The Homeward Bounders

by Diana Wynne Jones

This is an alternate cover edition for 0006755259

"You are now a discard. We have no further use for you in play. You are free to walk the Bounds, but it will be against the rules for you to enter play in any world. If you suceed in returning Home, then you may enter play again in the normal manner."

When Jamie discovers the sinister, dark-cloaked Them playing with human lives, he is cast out to the boundaries of the worlds. Clinging to Their promise that if he can get Home he is free, he becomes an unwilling Random Factor in their deadly, eternal game.

Jamie travels alone until he teams up with Helen and Joris, determined to beat Them at Their own game. But Their rules don't allow Homeward Bounders to work together...

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Fiction, Science Fiction, Childrens, Middle Grade, Science Fiction Fantasy

267 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Diana Wynne Jones was a celebrated British writer best known for her inventive and influential works of fantasy for children and young adults. Her stories often combined magical worlds with science fiction elements, parallel universes, and a sharp sense of humor. Among her most beloved books are Howl's Moving Castle, the Chrestomanci series, The Dalemark Quartet, Dark Lord of Derkholm, and the satirical The Tough Guide to Fantasyland. Her work gained renewed attention and readership with the popularity of the Harry Potter series, to which her books have frequently been compared.

Admired by authors such as Neil Gaiman, Philip Pullman, and J.K. Rowling, Jones was a major influence on the landscape of modern fantasy. She received numerous accolades throughout her career, including the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, two Mythopoeic Awards, the Karl Edward Wagner Award, and the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement. In 2004, Howl's Moving Castle was adapted into an acclaimed animated film by Hayao Miyazaki, further expanding her global audience.

Jones studied at Oxford, where she attended lectures by both C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. She began writing professionally in the 1960s and remained active until her death in 2011. Her final novel, The Islands of Chaldea, was completed posthumously by her sister Ursula Jones.

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Haven't read this one in years either, but thinking tonight about how much I love Diana Wynne Jones and remember this being another one of my favorites (not as good as Fire & Hemlock, though). This Diana Wynne Jones woman is a frikkin' GENIUS. IMO these are the greatest kids' books EVER WRITTEN. This one starts out when this kid who lives in some sort of strange time and place that never actually existed stumbles upon a group of Them (Them being hooded, sinister gamers who are possibly among the most haunting figures in kid lit due to horrific combination of general creepiness and very disturbing model of cruel and indifferent gods). They catch the kid spying on Them while they're playing, and as punishment cast him out into a collection of alternate worlds, which it turns out are all these alternate realities manipulated by Them, as Their form of amusing game. Because the kid discovered the players behind the curtain, he is forced to become a Homeward Bounder, doomed to scramble around between the worlds, trying to find his way back to his own home. As the story goes on, you start to get the feeling this might be trickier than originally thought, as the kid begins to encounter other Homeward Bounders, including the Flying Dutchman and the Wandering Jew, who have been at this homeward bounding for quite some time.....

Okay, so DIANA WYNNE JONES IS A GODDAMN GENIUS, AND I THINK SHE WRITES THE BEST ENDINGS EVER AND I DON'T CARE WHAT ANYONE SAYS.

It is not just about how she blends traditional legends and mythology with her own crazy made-up ideas and recurring worlds/characters (I was probably 14 before I realized Guy Fawkes Day was not Jones's own invention -- whoopsie!). It is also about her ability to write this chaotic, artistic, meaningful literature for children. At the end of this book (I'm spoiling here! So lookout!), the characters suddenly confront the significance of the anchors that They use throughout the book as a sort of symbol. This is a really important point in the plot, because it's only then that the protagonist has the revelation that "hope is an anchor" -- that is, that hope and faith in the future is a prison, a deceptive trap being used to enslave the Homeward Bounders and to keep in place the nefarious system of worlds They've established.

Isn't that SO COOL??? Okay, maybe I wouldn't consider that such a profound message if I found it in a grownup book I'd be reading today, but for kids' fantasy fiction, that is some pretty heady stuff, am I right??! Hope is an anchor! It keeps you in chains! The way to become liberated is to abandon all your hopes and optimistic expectations, as only then you can really be free!!! That is just such a terrific message for kids to learn early on, especially in such a very lovely and entertaining format.

GOD I love this writer. I wish I could meet her someday, but I don't really know what I would say. I've got to go back and read these all again, but they're all at my mom's in California, and if my lovely out-of-print/first-edition hardcovers got lost in the mail, I'd have a terrible nervous breakdown for sure and never recover.

[Tijana]

Za razliku od većine romana Dajane Vin Džouns, ovde je zaplet srazmerno jednostavan: dvanaestogodišnji Džejmi slučajno otkrije da našim svetom upravljaju nepoznata bića koja zapravo igraju neku složenu stratešku društvenu igru poput Rizika. Zbog toga njega izbace iz igre kao neposlušnog piona, i osuđen je da večno luta iz jednog univerzuma u drugi, ne stareći i ne umirući - zajedno sa svim svojim prethodnicima koje je to isto zadesilo.
Kao i obično, i ovde ima poigravanja različitim mitološkim i legendarnim motivima koji dobijaju novo, sveže tumačenje - tako Džejmi npr. sreće Letećeg Holanđanina i njegovu posadu koji su tokom vekova izgubili svaku volju za životom i sad samo leže unaokolo na brodu, kao Borhesovi besmrtnici. I ovo jeste pisano za decu i standardno lakom rukom, ali povremeno se nagoveste sve one jezive implikacije od kojih se dečji pisci fantastike obično suzdržavaju. Kraj je naročito upečatljiv i - po tome koliko je suštinski, duboko tužan - predstavlja baš izuzetak u opusu ove autorke.

[Melissa McShane · Rating 5 out of 5]

In her twelfth published novel, Diana Wynne Jones again does something new; The Homeward Bounders has a little bit of Dogsbody, a little bit of Power of Three, but mostly it's just itself. Young Jamie goes poking around where he shouldn't and is found by Them, mysterious cloaked creatures who appear to be playing an enormous strategy game with the world--and they deal with Jamie's intrusion by making him a Homeward Bounder. Now Jamie is forced to travel between worlds, pulled by an insistent demand he can't predict, with the promise that if he can find his way Home he'll be allowed to stay. As he travels for months and years without aging, Jamie visits hundreds of worlds with hundreds of societies, some pleasant, some hostile, never allowed to stay long enough to make a home, holding on to just the tiniest hope that he will return Home someday.

While the varying societies Jamie visits are fascinating (DWJ was endlessly creative when it came to making new worlds) this book is very much about people and how they treat each other. Jamie's experiences make him cynical, naturally, and when he finally acquires some companions, he's unable at first to trust them or see them as anything but burdens. Helen Haras-uquara has her own issues, and Joris the demon hunter can't seem to stop talking about his "owner," the great demon hunter Konstam. That the three of them can become friends at all is due to DWJ's understanding of how people work. Their relationships are prickly, slow-growing things, but they do grow in ways dictated by who each of them are.

As a role-playing gamer, I love the way that wargaming comes into the story. Adam, an enemy turned friend (something we'll see again in other DWJ books, particularly Archer's Goon) provides the key to defeating Them through his and his father's enormous wargame terrain. While the other characters have supernatural abilities that let them fight their unseen enemy, Adam and his sister provide support in other ways, particularly through knowledge.

The revelation of how They are playing their game and what it will take for Jamie and the others to defeat them is complicated, typical for a DWJ novel. There's never anything simple about her solutions, and in this case understanding it requires a way of thinking about the world that reminds me of the ending of Fire and Hemlock--if one thing must be true, then another can't be. Jamie's solution to the problem hinges both on his ignorance (knowing who Prometheus is would have ruined everything) and his profound understanding of the puzzle. He sacrifices everything to keep Them from returning to power, and the final sentence of the novel makes me cry every time I read it.

[Emily Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

You all know how much I love Diana Wynne Jones.
I discovered this book only a few weeks ago, when I picked it up from an HPB.
I did not like this book.

Now, don't get me wrong - it was fascinating. I read it in maybe three days. I couldn't put it down. I needed to know what happened next. NEEDED TO.
BUT YOU GUYS I CRIED SO HARD BECAUSE OF THIS BOOK.
AND I KNEW I WAS GOING TO CRY.
ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE BOOK I COULD SEE IT COMING, STRAIGHT FROM PAGE ONE.
BUT IT HAPPENED. AND I DID.
I MIGHT BE CRYING AGAIN RIGHT NOW.
I cannot handle the emotions this book gives me. CANNOT HANDLE. It's too much for me. Especially to read right before finals.
I didn't see as much of the Diana style reading through this as I normally do. The world jumping, definitely (Konstam jumps worlds like a goat, anyone else notice that?), but it was so much DARKER in this book than I was expecting. Amazingly dark. I don't understand it, it was just like you could feel Them seeping out through the pages. Horrible. Terrifying.

[Siv30 · Rating 4 out of 5]

""אומרים שהתקווה היא עוגן!" יילל הנווד. "אמת הדבר. תקווה היא מעמסה, והיא כבולה אליך כאבן ריחיים על צווארך. ואני אומר, הַשְׁלִיכֶהָ מעליך! השלך מעליך את התקווה!""

ספר פנטזיה טוב מאוד לנוער ולמבוגרים.

ג'יימי בן ה- 12 הוא בן למשפחה ענייה. הוא נער סקרן מאוד וכשהוא מגלה בית נטוש, הוא חייב לגלות מה מסתתר מאחורי הדלתות, שם הוא מגלה שני אנשים מוזרים ללא פנים שמתעסקים במכשיר שלא מוכר לו. כשהאנשים הללו רואים אותו, הם מנהלים שיחה מוזרה במהלכה הם מחליטים שלא להרוג אותו אלא להשליך אותו. לפני השלכתו הם מוסרים לו את הכללים הבסיסיים שהראשון מבינהם שהוא לא יוכל להשתתף במשחק והשני שאם ימצא את דרכו יוכל לחזור לביתו.

ג'יימי מושלך מהעולם לעולם אחר ומנקודת זמן זו, ג'יימי נדון לנדוד בין עולמות שונים, ולעבור בינהם בקצוות בכל פעם שמהלך של אחד מהשחקנים חסרי הפנים מסתיים.

בעל כורחו ג'יימי הופך לנווד עולמות ובכל פעם מחדש לומד את הכללים של העולם לתוכו נזרק. בעולמות האלה הוא מוצא סימנים שהותירו מושלכים אחרים, שגם הם נודדים בין עולמות ומנסים לשוב לביתם. במהלך אחת הגיחות הללו הוא פוגש את הלן ובגיחה אחרת הוא פוגש את יוריס. שלושתם מנסים לפענח את הכוחות שעומדים מאחורי הנוודות שנכפתה עליהם וכיצד הם יכולים לשבור את הכללים כדי לשוב לביתם ולמשפחתם.

בעיניי הספר עמוק, עצוב ואפל מאוד. הוא מהר מאוד עובר מלהיות ספר לבני נוער לספר למבוגרים. הוא כולל מספר רעיונות פילוסופיים אף על פי שהסופרת אינה מרחיבה אלא דווקא מקצרת את היריעה.

הוא עוסק בתקווה ובמקום שלה בחיי האדם. התקווה היא עוגן אבל היא גם כלא. התקווה שלא מאפשרת לנוודים להתמקם בשום עולם ולקרוא לו בית. באש הזעירה של התקווה שמחזיקה את המושלכים במאמצים שלהם למצוא את ביתם כשהסיכויים לכך אפסיים, כי בכל השלכה הסיכויים מתאפסים מול מליוני עולמות קיימים, עד כדי אובדן תקווה.

הוא עוסק בדטרמניזם ובכוחות הטבע ששולטים באדם ובתנועות שלו בלי שהאדם יוכל לפענח את הכללים. האדם מוצג בספר ככלי במשחק גדול שאין לו שליטה לא על המשחק ולא על המהלכים שבו.

הוא עוסק בגלות ובמשמעות של המושג בית עבור הגולים. ויש בו פיתוח של עוד רעיונות שונים כמו עבדות, טוב מול רע, היהודי הנודד ועוד.

למרות שהספר אפל ועצוב, הסוף שלו אופטימי באופן מסויים. אהבתי את האופן שבו הסופרת משלבת רעיונות עמוקים ושהיא לא נסחפת למאות עמודים של כתיבה. אהבתי שהסיפור נמסר בגוף ראשון של ג'יימי, ילד בן 12 בעל ראיה חדה ותבונה של מבוגר. אהבתי את מוסר ההשכל של הספר, הסקרנות הרגה את החתול ולא צריך לצאת לכל הרפתקה כי ישנן הרפתקאות שמהן לא תוכל באמת לחזור הביתה.

[Mathew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most complex yet richly rewarding reads that I have come across. It was like reading all of Pullman's Dark Materials in one book (sort of). The subject matter and idea was complex but the plot and characters were so engaging. Unlike Charmed Life, I thought this was a challenging read both in concept and an writing but it was infinitely all the better for it. Based on the idea that all worlds are controlled by gamers who played with our lives, one young boy, Jamie, having discovered 'Them' is cast off from the game and doomed to wonder the different worlds in which they play as a Bounder.
It is for Jamie to discover the rules which govern the game in which he once was a part of in order to find and fight for his way home and yet to finds more to himself and his choices in his life which make for a far richer and rewarding read. Simply excellent.

[Lyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not that I cannot or will not review a young adult fantasy, but more likely I am just not attuned to realizing and articulating what is best with this novel.

The author is certainly very talented, the story is well crafted and blends more mature elements into a fine adventure story that many young readers will very probably enjoy, but … I just could not get into it, much more of a YA book than what I was expecting.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Are you one? Do you call us Homeward Bounders too?"
"That is the name to all of us is given," he said to me sadly.
"Oh," I said. "I thought I'd made it up."

Jamie Hamilton is twelve going on thirteen, living in a past which we can establish is 1879. But when, in exploring his town, he comes across a mysterious building where cloaked and hooded figures flit about his curiosity get the better of him and, by intruding on them, he becomes an outcast from the life with which he has grown familiar.

And it is all the doing of Them, as he soon terms those figures, games players who decide the fates of individuals, societies and worlds. As a 'discard' from the game They play he is forced to be both bystander and wanderer as he is thrown from one world to another without so much as a 'by your leave'.

Words like bounds, unbound, boundary and bounders are key aspects of this unusual children's fiction: what they signify are the artificial limits placed on one's actions and imagination by an arbitrary authority. At one level it may seem to be a deeply pessimistic story but at another it celebrates looking and feeling different and even suggests an individual really does have choices when it comes to deciding the direction their future might take.

"There are no rules," is iterated at least twice, "only principles and natural laws." What this means is that it is legitimate to ignore any rules promulgated by an illegitimate authority; what matters is that individuals shouldn't behave as if in a moral vacuum. It's hard not to see The Homeward Bounders as an angry cry against a controlling impersonal power, whether that power is corporate, political or fundamentalist.

For Jamie finds that his world and many others are controlled by inhuman creatures ('Demons') who play war games with the lives and environments of humans: with computers and boards and dice they decide the fate of billions. As a so-called 'random factor' can Jamie start to change this intolerable situation? He is in a good position, for he is not the only 'discard': he gets to meet and team up with Helen and Joris, other Bounders like him, plus to understand he is like those others who seem to stand outside of time and history -- the Wandering Jew Ahasuerus; the Flying Dutchman; and the Titan who calls himself Foresight, who is in fact Prometheus.

This is a typical Diana Wynne Jones novel in that there is a narrative drive constantly pushing forward, with quirky if imperfect characters; and yet it's also charged with complex ideas and myriad influences. A couple of examples here with suffice. In the use of the term Uquar I sense the influence of Jorge Luis Borges' short story 'Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius': Uquar is not only reminiscent of the name Uqbar (a world with stone mirrors) but also "the history of the universe" which we're told "is the handwriting produced by a minor god in order to communicate with a demon." Borges' narrative of the alternative world of Uqbar gradually infiltrating another, with its mirrors and godlings and demons, has so much in common with Jones's novel.

In addition, there are symbols galore in her fantasy, the principal one being the anchor-and-chain. This last is of course the Christian symbol of hope, or as is suggested here, "Hope is the forward-looking part of memory." But the problem in the novel is that the Demons who play games with humanity's fates use hope -- for ordinary humans and random factors alike -- as a "false promise" whilst knowing their promises will never be fulfilled. Yet when the tables are turned the Demons are "bound to hope" they themselves will survive. And here we have the return to the idea of binding and restricting: They're bound to hope; Prometheus is bound to the rock; Jamie and his fellow Bounders ("those who act beyond acceptable human behaviour") engage in the old English tradition of Beating the Bounds, the frontiers that keep and define its inhabitants.

So what is there to counteract the anchor as a false promise? Jamie, Helen, Joris and their friends find some protection in a sigil which they call Shen. In David Wyatt's illustrations this sign, with its pictographic appearance, is clearly derived from the simplified depiction of an anchor, with the curved flukes above the crosspiece of shank and stock instead of below.

But here's the thing: Shen is actually the name of a Chinese pictogram, the meaning of which variously includes deity or nature spirit, even the human spirit. This fantasy seems to be presenting a narrative in which a way to combat coercive control is oppose it with the human spirit; but for that opposition to have some chance of success it must be energetic and above all persistent.

Is there a happy ending? Yes and no. Evil, whatever form it takes, is never entirely vanquished, so there is no final epic battle to round off the tale. But the ending involves the protagonist refusing to be a victim and making a choice to be what he is.

There is much more one could say about this complex fantasy but this is not primarily a novel of ideas. As recounted by Jamie himself we see everything through his eyes, and yet we don't sense that he's an unreliable narrator; instead we hear about his failings and failures as well as his strengths and successes. The other Homeward Bounders are equally individual and all, it turns out, have their part to play as the story rushes to its climax.

As I've found out, The Homeward Bounders repays rereading in order to give some of its complexities, not so apparent the first time around, a chance to reveal themselves in all their subtlety. But that doesn't stop it being a gripping read on a first encounter.

[Bibliothecat · Rating 3 out of 5]

“You wouldn't believe how lonely it gets.”

The Homeward Bounders is definitely unique and takes place in a world that is very typical for Daina Wynne Jones. She does seem to love her universes having multiple worlds, often based on or around ours. When it comes to world variety, it seems very similar to the Chrestomanci series, only that unlike there, the characters in this book have no choice but to travel from world to world.

I loved how the plot came to a nice circle by the end of the book - it is narrated by Jamie who manages to deliver the story with a lot of cheek. The story he tells is cleverly structured and there's a lot of foreshadowing you can keep your eye out for. Diana Wynne Jones also knows how to fool you into believing that the wrong world is the one that represents ours. The other characters Jamie meets are also quite varied and come with a lot of quirks, they actually make him look quite plain by comparison.

So we have a nice narration, interesting variety of worlds and characters, a well-woven plot and a need to read on to find out what exactly is going on. Yet, even so, I never got fully invested in this. I couldn't say I saw anything wrong with it, but somehow I could not get myself to care as much as I thought I ought to. Perhaps it is also because I had seen so many comments in regards to how sad the ending was. It honestly did not strike me as that sad - I don't know if it's just the fact that I couldn't fully invest into the characters, or whether I was simply expecting something worse to come. But the truth is that I just did not care all that much. And even though I felt that the story was nicely resolved and came to a clean close, I also felt that a lot of the aspects could have been a tad more fleshed out. I can't quite put my finger on it, but something just felt lacking.

It is still a good book which, although not emotionally invested, was good fun to read and will likely end up getting reread at some point. Perhaps I can find myself caring more the second time around?

[Alex Ankarr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this book may hurt you. It's that beautiful, and that sad. But it's worth it.

[Elizabeth Boatman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Diana Wynne Jones is one of my favorite writers. I go to her when I need a jolt of something entirely different and unexpected. This has all the usual Jones elements: parallel worlds, girls with magical gifts, mythic beings, and the play on words and logic. As with Fire and Hemlock you may have to read the ending twice to figure out exactly how it all played out.

The protagonist, Jamie Hamilton, is a compelling character. He's a twelve-year-old boy from a lower class family. He's not interested in school nor does he want to take over the family grocery business. Both bore him silly. He likes football and exploring around the city. This sense of wanderlust comes in handy when he intrudes on "them", those other reality beings who are playing games with the lives of Jamie and others on his world. They are not pleased by this disruption and "discard" him to walk the Bounds. The book is about his journey and the people he meets while trying to get Home.

It's a quick read but not a casual read. Jones has filled the story with ideas about war and slaves and otherness (whether from a deformity or created by class difference). Not all plans are successful and not all successes are happy. Upon reflection though, it seems that this is the way it should be.

[Tam G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid 3.5 stars.

This is one of those books that kind of defies expectation. Diana Wynne Jones is a lovely writer, and she understands dialogue and how not to over-explain things. This one started with a sheer sense of wonder. Not because the main character has a sense of wonder. He was very pragmatic and plain. The plain explanations, how obviously the main character doesn't understand the things he sees, ignites a sense of curiosity. It feels real.

The middle is kind of up and down. There are times you think 'oh, this is going to be one of those children's books where they meet myths and stories?' Then something completely different happens. It feels random. Random is good in some respects (surprise, wonder, curiosity) and bad in others (does the author have control over the story? is it balanced?). In the end I found the randomness added to the story. I enjoyed not being able to guess what would happen next.

The ending explanation felt a bit rushed and silly, but the ending felt satisfying which is one of the harder things to do in a book. Leaving people with that little sigh or laugh of contentment.

[Eve Tushnet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read dozens of DWJ's books (ok... 16) and this one has the most haunting ending. It's an outlier in other ways too. Although there is a found family, it doesn't have much about Jones's trademark absent or self-absorbed parents; and it delves further into horror than she usually does, both in imagery like Helen's cannibal hand and in the distorted mindset of the boy who keeps declaring how much he loves being a slave. The latter is mostly played for very grim comedy, and a lot of this book's (very funny) comedy comes from the clash between the characters' desperate fears and their ridiculous circumstances. A personal favorite.

[☆Ruth☆ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't really know what rating to give this book, I guess 3.5 would be about right. It's a very imaginative story, which doesn't quite explain itself. I found myself re-reading paragraphs quite often to try and make sense of what was happening. For a children's book I think it's somewhat complex but on the other hand, maybe a child would just accept the concepts without trying to understand them! It's well written with interesting characters and despite a rather repetitive theme, it manages to stay interesting.

[Amiad · Rating 4 out of 5]

ג׳יימי מפריע ל„ההם”, ישויות רב ממדיות בעלות עוצמה רבה, וכעונש נזרק מהעולם שלו ונאלץ לנדוד בין עולמות מקבילים שונים.

דיאנה ון ג׳ונס מפליאה כרגיל ליצור עולם שלם ומרתק בספר נוער קצר בעוד סופרים אחרים לא מצליחים לבנות עולם אפילו בטרילוגיה עבת כרס. הסוף בעיני פחות מעניין.

[fulano]

TW/CW:
neglect, abuse, cannibalism, mention of suicide, violence, slavery, racism, internalized ableism.

Wow, this was pretty dark for a middle grade book, I’m sure there are others as such, but damn. I only read this because Mixed Magics, by this author, makes a reference to this book. I don’t regret it and would like to reread sometime.

[Brandy Painter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally posted here at Random Musings of a Bibliophile.

I am still making my way through Diana Wynne Jones's backlist. I probably wouldn't have read The Homeward Bounders for a long time to come as it's currently out of print in the the US (except as an e-book) if it weren't for a conversation on Twitter I had with Sage Blackwood in which she said she heard some consider it to be a metaphor for life as a military kid. My interest level rose exponentially and she was kind enough to send me an old used library copy to read. (Much thanks for that.)

This book, like all of Jones's books, has had many covers. I'm using the latest UK cover because I really like these covers for her books.

The Homeward Bounders unfolds slowly. For the first part of the novel Jamie is all alone simply telling his story about how he came to be a Homeward Bounder and the way the worlds work. As he tells his tale little things about Them (the players) are revealed, and what is revealed is rather chilling. They have no regard for lives. They are ruthless in pursuit of the game they are playing. The game they are playing is us and our lives. And the lives of countless other beings in countless other worlds. We are all pieces on a giant board game helped along by computers and players (the identity of who is a brilliant reveal). Who hasn't wondered about that at some point in their life? This is the sheer genius of Diana Wynne Jones, taking the things everyone ponders and expanding on them and turning them into a brilliant story. Jamie is thrust out of his world after discovering the game. A "discard", he is forced to wander the worlds in search of home. He is alone for a great deal of his search and that loneliness comes off the page and affects the reader. Finally Jamie is able to find some companions. Helen is special in her world, but has been exiled because she also discovered too much. Joris is a demon hunter apprentice, a slave with so much devotion he was dragged into life as a Homeard Bounder by a demon he refused to let go. These three are misfits and they form a strong if somewhat squabble team. A team that doubles when they are able to convince some actual non-Bounders of what is going on. But of course, this can't last forever. They are not going to allow them to remain together without a fight. I really enjoyed Jamie as a character all alone, a wander traveling the worlds. And I loved his interactions with the family he cobbles together from the people he meets. Helen and Adam are particularly fun to watch him with.

The Homeward Bounders is tragic, far more so than a lot of Jones's books are. It is a sort of tragic that is full of purpose though. The trials are not for nothing and the people suffering them learn to adjust, though it leaves scars and yearnings they will never shake. Yes, I can see why some people have likened it to life as a military brat. There were some sentences that made me cry because, yes, they do describe the feelings you have, the feeling that home is a place out there somewhere if you could only just find it, but deep down you know you never will because you missed that chance. That your life is out of your control. That you form attachments only to have them ripped away from you so why bother forming them at all anymore. There is something utterly profound in the conclusion of the book that relates as well. The lack of choice the Bounders have about how long they stay in one place (but they do know approximately how long it will be) and their lack of choice in where they end up next speaks to it as well. Whether Jones did this intentionally or not, I can't help but wish I had this book growing up.

The Homeward Bounders is not a book everyone is going to like, but it is perfect for me. I think it is one of Jones's best actually. It doesn't have the charm and quirk of Chrestomanci, Howl, or Derkholm, but it still has a sly and ironic humor that keeps it from being too tragic. And in the end it really is a beautiful story that is brilliantly crafted.

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

hope is an anchor, hope is a millstone around your neck. NOBODY WRITES KIDS BOOKS LIKE DIANA WYNNE JONES SERIOUSLY, the level of thematic + plot complexity in her stories is mind boggling, and this is maybe her saddest book ever. this is deeply a story about people who can’t go home, the journey is so imbued with so much melancholy no matter what kind of zany hijinks the characters get up to. I think that’s why a lot of the adventures across the multiverse were so non-descriptive and fleeting - because the only thing that was “real” in the characters’ minds were their memories of a lost home. Such a beautiful concept and haunting ending, and I’m so fond of Diana’s love for role playing games lmao this is literally Dungeons and Dragons if it was an epic Greek tragedy.

My caveat is that it also felt like one of her more clumsily written books — more of a plot outline of something much richer and expansive than an actual book. Basically I wish I could read the 800 page version of this world (I don’t think the issue is that it’s a children’s/YA novel because books like Howl’s, Fire & Hemlock, Hexwood etc feel more “complete.”) It’s impressive though that despite the hasty writing there will still moments of such incredible beauty (the whole sequence with Prometheus near the end) and characters I adore (HELEN!!!!!). I continue to be absolutely enchanted with DWJ despite instances of old white British lady racism, one of my favourite storytellers ever

[Mely · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am terrible at remembering exact lines, even for poetry or songs, where you'd think the rhythm or sound would help. I regard all the characters in Tam Lin who can quote poetry-- or even the characters in Buffy who can quote movies -- word-perfect with suspicion and envy. I get the scansion right but one of the words wrong or the sense right but not the phrase and worst of it is, I know it's wrong -- I just can't remember what the right version is.

I've always remembered the last line of this right. Always.

Merged review:

2022 reread. One of DWJ's best and still one of my favorites. The last sentence kills me every time.

[meg]

DWJ SFF GOAT

[Julie Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Following my reading of Dogsbody, I went on to this book in sampling Diana Wynne Jones' oeuvre. She came up with yet another completely different concept, unique world system, and set of problems to solve. As well, Jamie, the protagonist seems different from those I read about in Howl's Moving Castle and Dogsbody.

Jamie has a happy enough life with his family in a poor but active neighborhood of a large city. One day, when delivering groceries for his father's store, he happens upon a building that seems unlike those he has encountered before. When looking through the windows, he sees Them (which is the only way that these persons are ever described). They seem to be playing a gigantic board game and the glimmers of overheard conversation are tantalizing. He escapes detection and seeming danger but can't resist coming back later to see more. This time They see him and turn Jamie into a discarded player in their game, where he is doomed to walk the boundaries between worlds, bouncing from one to the next in the hopes of being able to find his way back home. He is not the only discarded player and meets those somewhat familiar to us (the Wandering Jew, the Flying Dutchman) and those who definitely are not. Jamie's discoveries and struggles make for absorbing reading and a book that I couldn't put down.

This is a juvenile fiction work but, aside from some plot points that are probably much more obvious to the adult reader than to the intended audience, there is enough here that one never really feels as if the book is written for a lower age group. Highly recommended.

[A.M. Steiner · Rating 2 out of 5]

A beautifully written YA adventure based on a fascinating premise. It starts strong but evolves into a deranged car-crash of hand waving and tone shifts.

The Homeward Bounders tells the tale of a young lad who accidentally stumbles across higher beings who treat the multiverse as their own personal war game. In punishment for this transgression, he is exiled from Earth. Obviously the kid wants to get home, and wants revenge, and if that sounds like a pretty cool idea - it is.

In its first half, the story builds on that great premise in a surprisingly adult tone, full of sneaky literary and historical references. The feeling is one of an epic foundation being laid, high stakes, and a genuine emotional investment in the characters. And then, sadly, it all goes wrong. More precisely, it goes batshit crazy. So crazy that it made the PKD novel I'd read immediately beforehand look like an exercise in sane restraint. So crazy I thought the writer might be on drugs. We get intergallactic belligerent cricket matches, greek gods and the introduction of a bunch of new characters whom we don't care about who take over the agency of the story, leaving our previous leads as passengers. And endless exposition dumps. And then we are catapulted into one of the most most bizarre, unsatisfying and hand-wavy conclusions I've ever read.

The Homeward Bounders is bonkers, and in a very bad way, which is a great shame, because at double the length, if it had stuck to the tone and themes established in the first half, I suspect it would have been a classic of YA-Adult crossover.

[Emilie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful discovery. Jamie's disrespect for boundaries and nosiness get him to stumble into 'Them' and 'their game', thus being made a Discart and sent on a journey through hundreds of worlds as a 'Homeward Bounder', is only hope of escaping the endless circle being to find his way back home along the way. Jamie is a strong-minded, no-nonsense troublemaker - not the sort of hero we are used from Diana Wynne Jones, but one that makes perfect sense for this story. I loved him and liked the book, even though I did cry a little for Jamie at the end - the plot twist seemed very hard on him, but at the same time the game 'they' were playing was too cruel to expect anything else. If you liked 'Hexwood' you will definitely dig 'Homeward Bounders'

[Clare Snow · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this so many times when I was a kid, I may be able to recite it word for word. I still have that book - not in quite the state it started out. Stupid 30yr old paperbacks.

There's a character, Helen, with an elephant trunk for an arm - who couldn't love that 🐘 And I NEEDED her amazing hair cut.

This was my intro to parallel universes. I still love them with a passion.

In Yr 9 I read about worm holes in Scientific American. I gave a class talk about worm holes and how its factually possible to move between parallel universes. 😈 i was not the cool kid at school

[Serena W. Sorrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is, to date, my favorite standalone DWJ. Yes, there were a few dragging parts, but I felt at the end they were necessary for Jamie's story.

And any book that makes me cry is a good book. That ending had me in awe.

As always DWJ makes a world, or worlds, that are so utterly fantastic you have no choice but to believe they're real. Every bit of it flowed perfectly to the next.

[Naama Ben-Haim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Basically... eh.

I think what mostly bugged me was the style of writing - I know it was supposed to feel as if the main character is telling me the story, but that just means everything is described very flatly and told in a sloppy, slangy style. I think the story could have been much more interesting and touching if it was told well, but with this style I didn't really get attached to any of the characters, and wasn't able to try to imagine how they were feeling - because the text itself barely described that.
Also, again (as happened in the last book I read, by the same author), there was a relationship between a teenager and an adult, with no one thinking it's weird or bad (this time, a 19-year-old girl in a relationship with a guy who I'm not sure how old he is but is definitely an adult, and also a slave owner who was probably planning on buying her if she didn't love him back). It was frankly just gross, and everyone acted as if it was completely normal, even in a modern human world.
I did like the ending, because a lot of seperate things (not everything, mind you) suddenly got connected. Again, though, I think I didn't really feel anything for the characters themselves or what happened to them at the end (no spoilers), which is kind of sad because this idea could potentially really hurt me (in the nice and warm way that good books do) if it was more well-executed.
(I also liked the idea of Helen's hair, that covers her face and you can tell her mood by how much she's covered by it: all hair behind her ears, only one side behind one ear, only her nose popping out, or completely covered. Might steal that for one of my stories one day, idk, it's just a nice concept.)

To summarize - cute idea, poorly executed.

[Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Torn as I try to rate/review this one. It has moments of the sparkle and magic that I've come to expect from Diana Wynne Jones' writing, but those elements are buried deeper than they usually are in her books.

My enjoyment of DWJ's writing is typically centered in the characters first, and the story second. In this case, you have turned a lot of pages before you meet the characters that she asks you to invest in emotionally. The story is compelling, but after she unwound the whole mystery, I was left feeling like it was somehow a little too complex for the story that she wrote. In other words, too much of the denouement took place in conversations between characters explaining the situation to each other, rather than unfolding more naturally through the actions of the plot.

That said, even this uneven book underscores the fact that it's hard to find an author whose imagination stands up to DWJ's.

[Abbe · Rating 4 out of 5]

DWJ is my all time favorite author so one thing I've been working on is reading all of her works instead of just rereading my favorites (Deep Secret, Howl and so forth.) More than once I've started a lesser known book of hers and thought "hm, not sure if I will like this one" only for her to win me back repeatedly. This one has a more sci fi feel to it with a smattering of fantasy-myth but what surprised me was that this book may have been inspired by Dungeons and Dragons. It wasn't obvious to me until at least half way through the book (it might be more obvious to someone who plays D&D regularly. I've only played a few times) but it was well done. It has some great characters and world building (she was always a master world builder) and the ending was maybe more bittersweet than she normally wrote but I thought it ended well.

[Tory · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why yes I did recognize Prometheus from the moment we saw him, thank you for asking *tosses hair*


I'm relatively certain I read this as a kid but didn't remember anything about it, and nothing became familiar as I read it today. Helen gave STRONG The Goddess from The Lives of Christopher Chant and since this book was published 7 years ahead of TLoCC, I'm hazarding there was a little structural inspiration created here.

Konstam was DEFINITELY Nandor from What We Do in the Shadows (if Nandor were actually effective or competent at anything)





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The turnaround of Adam from real creepy captor and human-trafficker to friend was jarring and could have used quite a bit more exposition and unpacking (which is maybe a signal of this book not being written for a traditional adult audience)

[Yipin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Complicated and deep. As if the writer has some sort of mental illness. Still a children's book but there is a sadness and deep meaning inside I can't seem to comprehend.