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Mixed Magics: Four Tales of Chrestomanci

(Chrestomanci)

Diana Wynne Jones

3.84 · Rating details · 4,071 ratings · 181 reviews

1 Warlock at the Wheel - Warlock drives away to flee Chrestomanci, gets bullied by toddler Jane and dog Towser.
2 Stealer of Souls - Evil Neville Spiderman kidnaps jealous Cat Chant and homesick Tonino from dying Gabriel de Witt.
3 Carol Oneir's Hundredth Dream - Dream subjects drunkenly object to typecast roles.
4 The Sage of Theare - Great Zond and gods try to outwit proph ...more

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Paperback, 208 pages

Published February 18th 2003 by Greenwillow Books (first published 2000)

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3.84 ·

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· 4,071 ratings · 181 reviews

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May 25, 2015 mark monday rated it it was ok

Shelves: fantasy-modern, fantasy-60s-70s-80s, inbetweenworld

this is a pleasant although unremarkable collection of 4 stories set in the Chrestomanci universe.

"Warlock at the Wheel" details the misadventures of a goofy low-life who escapes into another world and attempts to use his magic powers for ill. unfortunately for him, a slovenly little girl and her giant mastiff spoil his plans. one word review: EH

"Stealer of Souls" is the strongest story in the collection. this one has a grouchy, selfish Cat being given charge of sweet little Tonnino from The Mag ...more

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Mar 02, 2011 Josie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: childrens-fiction

I was disappointed by the stories in this collection! But I did like when Janet said to Cat, "You must admit, Chrestomanci is taller and darker and handsomer than any man has any right to be!" Haha trufax, Janet.

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Jul 12, 2013 Isabel Alcuaz rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013, short-stories, owned

I didn't much like 'Warlock at the Wheel', but the rest is worth reading. I really enjoyed those, especially 'Stealer of Souls' and 'Carol Oneir's Hundredth Dream', which contain glimpses of Cat, Tonino, Janet and an old school-friend of Christopher's.

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May 30, 2018 Lara Mi rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: short-stories, magic-witches-wizards, friendship, fictional-worlds, united-kingdom, deities, novel-owned, fantasy, music-and-actors

"For a moment I thought you were an enchanter. Now I don't know what I think."

Mixed Magics suffers from the fact that it's a collection of short stories. I can rarely get invested into those and I've never felt so sorry for it than I do for this one. It consists of four stories related to the Chrestomanci series. Most of them range from boring to an alright read. However, the second story, The Stealer of Souls, was such a lovely one that I wish it would have filled up the whole book in place o ...more

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Feb 18, 2019 Rachel (Kalanadi) rated it really liked it

Shelves: childrens

I really enjoyed "Warlock at the Wheel" and "Carol Oneir's Hundredth Dream"!

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May 01, 2013 Deborah O'Carroll rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2013-reads, fantasy, own, short-stories, ya, collection, 2015-reads, 5-stars-awesome, epic-character-i-love, diana-wynne-jones

Read 2013

Re-read March 2015

Re-read February 2017

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Sep 04, 2017 Maija rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: children-or-mg, fantasy

A collection of four short stories in the Chrestomanci universe. Weaker than the Chrestomanci novels, but hey, it's still Diana Wynne Jones.

Maybe 2.5 stars. The Sage of Theare was probably my favourite, and I would give that one about 3 stars...

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Mar 02, 2013 Joan rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: fantasy readers

Shelves: 5-6-fiction, fantasy, j-books, fiction

This was not the official next book to read on my to read shelf (the physical one, not the Goodreads one). However, after my last book I needed something fun and relaxing and this filled the bill completely. Jones had a lot of fun with these four tales of Chrestomanci. I think at least one (stealer of souls) could have been expanded into a full length novel rather than a short story. I tend to not like the short stories format since it really limits character development among other problems. I' ...more

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Jun 03, 2018 Cassandra rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018-read

I liked the one about Cat and Tonino the most, it was nice to see a continuation of The Magicians of Caprona, as it finished quite abruptly.

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May 07, 2017 Pam Baddeley rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: children, fantasy

A collection of four short stories by the late great DWJ, all related to her Chrestomanci wizardry novels. The first, Warlock at the Wheel, is pretty standalone although it concerns a character who appeared in Charmed Life, and is the one I least enjoyed. An unsuccessful wizard who lost his powers in that novel turns to crime and learns that the old adage about not working with children and animals is true. I found it a bit 'cutesy' and predictable.

Stealer of Souls is firmly set in the Chrestoma A collection of four short stories by the late great DWJ, all related to her Chrestomanci wizardry novels. The first, Warlock at the Wheel, is pretty standalone although it concerns a character who appeared in Charmed Life, and is the one I least enjoyed. An unsuccessful wizard who lost his powers in that novel turns to crime and learns that the old adage about not working with children and animals is true. I found it a bit 'cutesy' and predictable.

Stealer of Souls is firmly set in the Chrestomanci world and stars Cat, the boy who is understudy to be the next Chrestomanci (it is a role taken on by the most powerful wizard, who happens to have nine lives and who polices the other magical workers). Cat finds it difficult to cope with the arrival of an Italian boy, Tonino, whose magic takes the form of augmenting that of others, and who is patently homesick. (Tonino was introduced in another Jones' novel, The Magicians of Caprona.) Tonino has taken Cat's place in the hierarchy at Chrestomanci Castle and the experience brings out the worst in Cat who wonders if he is going to grow up to be an evil enchanter, but then he meets the real thing when the two boys are kidnapped, and he learns some life lessons in the process. This is an interesting story from beginning to end, with a lot of inventiveness, especially the sequence when the two boys are forced to clean up a filthy basement (having been bespelled into forgetting their own magical abilities which would help them escape). Very vivid and a satisfying conclusion. The best story in the collection in my opinion.

In Carol Oneir's Hundredth Dream the eponymous Carol is sent to Chrestomanci as her last hope because she is unable to produce the hundredth in a series of lucid dreams which have been recorded and sold to great profit, giving her family a lifestyle her mother is desperate to cling onto. Carol initially comes over as a bit of a spoilt brat, having always been the centre of attention, but she learns there are others to consider and that sometimes it's necessary to develop along your own path even if this means disappointing the mercenary dreams of a parent. On another level, the story deals with the theme of creativity and whether a dreamer's (writer's) characters have an independent life of their own.

Finally, The Sage of Theare is a story I've read before (Hecate's Cauldron, an anthology of women writers), and it 'came back' as I read it. It is quite an odd story and begins in Theare, a world where everything is very controlled and rule-bound under the rulership of a pantheon of gods reminiscent of the Greek ones. The sun god, who also deals with prophecy, warns that a child has been born who will set everything upside down by questioning everything; this will trigger Dissolution, destroying the gods and granting humanity freewill. The gods set about trying to circumvent the prophecy, but in doing so set in train a series of events in which Chrestomanci eventually becomes embroiled. Anyone who enjoys time paradoxes will like this one; it's an OK read for me, but I wondered if DWJ ever meant to return to this world given a throw-away line (view spoiler)

Anyway, an easy, short, page-turning read. Nothing too challenging, but Stealer of Souls is the best of the bunch and has the added bonus for anyone familiar with some of the other Chrestomanci books of giving us another tale of Cat and Tonino. That story was a 4-star for me, but with the other stories being not quite so enjoyable, I've awarded 3 stars overall. ...more

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Jan 11, 2018 Yipin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Mixed magics is a collection of four short stories all of which I wish could have lasted longer.

They are spin off, side stories of the main chrestomanci story, each revealing a little adventure of the characters found in the chrestomanci series.

You need to read charmed life to know the character in warlock at the wheel, although you will follow the story just fine without first reading charmed life.

Stealer of souls uses the characters from the lives of christopher chant and magicians of capron ...more

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May 14, 2017 Daphne rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: childrens-middle-grade, eb, fantasy, multiple-stories, read-in-2017, reviewed, young-adult, 3-star

I mostly read this book for the sake of completion of this series, and I give it this lower rating because I feel like the stories in this book don't really hold up compared to the longer stories in the rest of the series. When I look back at this book later, I have a feeling I will only remember one or two of the stories vaguely, as they didn't leave much of an impact.

Still, it's always fun to read more in this universe and see what new things Diana Wynne Jones comes up with to explore. In that ...more

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Nov 14, 2018 Kristin Boldon rated it liked it

Shelves: 2018, own, read-aloud, young-adult

For Chrestomanci completists.

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Mar 03, 2017 Jean rated it really liked it

The Willing Warlock story is not much more than light comedy, but I adore Stealer of Souls and Carol Oneir's Hundredth Dream (I would love to know when DWJ started planning this story, because Carol's father is Christopher's best friend in school...and "oneiric" means "having to do with dreams" so I'm always really impressed by that). And I'm kind of fond of Thasper too.

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Mar 13, 2015 Joseph Salvatore Vitale rated it it was amazing

Read DWJ YOU won't regret it

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Feb 13, 2014 icep4ck rated it really liked it

Una colección de cuentos divertida, especialmente la novelita de Cat.

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Dec 19, 2011 Chris rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: chrestomanci, fantasy

Publishers and booksellers think they know their market when it comes to the fantasy novels of Diana Wynne Jones and her ilk: young readers aged 9 to 12 or, at a pinch, young adult or teens for her more ‘difficult’ novels. This despite the fact that her fans range upwards in age to other adult fantasy writers, filmmakers, academics (and not just in the literary field — I knew a professor of sociology who rated her highly as a writer) and, of course, bloggers of all ages. Those who treat books me ...more

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Nov 23, 2012 bakanekonomama rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasi, anak-anak, my-precious

Buku ini memuat empat cerita menarik dari dunia Chrestomanci. Beberapa di antaranya merupakan kelanjutan dari cerita Chrestomanci sebelumnya. Hmm.. Atau seenggaknya dua cerita pertama sih begitu. Soalnya saya baru baca seri pertama dan kedua, terus langsung loncat ke yang ketujuh ini.. xDD Soalnya lebih tipis sih xp

Lagian buku seri Dunia Chrestomanci ini tampaknya bisa dibaca terpisah. Soalnya nggak nyambung antar ceritanya. Bahkan di Goodreads sendiri ada saran pembacaan, yang beda dengan uruta ...more

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Feb 25, 2018 Elias Helfer rated it liked it

This book features four short stories, featuring people from the Chrestomanci series of books. They are all enjoyable, and some are quite good, though none of them really seem to reach the depth of the books. It might be that Jones' wild and somewhat chaotic prose style thrives better in slightly longer texts.

The first one, Warlock at the Wheel, is my least favourite. It is a crazy tale of an automobile-happy warlock who ends up in what appears to be our world, and goes on a wild car-ride. There This book features four short stories, featuring people from the Chrestomanci series of books. They are all enjoyable, and some are quite good, though none of them really seem to reach the depth of the books. It might be that Jones' wild and somewhat chaotic prose style thrives better in slightly longer texts.

The first one, Warlock at the Wheel, is my least favourite. It is a crazy tale of an automobile-happy warlock who ends up in what appears to be our world, and goes on a wild car-ride. There doesn't seem to be too much point to the story, other than being a wacky tale. It is also the only tale not really to feature a major character from the Chrestomanci books, though a good story of a new character would could have been just as great. Alas, this is not that tale.

The second is Stealer of Souls, and brings together Cat from Charmed Life and Tonino from The Magicians of Caprona. This story is much more on point, portraying a cornucopia of characters from at least three different Chrestomanci books. It's also a much more dramatic book, in which Cat and Tonino find themselves in quite a bit of a situation. It also shows us a new and powerful opponent of Chrestomanci, and explains a few things about the universe. A pretty strong tale, and for Chrestomanci fans, this may be the place to start.

Then there's Carol Oneir's Hundredth Dream. A very charming and whimsical story of a girl who is a champion dreaming superstar - meaning, she is very famous for her talent at dreaming. She makes a living for herself and her family from making pleasant dreams that other people can enjoy. But her hundredth dream is not forthcoming - so her mother takes her to see Chrestomanci to find an explanation. This story has a lot of other characters in the background, but the focus is on Carol, her mother, and on Chrestomanci - and that works really well. Because we know Chrestomanci, the story can focus on building up Carol, making the revelation of her problem at once surprising and obvious. A wonderful story with a subtle bit of moral to it, this is probably my favourite of the four.

Which leads us to the final, The Sage of Theare. Set in a world in which the Gods have ordered everything so nothing is left to chance, we follow a young boy, destined to become the Sage of Dissolution. This story seems to have more bite than the other stories, with a much more political and philosophical point. It deals with both generational differences, inevitability, and the (un)desirability of perfect order. If I were an English teacher for kids in middle-grade or higher, I might consider this one (or Carol Oneir) as reading for class.

All in all, I enjoyed the read, though I do prefer Diana Wynne Jones' longer fiction. Stealer of Souls I would recommend to Chrestomanci-fans, while Carol Oneir and The Sage of Theare could work as tasters of Diana Wynne Jones' style, and should be enjoyable to Jones' fans. ...more

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Aug 29, 2017 Sadie Slater rated it liked it

Mixed Magics contains four short stories set in the universe of Diana Wynne Jones's Chrestomanci novels. The first, 'Warlock at the Wheel' catalogues the misadventures of the Willing Warlock (one of the minor antagonists from Charmed Life) when he tries to escape to a parallel universe and steal a car, which unfortunately turns out to be occupied by a small girl and a large dog. There wasn't a lot to this one; I know that the Chrestomanci novels are generally written for younger readers than som Mixed Magics contains four short stories set in the universe of Diana Wynne Jones's Chrestomanci novels. The first, 'Warlock at the Wheel' catalogues the misadventures of the Willing Warlock (one of the minor antagonists from Charmed Life) when he tries to escape to a parallel universe and steal a car, which unfortunately turns out to be occupied by a small girl and a large dog. There wasn't a lot to this one; I know that the Chrestomanci novels are generally written for younger readers than some of DWJ's other books, but this felt as though it was aimed at very young children.

I liked 'Stealer of Souls'a lot more. This story recounts an episode in the lives of Cat Chant (Charmed Life) and Tonino Montana (The Magicians of Caprona), and also gives readers another sight of several of the supporting characters from The Lives of Christopher Chant, many years later. I liked this much more than the first story; it was nice to revisit the characters and it provided some interesting character development for Cat in particular.

The third story, 'Carol Oneir's Hundredth Dream' is about what happens when Carol (the world's youngest best-selling dreamer) is taken to consult Chrestomanci about the difficulties she is experiencing in recording her hundredth dream. It's a slyly witty look at the creative process, writer's block and the differences between producing genuine art and simply churning out the same things again and again.

The final story, 'The Sage of Theare' is set in the world of Theare, where the gods are highly organised and are thrown into a panic at the prophecy that a Sage of Dissolution has been born. Unfortunately, their attempts to thwart the prophecy cause further problems, which require Chrestomanci's intervention to resolve. I think this was my favourite of the stories, mostly because I enjoyed the philosophical aspects.

It's quite a slight book, both literally (only 160-odd pages in the edition I have) and in terms of the stories themselves; not DWJ's best, but enjoyable nonetheless and perfect when I wanted something undemanding. ...more

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Feb 07, 2019 Josh Ang rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is a collection of four short stories that are set to be contemporaneous with the events of the first few books in the series (based on the order that my omnibus edition is sequenced, “Mixed Magics” is the fourth book). Like the title suggests, the tales are quite varied in tone and style. For instance, the first one, “Warlock at the Wheel”, seems pitched for younger readers, with slapstick humour provided mainly by a bumbling good-for-nothing crooked warlock. He hijacks a car, while on the This is a collection of four short stories that are set to be contemporaneous with the events of the first few books in the series (based on the order that my omnibus edition is sequenced, “Mixed Magics” is the fourth book). Like the title suggests, the tales are quite varied in tone and style. For instance, the first one, “Warlock at the Wheel”, seems pitched for younger readers, with slapstick humour provided mainly by a bumbling good-for-nothing crooked warlock. He hijacks a car, while on the run from robbing a bank, and finds himself saddled with a young child and her giant pet dog instead.

The second story “Stealer of Souls” picks up from the second book, “The Magicians of Caprona”, and finds little Italian Tonino Montana coming to Chrestomanci’s castle, and meeting a hostile Cat Chant. This story has more sinister elements involving the capturing of souls of the Chrestomancis by a powerful and evil enchanter and the boys in mortal danger, and involves some time travelling into an earlier era.

“Carol Oneir’s Hundredth Dream” feature elements of the novel “The Lives of Christopher Chant”, which was the last book I read in this edition’s sequence. There is a delightful twist which I won’t give away that makes the whole idea of manufactured dreams come alive. Wynne Jones also satirises the marketing of toys and products pitched at children, which mirrors the way our consumer culture has taken hold on us from a very young age.

The last story, “The Sage of Theare”, is the one which is most unlike any from the series I have read, featuring a plot and setting more in line with the Greek mythical tales of gods and goddesses than one about magic and enchanters. But Wynne Jones melds the different worlds (literally) of her story universe together rather admirably when Chrestomanci appears. Unfortunately, it seemed to end rather abruptly, and I really hope to revisit this world in more detail in the two remaining books in this series. Keeping my fingers crossed. ...more

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Aug 07, 2017 Rasha | رشا rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, middle-grade, أدب-انجليزي

Warlock at the Wheel

لقصة عن لص يهرب من عالمه الى عالم اخر هربا من الكرستومانسي ويطيح في يد وكيل كريستومانسي في ذلك العالم ، بريحة الكريستومانسي لكن مش عنه بشكل فعلي

Stealer of Souls

ظريفة ولو اني تمنيت لو ينعطى فرصة لكات وتنينو ويكون لهم جزأ كامل من السلسلة مع بعض، الشرير ظريف اكثر من اللازم

Carol Oneir's Hundredth Dream

الفكرة جداً جميلة ومبتكرة وفيها نوع من التندر على القصص المكرره في شخصياتها وتختلف بس في بيئتها

The Sage of Theare

مافهمت الهدف من هذي القصة عدا عن انها تنتقد السلطات الدينية المتسلط ...more

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Jun 10, 2018 Ella M rated it liked it

There really isn't much to say about this, is there?

Content warnings: food descriptors to describe a person of color, mentions of death and fecal matter, using "plump and pudgy" as an insult of character, cr*pple slur.

1. Warlock at the Wheel

-A really entertaining concept, but the style was very tell-y instead of show-y, and I couldn't connect to any of the characters. 2.5 stars.

2. Stealer of Souls

-Really clever ending, but Cat and Tonino bothered me the whole story. 3 stars.

3. Carol Oneir's H ...more

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Nov 25, 2017 Arden Powell rated it liked it · review of another edition

Read in one sitting! Stealer of Souls was the standout, with Carol O'Neir's Hundredth Dream in a close second. Warlock at the Wheel was unimpressive and a bit juvenile - and I do realize she writes for the middle grade crowd, but she normally transcends the age bracket. The Sage of Theare falls squarely in-between - entertaining, but nothing mind-blowing.

I do wish the collection were longer, but I keep reading the Chrestomanci Chronicles completely out of order and with no regard for one another ...more

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Mar 24, 2018 Mahra rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

These are short stories that I have been reading them along with the chronological order.

1. Stealer of Souls amazed me when it had Tonino and Cat in it!
2. RIP Gabriel De Witt 🙏
3. Chrestomaci’s character is just stunning ✨
4. I really enjoyed how the next story “Carol 100th dream” had that connection, where the guy who went to school with Chrestomanci (who smashed him with a bat back in The lives of Christopher Chant) brought his daughter to Chrestomanci to consult her.
5. Also I love CHRESTOMANCI ...more

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Oct 26, 2018 Juushika rated it liked it

Shelves: genre-mg-and-ya, genre-short-fiction, genre-fantasy, status-borrowed, format-audiobook

Four stories set within the Chrestomanci world. The delight is in seeing a wider view--characters from different novels coming together, exterior glimpses of Christopher Chant as Chrestomanci--and DWJ's creative ideas and knack for endings works well in short form. "Stealer of Souls" combines these elements successfully, and is easily the best of the bunch. But the tone sometimes falters, like the cruel humor of "Warlock at the Wheel," some stories are too divorced from the novels, and nothing s ...more

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Aug 25, 2018 Mylove4book rated it it was amazing

魔術師威林瓦拉克、偷靈魂的怪人、卡蘿的第一百個夢、希亞洛的哲人
四個短篇的魔法組曲，今天的奎師塔門西依舊社畜無誤XD
=================================
Diana居然冷冷的把阿貓的陰暗面掀出來了，天啊這些恐怖的英國人，這不是青少年文學嘛XD幸好結局溫馨不然我該怎麼正眼看待阿貓啊...
這麼多年後回顧Chrestomanci系列，這幾個短篇集真的補足了好多空白~時間點在第二集天使的魔咒(The Magicians of Caprona)和第七集平霍的蛋(The Pinhoe Egg，尖端沒出版...)之間。意外的是托尼諾-也就是第二集中的義大利魔法家族的小男孩-居然再度登場了，而且戲份還蠻吃重的，看來Diana蠻偏愛他的呢。
最後一個短篇"希亞洛的哲人"，登場的天神們讓人回想起霍爾的移動城堡的第二集"飛天魔毯"，很奇特的一篇，雖然劇情實在太玄妙了。畢竟是天神嘛。(?) 這篇的某些點也讓我想起了尼爾·蓋曼的美國眾神呢。

Chrestomanci系列如果能繼續看下去有多好啊。Diana的後代能不能幫她續寫一下XD

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Oct 14, 2017 Katie Bee rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2017-books-read

Four light, amusing short stories in the Chrestomanci universe. Not quite as engrossing as the full-length novels, but perfectly pleasant.

My favorite is the one where a warlock escapes into another world and is bullied by a toddler and a dog. And seeing Cat and Tonino bonding in "Stealer of Souls" is a nice bonus.

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Mar 20, 2018 Janhmmn rated it really liked it

Shelves: aloud, 2018

I am really enjoying the Chrestomanci series. Having invented a parallel worlds cosmology and the Chrestomanci character, Diana Wynne Jones then proceeds to write widely varied stories featuring them.
There are 4 short stories in this volume. Warlock at the Wheel is amusing but not particularly deep, but the other three are clever and creative.

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Jun 22, 2017 Rachel rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy, favorites, reccomended-reading

This was a quick, enjoyable set of short stories. I didn't care much for the first one, but the other three were quite a lot of fun. I especially appreciated being able to see more of Cat's insecurities, and to explore the many different forms of magic and worlds Dianna Wynne Jones has developed.

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About Diana Wynne Jones

Diana Wynne Jones

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Diana was born in London, the daughter of Marjorie (née Jackson) and Richard Aneurin Jones, both of whom were teachers. When war was announced, shortly after her fifth birthday, she was evacuated to Wales, and thereafter moved several times, including periods in Coniston Water, in York, and back in London. In 1943 her family finally settled in Thaxted, Essex, where her parents worked running an ed Diana was born in London, the daughter of Marjorie (née Jackson) and Richard Aneurin Jones, both of whom were teachers. When war was announced, shortly after her fifth birthday, she was evacuated to Wales, and thereafter moved several times, including periods in Coniston Water, in York, and back in London. In 1943 her family finally settled in Thaxted, Essex, where her parents worked running an educational conference centre. There, Jones and her two younger sisters Isobel (later Professor Isobel Armstrong, the literary critic) and Ursula (later an actress and a children's writer) spent a childhood left chiefly to their own devices. After attending the Friends School Saffron Walden, she studied English at St Anne's College in Oxford, where she attended lectures by both C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien before graduating in 1956. In the same year she married John Burrow, a scholar of medieval literature, with whom she had three sons, Richard, Michael and Colin. After a brief period in London, in 1957 the couple returned to Oxford, where they stayed until moving to Bristol in 1976.

According to her autobiography, Jones decided she was an atheist when she was a child.

Jones started writing during the mid-1960s "mostly to keep my sanity", when the youngest of her three children was about two years old and the family lived in a house owned by an Oxford college. Beside the children, she felt harried by the crises of adults in the household: a sick husband, a mother-in-law, a sister, and a friend with daughter. Her first book was a novel for adults published by Macmillan in 1970, entitled Changeover. It originated as the British Empire was divesting colonies; she recalled in 2004 that it had "seemed like every month, we would hear that yet another small island or tiny country had been granted independence."Changeover is set in a fictional African colony during transition, and begins as a memo about the problem of how to "mark changeover" ceremonially is misunderstood to be about the threat of a terrorist named Mark Changeover. It is a farce with a large cast of characters, featuring government, police, and army bureaucracies; sex, politics, and news. In 1965, when Rhodesia declared independence unilaterally (one of the last colonies and not tiny), "I felt as if the book were coming true as I wrote it."

Jones' books range from amusing slapstick situations to sharp social observation (Changeover is both), to witty parody of literary forms. Foremost amongst the latter are The Tough Guide To Fantasyland, and its fictional companion-pieces Dark Lord of Derkholm (1998) and Year of the Griffin (2000), which provide a merciless (though not unaffectionate) critique of formulaic sword-and-sorcery epics.

The Harry Potter books are frequently compared to the works of Diana Wynne Jones. Many of her earlier children's books were out of print in recent years, but have now been re-issued for the young audience whose interest in fantasy and reading was spurred by Harry Potter.

Jones' works are also compared to those of Robin McKinley and Neil Gaiman. She was friends with both McKinley and Gaiman, and Jones and Gaiman are fans of each other's work; she dedicated her 1993 novel Hexwood to him after something he said in conversation inspired a key part of the plot. Gaiman had already dedicated his 1991 four-part comic book mini-series The Books of Magic to "four witches", of whom Jones was one.

For Charmed Life, the first Chrestomanci novel, Jones won the 1978 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a once-in-a-lifetime award by The Guardian newspaper that is judged by a panel of children's writers. Three times she was a commended runner-up[a] for the Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book: for Dogsbody (1975), Charmed Life (1977), and the fourth Chrestomanci book The Lives of Christopher Chant (1988). She won the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, children's section, in 1996 for The Crown of Dalemark. ...more

Other books in the series

Chrestomanci (6 books)

Books by Diana Wynne Jones

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

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

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

The Lives of Christopher Chant (Chrestomanci, #2)

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Quotes from Mixed Magics

“How can I preach Dissolution?" he said. "How can I not believe in the gods when I have seen them for myself?"
"That's a question you certainly should be asking," Chrestomanci croaked. "Go down to Theare and ask it." Thasper nodded and turned to go. Chrestomanci leaned towards him and said from behind his handkerchief, "Ask yourself this too: Can the gods catch flu? I think I may have given it to all of them. Find out and let me know, there's a good chap.” — 7 likes

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