Castle in the Air - A Book Review

One of the many things I hope to accomplish with this blog is to let you know what books I am reading and to review whatever one I just finished. Today is one of those days.

Although I said I was going to bring a book to the Super Bowl party and did, in fact, bring it with me, I never ended up reading any of it. The evening was too crazy with the game and everyone running around. I found myself enjoying the game almost as much as the commercials, my favorite were the three Budweiser commercials featuring the Clydesdale horses, the e*trade babies, and the one with Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head. Congrats to the Steelers and to the Cardinals for a very interesting game.

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I finished the last 50 pages of my book when I got home. The book is Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones and is the companion to Howl's Moving Castle. Diana Wynne Jones is one of my favorite authors and I recommend reading any of her books, especially Howl's Moving Castle, which is, so far, my favorite.

The book starts out with Abdullah, a carpet merchant in the land of Zanzib. Troubled by his father's other family Abdullah allows himself to daydream about an alternate life where he is a long lost prince found by his father after he was stolen from his castle by the bandit Kabul Aqba. He also dreams that since he is a prince, he is destined to marry a princess.

Then a strange man arrives and sells Abdullah a flying carpet. Protecting his investment, Abdullah goes to bed on top of the carpet and wakes up later that night in a beautiful garden. There in the garden is a princess, the Sultan's daughter, who aside from her father, has never seen another man. She, Flower-in-the-Night, actually confuses Abdullah for a female, after all, he is in a nightgown and night cap. She tells him that there had been a prophesy made about her that the first man she sees it the one she is going to marry. Abdullah is instantly smitten and visits her the next two nights, but on the last night, a djinn steals her away.

Abdullah soon finds himself in chains accused of having kidnapped the princess by the Sultan. He had been discovered by his nightcap having been found among the princess's possessions. In an entertaining course of events, Abdullah is rescued by his neighbors dog and the flying carpet and in fleeing to the desert, he finds the most unlikely of characters: Kabul Aqba from his daydreams who just happens to have a genie in a bottle.

The resulting tale follows Abdullah and the genie in a quest to rescue Flower-in-the-Night from the djinn. The genie is no ordinary genie either, the wishes he grants, if requested in too open-ended a manner, result in more harm than good. This causes Abdullah to meet many interesting characters along his journey.

This is a well written story with lively characters, the right amount of description, and a highly entertaining plot. One could easily read this story without having read Howl's Moving Castle, although I do suggest that one reads that book too.

For those who have read and loved Howl's Moving Castle, what I found somewhat frustrating, is that minus the Castle, the characters from Howl's Moving Castle do not appear until page 250. Thankfully the book is 383 pages long. It took me quite a long time to see exactly how this book was a companion, but in totality it definitely is. There is of course a twist to the story, but that I will not reveal. You will have to go read it to find out what it is.