Monday, May 14, 2007

The Spellcoats - 4 Stars

Summary of The Spellcoats by Diana Wynne Jones:
"The Spellcoats" is the only book in the Quartet which is told in the first person. The voice we hear belongs to a young girl named Tanaqui, living with her family and her family's collection of gods on the banks of the great River. She doesn't speak her story, or write it - she weaves the words into an intricately detailed "rugcoat", a kind of wearable diary. The time is many centuries before the Dalemark of the first two volumes. There are no guns or bombs, scarcely any musical instruments, and the continent has a different shape, dominated by the one huge brown north-flowing river, worshipped by Tanaqui's neighbors as a god in its own right.


This is the third in the Dalemark Quartet, and I like it even more than the previous 2. I was wondering when there would finally be a heroine, and it was in this one. I wish I could remember a bit more the mythology in the previous books so I could piece them together better. The epilogue helped some, but a good cheat sheet would be better,. Despite that, the story is very engaging and enjoyable.

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