The Lives of Christopher Chant - Softcover

Jones, Diana Wynne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0749700335 ISBN 13: 9780749700331

Publisher: Mammoth, 1989

Synopsis

Christopher Chant is a boy who has strange dreams. Then he discovers that he has magical powers and is destined to become the next Chrestomanci, the most powerful magician in the country. First, though, he must defeat his enemies, who are taking away his nine lives at an alarming rate.

About this title

Review:

Think of a world, almost like our own but a little more genteel and old-fashioned, where magic and witchcraft is as common as mathematics--but just as dangerous in the wrong hands. In The Lives of Christopher Chant--the fourth book in her Worlds of Chrestomanci series--Diana Wynne Jones succeeds in creating a vision of England close to our expectations of what should be, but subtly different enough to excite our interest and draw us into a strange new world of incredible reality and possibilities.

Christopher Chant is a dreamer, a boy who returns home each night with strange gifts from his nocturnal travels and leaves sand in his bed as proof. He's happy to play cricket and wander the world in secret--so having nine lives and being the next "Chrestomanci" is not part of his plans for the future. It's only when an evil smuggler known as The Wraith threatens his existence that the young Christopher truly takes hold of his destiny. He must try to halt his loss of lives and defeat evil before times runs out.

Set at least 20 years before the events as told in the first Chrestmanci novel, Charmed Life, The Lives of Christopher Chant is a detailed fantasy and wild adventure with dollops of humour that will challenge and intrigue every fan of this sequence of otherworldly novels.

Chrestomanci patrols the pages of three more full-length novels--Charmed Life, The Magicians of Caprona, Witch Week and in a collection of short stories, Mixed Magics. He is undoubtedly Diana Wynne Jones' finest creation and should not be missed. --John McLay

Review:

“...Her hallmarks include laugh-aloud humour, plenty of magic and imaginative array of alternate worlds. Yet, at the same time, a great seriousness is present in all of her novels, a sense of urgency that links Jones’s most outrageous plots to her readers’ hopes and fears...”
Publishers Weekly

“Truly magical – guaranteed to leave you gasping – even hotter than Potter”
The Bookseller

“Diana Wynne Jones could teach Stephen King and JK Rowling a thing or two ... [she] has a skill for inserting just the right amount of detail in her written words, leaving you satiated but not stuffed.” SFX

About this edition

• Publisher: Mammoth
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0749700335
• ISBN 13: 9780749700331
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256