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Dark Lord of Derkholm

(Derkholm #1)

Diana Wynne Jones

4.12 · Rating details · 15,703 ratings · 867 reviews

Everyone - wizards, soldiers, farmers, elves, dragons, kings and queens alike - is fed up with Mr Chesney's Pilgrim Parties: groups of tourists from the world next door who descend en masse every year to take the Grand Tour. What they expect are all the trappings of a grand fantasy adventure, including the Evil Enchantress, Wizard Guides, the Dark Lord, Winged Minions, and ...more

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Paperback, 328 pages

Published August 2003 by Gollancz (first published 1998)

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Aug 23, 2017 Celeste rated it really liked it

Shelves: funny, fantasy

Full review now posted!
Original review can be found at Booknest.

You’ve probably heard it said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I think that’s true to an extent, but there is an art form that goes beyond imitation that, when done well, can often be the best representation of that which it set out to mock. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen is a perfect example of this. She set out to mock gothic literature, which she did beautifully, but what impresses me so much about that story is Full review now posted!
Original review can be found at Booknest.

You’ve probably heard it said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I think that’s true to an extent, but there is an art form that goes beyond imitation that, when done well, can often be the best representation of that which it set out to mock. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen is a perfect example of this. She set out to mock gothic literature, which she did beautifully, but what impresses me so much about that story is that she managed to craft a near-perfect gothic novel as the vehicle for her parody. Thus far, it remains my favorite example of a gothic novel, even though the entire book was written as a way to poke fun of the genre.

In Dark Lord of Derkholm, Jones accomplishes the same for classic fantasy, particularly the subgenre of portal fantasy. Here, we have a beautifully crafted fantasy world that basks in its own cliches. But there’s something plaguing this world: Mr. Chesney, a business mogul from a magic-free planet that must be ours, has basically enslaved this lovely world to his Pilgrim Tours, a way for people from our world to experience a fantasy adventure. While the residents of this fantasy world are supposedly reimbursed from their troubles, everyone is miserable and just wants out of the contract binding them to Mr. Chesney. So they select as the Dark Lord for this year the bumbling, affable, country-bumpkin Wizard Derk, with hopes that he’ll fail so miserably that Mr. Chesney will give up and go home. But Chesney has more invested in this world than they know. And Derk has built for himself a wonderfully supportive and capable family, including five griffins, and they are determined to help him succeed. Hilarity ensues.

This was such a funny book. It’s categorized as YA, but it felt more like some weird hybrid of middle grade and adult fantasy because of the tone. I don’t know how to describe it exactly except to say that the protagonists didn’t feel like YA protagonists. I loved watching Jones take cherished cliches and turn them on their heads. The cast of characters she built were incredibly varied, and the vast majority of them were very likable and sympathetic. I especially loved the Derk’s seven children, two human and five griffins. The siblings’ relationships with one another were wonderful. The premise of the book was very tongue-in-cheek, but Jones managed to insert an impressive amount of drama into such a short little book. So much was happening, and there were very few dull moments. (The marching, though. Too much marching.) Also, there were plot twists! Ones that I actually didn’t guess!

After the first couple of chapters, I stopped thinking of this as a parody and started thinking about it as a legitimate fantasy novel in its own right. The only book I had read by Jones prior to this was Howl’s Moving Castle, which is one of my favorites. I’m so happy that I enjoyed this. It wasn’t perfect, but it was still fantastic. I’ll definitely be reading its sequel, Year of the Griffin! ...more

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Apr 27, 2014 Toby rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantastical

Just over six years ago I met the person I want to spend my entire life with, in that time I was very quickly made aware of her affection towards the fantasy author Diana Wynne Jones and regularly told to give her a try. Being such a considerate husband I finally relented on the proviso that she choose me one that wasn't for kids, wasn't too massive and was one of her better novels. Apparently the first two choices are already lent to a friend of ours and so I was provided with a well loved copy Just over six years ago I met the person I want to spend my entire life with, in that time I was very quickly made aware of her affection towards the fantasy author Diana Wynne Jones and regularly told to give her a try. Being such a considerate husband I finally relented on the proviso that she choose me one that wasn't for kids, wasn't too massive and was one of her better novels. Apparently the first two choices are already lent to a friend of ours and so I was provided with a well loved copy of this Derkholm book. I quite enjoyed it, not that I'm surprised by this fact, she's a highly awarded and regarded author in the genre by all those in the know, and those that don't know are quite probably the type to gush over something interminably "epic".

The Dark Lord of Derkholm is actually just the wizard Derk, prophesied by an oracle to be the chosen one, the wizard who would finally bring the world peace and free it from an evil overlord who holds the world in his vice-like grip via a portal from Earth. Derk is an outcast in the wizard community, a man who prefers to invent interesting new creatures rather than focus on more every day spells such as conjuring feasts and enchantment. Every year a wizard is chosen to be the Dark Lord for a series of tourist parties from Earth arranged by the villainous bean counter Mr Chesney, a position of great importance as you're responsible for keeping the entire planet organised to service the tourists or face death by Chesney's pocket demon. How the hell did she come up with this stuff? Derk has help from his loving family of wizards in training and magical creatures adopted as children, even the genetically altered flying pigs are dragged in to things despite their only real desire in life to nuzzle their father, Derk.

The plot is labyrinthine, the characters plentiful, the prose incredibly playful, but it is the interraction between the many members of Derk's family that provide the real pleasure of this novel, they're all interesting and unique creations and they all have their own relationships with each other, factions and favourites etc, but as it's still technically a novel aimed at the teenage market they're all very loving towards each other when all is said and done. The other great skill displayed is that of world building without info dumps, the information is provided in short bursts as it naturally comes up in each chapter, sometimes only obliquely referenced and other times actually experienced by a character, in direct contrast to one of the major issues I have with most other books in the fantasy genre, "epic" books that take six pages to discuss the history of a valley that you'll never come across again in an entire sixteen novel sequence type of thing.

I won't be reading more of this stuff I'm sure but I had a great time discovering Diana Wynne Jones all the same. ...more

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Dec 08, 2016 MrsJoseph *grouchy* rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: rape-rape-rape, violence-against-women, bookclub-reads

http://bookslifewine.com/r-dark-lord-...

DNF at 45%

I've been sitting on Dark Lord of Derkholm for a while now. Initially I really liked it and found it humorous. It reminded me of Pratchett's DiscWorld a bit (in its humor only).

So color me shocked when I ran into a vaguely worded but pretty obvious gang sexual assault. There was no need for it but it still happened. I was shocked to find something so...dark in a humorous book.

The gang (rape?)/sexual assault just...threw me out of the book and I p ...more

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May 03, 2011 Julie Davis rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Rereading via the Audible audiobook which is very good. I'd forgotten so many details and, indeed, the whole second half of the book since I first read this back in 2011. It is such a fun and enjoyable book. Original review below.

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Imagine that your world has real elves, dragons, wizards, and all those items necessary for a good fantasy tale. Then imagine that an enterprising person from an "otherworld" much like ours stumbled through a portal and discovered this real "fantasy" world.

For ...more

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Jan 05, 2012 Jonathan Terrington rated it really liked it

Shelves: humorous, fantasy, quirky, worldbuilding, fractured-fairytales

The Dark Lord of Derkholm is one of those novels that provides an entertaining story as well as subverting the typical ideas and expectations of the fantasy genre. Diana Wynne Jones is one of those authors who writes wittily and absurdly at the same time, weaving bizarre ideas together into a mix that perhaps should not work as well as it does.

The overall concept of this novel is one which hinges around the idea that people from our world (or at least a world very similar) travel across worlds i ...more

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Nov 07, 2014 Chris rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fof-reads

3.5 stars. Almost 4.0 (As I write this review, I'm actually rounding up to 4)

This was a fun read. I liked it better than Howl's Moving Castle, which I'd read earlier in 2014. There was a nice mixture of wit and magic, and some characters I could really get behind.

The concept was absurdly brilliant - a fantasy world used as a theme park by Pilgrim Parties that come to live the adventure. Derk is chosen to be this year's Darklord and must go out of his way to give the tourists the best possible ep ...more

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May 01, 2012 colleen the convivial curmudgeon rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, young-adult

From what I'd heard, this is meant to be a parody of the tropes of traditional fantasy - and all the tropes do seem to be represented - but , as a parody, I expected it to be much funnier than it was. Maybe it's just because when I think of parody I think of "lovingly tongue-in-cheek" but this book took itself far too seriously, in my opinion, to really be a funny send-up.

Coupled with that is the fact that there are just so many characters and things going on and it's hard to follow or to really ...more

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Sep 14, 2011 Kim rated it really liked it

Recommended to Kim by: Theobroma

Shelves: conspiracy, fantasy, young-adult, adventure, female-author, 1990s

I've only read a couple Diana Wynne Jones books before so I wasn't too sure what to expect. Lately I've not been reading reviews or even blurbs before starting a book because I want to go into it with a completely open mind. Unfortunately my previous experiences with her books led me to believe this would be aimed at a younger audience so as things started getting a bit darker I was a tad perplexed.

Eventually I managed to get my mindset in the right place and realise that this book was intended ...more

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Apr 03, 2011 Sesana rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy

It took me some time to get into this book, which is likely my fault. I find it hard to read anything with more depth than your average bubblegrum wrapper when I have a head cold, so it probably isn't a coincidence that this book finally clicked with me the same day that I started to feel better. Because really, this book is often funny, wonderfully inventive, and features characters I came to care about a great deal. A literal family of characters! I love constructed families in my fiction, but ...more

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Jun 14, 2009 Nic rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

What an excellent book! This is the fastest-paced DWJ book I've ever read, and several of the revelations at the end truly surprised me without seeming unreasoned. There were many powerful moments, both action- and emotion-based, and some great characters. There's a cast of zillions, but you get the hang of everyone pretty well. And of course, the book is full of Diana Wynne Jones' perfect word choices ("a tuft of flame"), neat critters and spells (Friendly Cows!), and great descriptions of feel ...more

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Aug 19, 2007 Punk rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, fantasy

YA Fantasy. The inhabitants of a magical world fight the evil forces of tourism. This book couldn't seem to get the bat off its shoulder -- baseball bat, not Chiroptera bat -- there was a lot of stuff going on, with a lot of different narrators, and I still didn't have the entire story. What's worse is that I wasn't satisfied once I did have it, thanks to the (anti-)climactic drawing room scene where the characters finally expose all the secrets they'd kept from me over the course of the book. T ...more

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Nov 01, 2019 Carrie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: dragons, fantasy, humor, wizards, griffins

Imagine being able to take tours of another world, another world that appears to be evil and sinister. Seeing demons and dragons, battles. Except this world isn't really like that and the people who reside are getting tired of the act they have to put on each tour.

I found this book to be delightful, entertaining and funny. I felt so bad for our main character, Wizard Derk, now this years Dark Lord. Derk is a kind wizard, who just wants to breed different animals and zero interest in pretending t ...more

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Jul 28, 2020 Juho Pohjalainen rated it really liked it

This book came out a year after Ultima Online, a year before Everquest, and another few years before World of Warcraft. I wonder if Diana used to play enough video games to know what was going on, or if it was sheer serendipity. Either way, this book fits pretty well as an MMO parody from the angle of the final boss, who has to face like five raids a day and always respawns right after.

It's not the ha-ha-funny type of parody, though. It has very few laughs and most of the time is actually far mo ...more

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Jul 29, 2008 Melissa McShane rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, young-adult, own

I don't think I've read this more than twice before. It's not one of Diana Wynne Jones' strongest books, though it's still excellent YA fantasy, but listening to the audiobook (the narrator is fantastic) slowed me down enough to appreciate it better. The concept is so good: a man from an industrialized world (it's never said that it's our world, but I like to think so) manages to enslave a world in which magic is powerful. He doesn't turn himself into its ruling lord. He doesn't take advantage o I don't think I've read this more than twice before. It's not one of Diana Wynne Jones' strongest books, though it's still excellent YA fantasy, but listening to the audiobook (the narrator is fantastic) slowed me down enough to appreciate it better. The concept is so good: a man from an industrialized world (it's never said that it's our world, but I like to think so) manages to enslave a world in which magic is powerful. He doesn't turn himself into its ruling lord. He doesn't take advantage of its magic--well, he does, but in a secondary way. No, he turns the world into a Fantasyland theme park. Every fall and winter, he brings "pilgrim parties" into the enslaved world to have a Fantasy Adventure, including war, enchantresses, wizards, slave girls, and a real-live Dark Lord.

What makes this work is that most readers of fantasy have at some point wished they could travel to one of the fantasy worlds in the books, and can you imagine a more exciting vacation? But DWJ chooses to tell the story from the POV of the people whose lives are annually turned upside down to cater to the tourists. Specifically, the POV of the current Dark Lord, Derk, and his family of humans and griffin children. Derk is a wizard who specializes in creating and modifying living creatures (hence the griffin children). He's at odds with most of the official wizards, but the Oracle decreed he should be chosen, and everything proceeds to go horribly wrong from there.

There's a lot of adorably ridiculous stuff going on in this book, all in a good way--flying pigs! the Friendly Cows! a 14-year-old wizard guide forced to grow a long white beard because Mr. Chesney, the slave master, insists that all wizards are male and have long white beards! And there's also a lot of serious stuff, some of which I don't think DWJ handles well. (view spoiler)

But there are some great moments, such as Kit the griffin being made to face the reality of the battles he's planned so blithely, and how (view spoiler). I also am fond of the romances, though I'm a little sad they happen between non-POV characters. And the dragons are wonderful.

Now I'd like to borrow the other half of this idea, the one from the pilgrims' point of view, and tell a completely different story. If it turns out the sequel is read by the same narrator, I think I'll pick that one up.
...more

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Jul 12, 2020 Miss Naseweis rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, wizards

This was such a cozy, feel-good read. Perfect for rainy days, when you cuddle under the blanket and drink your favorite tea. The idea of Pilgrim Parties for profit to a magical world was unique (guilty as charged, I would participate as well) and the magical world itself was great. Dragons, dwarves, magicians, witches, elves – it had everything. Derk’s family was so precious and I found myself wanting a gryphon sibling as well. While the story wasn’t exactly gripping, I was constantly smiling or ...more

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Aug 31, 2008 Tyas rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: people who like fantasy

Shelves: fantasy, diana-wynne-jones

What I love about Diana Wynne Jones is how she can present a fantasy novel with a different angle than other fantasy novels with a standard plot - a boy or a girl, fated for something big, learning through ordeals, obtaining greatness.

In The Dark Lord of Derkholm , the world of magic had been forced to kneel down in front of a powerful force - namely, a Mr Chesney - and provide 'entertainment' every year for his Pilgrim Parties. These tourists from another world wanted to be involved in a fan What I love about Diana Wynne Jones is how she can present a fantasy novel with a different angle than other fantasy novels with a standard plot - a boy or a girl, fated for something big, learning through ordeals, obtaining greatness.

In The Dark Lord of Derkholm , the world of magic had been forced to kneel down in front of a powerful force - namely, a Mr Chesney - and provide 'entertainment' every year for his Pilgrim Parties. These tourists from another world wanted to be involved in a fantastic adventure - fight bad wizards, fight fanatics, fight dragons etc. We might laugh at some of the rules Mr Chesney laid down for the ones organising the tours: Wizards must have long beards (well, we think of wizards as having a bushy appearance round the chin, eh?); normal name places must be converted into something sounding more fantastic like Gna'ash or the likes; etc. A bit of parody of the fantasy genre.

And the fights must be real. So real that cities were sacked down, people were killed, fields were destroyed.

After 40 years of devastation and slavery to Mr Chesney's moneymaking, the leaders of the world decided that they had had enough and went to the Oracles to consult for a way to end it all. It turned out that to banish Mr Chesney's Pilgrim Parties for all, they had to appoint an obscure wizard named Derk the Dark Lord of the year, and his son Blade as one of the Wizard Guides.

Well, Derk was not a household name in the world of wizardry. What he's interested in was creating new creatures: much like a geneticist. He had five griffin sons and daughters, apart from his two human children. He kept flying pigs, flying horses, friendly cows... how could this man succeed in playing the Dark Lord? He'd just fail miserably - wait, that could probably, eventually, put an end to Mr Chesney's tours. The problem was Derk tried hard to be a good Dark Lord...

I felt very entertained by this novel. It's not only about wizardry; it's also about family. Not only we observe how the whole world trying to organize the tours while trying to finish it at the same time, we also observe how Derk and his wife, Mara, and also their human-children and griffin-children, tried to stay together as a family. We may argue that the ending is a bit deus ex machina, but I think it still can be accepted by the way the story builds up to that ending. ...more

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Oct 29, 2010 Sydney White rated it did not like it

Shelves: ya-lit

The first page of Diana Wynne Jone's novel Dark Lord of Derkholm felt like I had just turned on the TV to the fantasy channel in the middle of an episode half way into the forth or fith season of a new series I had never heard about. There I was sitting in the middle of a council of some type talking about a Mr. C-something that was repressing them. Various characters spoke out, even made allusions to past situations I obviously would not understand mid-way into the series. Unfortunately, the bo ...more

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Jan 21, 2022 Marie Lewis rated it really liked it

Does anyone write such satisfying endings as DWJ? It has the feel of the summing-up from a mystery novel, with loose ends tied up and justice administered. The payoff is delicious.

There's some dark stuff in here for such a light treatment, but it mostly works, with the exception of an implied sexual assault that gets magically pushed to the back of memory and that's that.

Truly laugh out loud funny moments - the obnoxious geese are my favorites. I am also a big fan of grumpy old dragon Scales, wh ...more

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Apr 03, 2017 R.F. Gammon rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: Dianna Wynn Jones fans

Recommended to R.F. Gammon by: Deborah O'Carroll

Shelves: what-just-happened, fantasy, too-many-characters, humor, how-am-i-still-alive-right-now, 4-star-books, epic-characters, dianna-wynn-jones

This was definitely a fun story. I didn't like it as much as Howl's Moving Castle, but there's not much to top Howl, so that's not bad.
Basically, the idea is given in the synopsis. Derk is a nice, mild-mannered man who just wants to be left in peace and make weird animals, such as pigs and horses with wings, griffins that behave like members of the family, geese that are out for blood, carnivorous sheep, and friendly cows. His wife, Mara, is a master at making mini universes, while his (human) ...more

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Oct 12, 2010 Catherine rated it it was ok

Wow. After waiting excitedly to get to the fantasy unit, I was grossly disappointed by this parody of fantasy. The idea was clever, showing how stale and cliche the fantasy genre was at the time, but the book really consisted of about a thousand characters doing nothing but planning. There were some really good scenes and exciting parts, but they were so few and far between that by the time you got to one, you'd lost the last one amid the pages and pages (it's a long book) of tedious planning an ...more

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Oct 15, 2015 Marisa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, reviewed

This was a book that I loved so much growing up that I was actually quite nervous to re-read it as an adult. Could it really live up to expectations? Not only did it live up to them, this book knocked it out of the park. “The Dark Lord of Derkholm” has the kind of societal commentary that both young and old can understand and appreciate all while being set in an awe-inspiring fantasy world.

I love Derk’s family as well. It’s the kind of chaotic, somewhat-unorganized, close-knit family that I thi ...more

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Jun 29, 2018 lucky little cat rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to lucky little cat by: carol.

Shelves: deserves-more-popularity, read-in-2018, it-s-funny, hey-it-s-ya, it-s-just-a-fantasy

This YA fantasy from the incomparable Diana Wynne Jones reads as eerily prescient, but also homespun and of course, funny.

Derk was no ordinary wizard

Citizens of a fantasy alt world rebel against the Trump-esque fat-cat tycoon who has exploited them for decades with Westworld-style tourist quests. Warmly comforting for underdogs everywhere.*

*Perhaps Trump, like the Derkholm villain, carries an all-powerful demon in his pocket? That would explain a lot. ...more

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May 01, 2013 Deborah O'Carroll rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: own, 5-stars-awesome, diana-wynne-jones, recommended-by-friends, ya, medieval-fantasy, faves, fantasy, 2012-reads, rereads

Re-read August 5, 2016:

THIS BOOK THOUGH. <3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3 IT'S EVEN MORE WONDERFUL ON REREAD. I LOVE IT SO MUCH. ^_^ *huggles all of it*

First read December 13, 2012 ...more

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Jan 29, 2020 Julie rated it really liked it

Shelves: rereads, here-be-dragons, witchcraft-and-wizardry, young-adult, talking-animals

Reread of a childhood fave! I remember really liking both Derkholm books when I was a kid: it's a tongue-in-cheek version of medieval fantasy that pairs well with e.g. the works of Terry Pratchett or Robert Asprin. The premise and setup is wonderful: a magical world that's beset by tours from our own mundane reality, where witches and wizards and elves and dwarves and dragons all have to sigh and grudgingly put on a dramatic show every single year for the benefit of the tourists, leading them th ...more

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Aug 22, 2021 Tammie rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: series, series-abandoned, fantasy, abandoned, fantasy-book-club-reads, owned-audible

This was our book club read for August 2021, but I just couldn't get into it. My main problems with it were, in the beginning I felt like I was just dropped into the middle of a story, and then there is way too much set up in this book and not enough actually happening. I've always wanted to try a Diana Wynne Jones book, so it makes me sad that I wasn't able to finish this. I guess it just wasn't for me. ...more

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Apr 08, 2017 Shelece rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, comedy, book-club

I first read this back in high school, and I had fond memories of it. Fond enough apparently that when I got Goodreads, I found this title and marked it as a 5 star.

Reading it in my late twenties, I honestly expected it to be a hilarious parody of the fantasy genre--a sort of fantasy The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. But... that's not what it is, at all. Parts of this book are straight up comedy (the introduction of this world's elves comes to mind), but other parts get quite dark. The worst I first read this back in high school, and I had fond memories of it. Fond enough apparently that when I got Goodreads, I found this title and marked it as a 5 star.

Reading it in my late twenties, I honestly expected it to be a hilarious parody of the fantasy genre--a sort of fantasy The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. But... that's not what it is, at all. Parts of this book are straight up comedy (the introduction of this world's elves comes to mind), but other parts get quite dark. The worst part is a scene where gang rape (or at least serious sexual assault) is implied, but other bits are mixed in like that, horrible consequences that would happen if a world was enslaved for the purpose of entertainment. (view spoiler)

For me, this book couldn't quite decide what it wanted to be. It could have gone the straight up parody route, or it could have taken this topic seriously (ala Hunger Games, maybe?) about how far people go for entertainment and at what cost. But wobbling back and forth between the two just left me feeling lost.

As for the characters... I loved them. But there were so many that none of them really got fully developed. Some of them we hardly saw at all. (view spoiler)

So I'm afraid I'll have to demote this book a couple stars. I didn't recapture the magic as an adult. Still, because I loved it as a teenager, it holds some fond memories for me. ...more

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Aug 26, 2014 Chafic (Rello) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: series, fantasy

Dianna Wynne Jones is underrated.
A lot of people don't realize they already know her (she also penned Howl's Moving Castle and the Chrestomanci series) - and this was the first book I had ever read by her.

As a kid, this was one of my first introductions into the realm of fantasy - and it was absolutely absurd. Who decides to turn a whole medieval kingdom into a theme park with a fictional 'Dark Lord' to appease the pilgrims in the most enjoyable experience imaginable.
Well, look no further.

This ...more

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Sep 20, 2008 Miss Clark rated it it was ok

Shelves: adventure, fairytale-fantasy-sci-fi-mythology, the-bog

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

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May 07, 2018 Jersy rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy, read-2018

This book had a different focus that I expected and not only because of that leaves me undecited on what to think about it.

Starting with the positive aspects:
I should warn you first, this is less about an amazing tour through a magical world or a rebellion than it is about family dynamics and planning. It pulls these aspects off well, so I can't say this is a bad thing.
The theme of the book was phenominal. Picturing this world as an allegory for a war-plagued country or a dictatorship in general This book had a different focus that I expected and not only because of that leaves me undecited on what to think about it.

Starting with the positive aspects:
I should warn you first, this is less about an amazing tour through a magical world or a rebellion than it is about family dynamics and planning. It pulls these aspects off well, so I can't say this is a bad thing.
The theme of the book was phenominal. Picturing this world as an allegory for a war-plagued country or a dictatorship in general worked really well. There were a lot of subtle and interesting hints about how the people in this world are suffering (e.g. death and starvation) and are treated unfair (e.g. payment). While these dark themes are always there, the novel still manages to have a mostly fun and upbeat tone, however, it still makes you think.
There is a diverse cast of characters and the family dynamics work great. The characters were all kind of likable without being to nice and good. Still I didnt care for anyone really, except Querida, and she's hardly in it. The creatures and other aspect of the world and Derks life are highly creative, though, and kept me intrigued.

I still had some problems with this book:
The aspect that made me want to read this book, seeing the actual tours, starts very late into the book and you have to put off with a lot of planning and family drama beforehand. Like I said, this isnt entirely negative, since it helps with worldbuilding and developing the characters and their relationships, but these topics just don't speak to me, so even though it was written very well, I found myself waiting for the actual tours to start, only somewhat enjoying the story.
When we finally get to the tour let my one of our main characters, it was slightly frustrating, especially since the athor felt the need to implement even more characters to our already big cast of protagonists (spanning a whole big family). The new additions felt pointless to me and one of them, Sukey, had me expecting the developement of a hate to love relationship, that thankfully never came to be.
The last 100 pages really blew it for me. I guess I see no reason for other people not to like them, but to me they felt chaotic and added so many things that just werent neccessary at all.

To conclude, this book had so many great ideas and concepts to offer and its a shame that I didnt care much for most of the execution. I can still admire what it does right, creating a great world with depth and stakes and more real characters and relationships than most non-fantasy books. It just wasnt my cup of tea. ...more

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Jan 05, 2021 rosamund rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, ya

Two stars seems like a low rating, but I didn't hate this book: it's just not up to the usual standard of Jones's work. The pacing is all wrong, with a slow and confusing beginning and a rushed ending, and the tone is strange. Some of the time this is satire, sometimes it's drama. The story is about a world that has become overrun and destroyed by tourists: they come to experience a Dark Lord tour, in which they travel the land, fight in armies, and ultimately triumph over a Dark Lord. Every yea ...more

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Nothing But Readi...: Wynne Jones, Diana--Dark Lord of Derkholm informal buddy read starts July 12 ,2018	31	149	Jul 17, 2018 11:44PM
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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

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“It was only when Shona, in sheer fury, turned the carnivorous sheep among them that they moved. They ran, some of them with charming little white sheep attached to their legs or backsides and the rest shouting about monsters.” — 38 likes

“When might I expect you then?"
Whenever is least convenient for you, the demon replied.” — 9 likes

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