitt learns very important Life Lessons about choices, personal motivations, friendship, trust, and that parents can disappoint because they are people too, with foibles, warts and could be downright dastardly, learning to see the other point of view and that you are not always right. Lots of heavy going stuff going on here for a fantasy adventure story.

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Jan 01, 2011 Brandy Painter rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, favorites, young-adult, 4-6-fantasy, middle-grade

So, I just inhaled the first two Dalemark books and I am still waiting for The Spellcoats to arrive in the mail. It better get here on Monday. I know I have to read it before I read The Crown of Dalemark, which is sitting very alluringly on my shelf right now. I'm waiting until I finish the quartet to do a review because I really feel like they are all one story.

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Jan 26, 2010 Angelsouth rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010-book-list, adventure, bildungsroman, fantasy

I would say this is marginally better than the preceding novel "Cart and Cwidder" and is far closer in style and execution to what I would expect from Diana Wynne Jones. The main character is rather unsympathetic to begin with and the pacing of the novel is slow but both of these things improve dramatically in the latter part of the novel. Definitely worth reading.

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Mar 18, 2012 Ashley rated it 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this one much more then the first in the series. It was so interesting to read another straight fantasy from Diana Wynne Jones and to see her take on some more serious themes. I also loved the addition of the two gods to the story. It was a very enjoyable read and I am excited to read the third in the series.

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Apr 01, 2010 Meredith rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: childrens-lit, fantasy, series

Overall, I think this book was a lot easier to get into than Cart and Cwidder, but I liked the mythology and the climax better in Cart and Cwidder. So it was sixes. I'm really interested to see where the different books start connecting. I think once I see the whole picture I will be very impressed.

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Feb 18, 2012 Cheryl rated it 4 of 5 stars

Coming of age and finding out that what you thought is -- isn't and what you thought was -- wasn't and the future is still pretty much a mystery. Throw in a little magic and classic Year King and Queen and there you have it. A great story.

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Sep 12, 2009 Karen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ya-or-youth-friendly

An enjoyable book. Much like her other series, these books don't seem to be linear, following the same characters (though some characters do make guest appearances). I would have given this book a higher rating, but the ending seemed rather abrupt.

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Aug 12, 2011 Neill Smith rated it 5 of 5 stars

Volume 2 of the Dalemark Quartet is about Mitt, a young boy who lives in Holand and how he grows up to become a revolutionary. In an attempt to escape to the north he meets the earl's daughter and travels to the Holy Islands.

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Apr 23, 2009 Jessica rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adults, fantasy-otherworld

I thought this book was pretty good. Not too violent, not too many swear words, like with some of the books by this author. Compared to the first one, it was a bit darker, but it had a similar happily-ever-after ending.

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Aug 28, 2012 Sluggish Neko rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi-and-fantasy, young-adult

Almost a retread of the first book of the Dalemark Quartet except the two boys and a girl who are on the run travel by sea instead of by cart. Also, it ends with a reveal that I totally did not buy.

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Jan 04, 2011 Becca R.G. rated it 4 of 5 stars

(1/4/10) I need to buy this, by which I mean, I need to buy the whole series. I'm sorry it took me so long to reread this; it may not be as typical for DWJ but it's equally good in its epic way.

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Apr 21, 2011 David added it

A little surprised to discover that it's not really a sequel to Cart and Cwidder, but that's kind of cool too -- a totally different little corner of the Dalemark world. A brisk and enjoyable read for the most part!

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About Diana Wynne Jones

Diana Wynne Jones was the author of more than thirty critically acclaimed fantasy stories, including the Chrestomanci series and the novels Howl's Moving Castle and Dark Lord of Derkholm.

For Diana Wynne Jones's official autobiography, please see http://www.leemac.freeserve.co.uk/aut...

More about Diana Wynne Jones...

Books by Diana Wynne Jones

Howl's Moving Castle (Howl's Moving Castle, #1)

The Lives of Christopher Chant (Chrestomanci, #4)

Castle in the Air (Howl's Moving Castle, #2)

House of Many Ways (Howl's Moving Castle, #3)

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Drowned Ammet (The Dalemark Quartet #2)

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