Archer’s Goon

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I didn't like Fifi. I don't know.... we just didn't seem like the kind of people who would get along. Fifi reveals to Howard that she did not deliver the two thousand words as she was busy and gave them to one of Quentin's students at the college, Maisie Potter, to deliver. Howard, Awful and Fifi go to Maisie Potter's house to find out what she did with them.She tries to fob them off with excuses as to why the words were not delivered but they finally get the truth out of her: that she gave them to one of the wizard siblings, Dillian. The trio force her to take them to see Dillian. EAN: 9780688025823], [SC: 25.63], [PU: New York: Greenwillow Books, 1984. dj], WIZARDS, CHILDREN'S FANTASY, TIME PARADOXES, ALTERNATE WORLDS, HARDCOVER FIRST EDITION - AND ILLUSTRATED NO… More... And in the end, you're left with so many questions--not the bad kind that leave things unfinished and bug you forever and indicate bad storytelling, but wonderful areas to imagine about. Like... Who ARE these people? Aliens? How did they get here? What are their parents like? (Must be amazing (in maybe an awful way) with children like those...) What will the people on the spaceship do? Will they survive and try to take over a different planet? Will Erskine try to farm the world? Will Awful try to farm the world with him? (I'm suspecting since Venturus is good with future stuff, maybe he can see the future to a certain extent and his intuition about Erskine was correct. Although maybe with Venturus's influence it will turn out differently.) The story carefully balances realism with fantasy, and although there is some kind of magic at play (in what is otherwise a normal world), each story beat follows the previous with logic, making it relatively easy to follow the action. (Note: the book avoids the term “magic”, or anything associated with it such as “wizards”.)

EAN: 9780688025823], [SC: 25.34], [PU: New York: Greenwillow Books, 1984. dj], WIZARDS, CHILDREN'S FANTASY, TIME PARADOXES, ALTERNATE WORLDS, HARDCOVER FIRST EDITION - AND ILLUSTRATED NO… More... Archer's Goon is a 1984 fantasy novel by Diana Wynne Jones both for the young adult and adult markets. It was nominated for the 1985 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel and is listed as an ALA Notable Children's Book, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, and a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honor Book.Oba naslova su istovremeno spojlerična i zavode na pogrešan trag, što je stvarno redak uspeh. Jer dečja knjiga sa "čarobnjacima" u naslovu nekako priziva livadice i zamkove i bradate čike sa šiljatim šeširima. A Archer's Goon je zapravo vrlo realističan prikaz života u Britaniji za vreme Margaret Tačer. Čitav jedan nivo knjige (mada bi mi on verovatno promakao sa 10-15 godina) jeste vapaj protiv Tačerkine ekonomske politike. Meaningful Name: Venturus, its meaning isn't mentioned in the book but the tv series has Quentin translate it as "he who is to come" in Latin. One day, the Sykes family are disturbed to find the intimidating Goon (Morgan Jones) in their kitchen, demanding two thousand words of gibberish that Quentin apparently owes to Archer. This six-part children’s sci-fi comedy-thriller series was based on the fantasy novel by Diana Wynne Jones and won the BAFTA Award for Children’s Programmes in 1993.

Consider this a more cheerful version of Jones' Eight Days of Luke with a hint of Gaiman's Endless thrown into the mix. Seven powerful wizards control Howard's town, and he and his family visit each of them, trying to free themselves from their meddling, eavesdropping ways. It's got a quest, fantastic events, and a strong sense of family. But what I'm truly impressed with here is the way the plot unfolds, starting with the Goon in Howard's kitchen and proceeding through the introductions of the seven siblings. Parallel to this is the secondary plot (and I do think it's secondary despite its being the motivation for all the action) in which Howard scrambles to figure out who wants the 2000 words his father writes each month and what that person does with them. It's probably a mistake to say they run in parallel; it's more accurate to say that they are intertwined, and I think they are perfectly balanced, one plot advancing the other and then handing off the lead to be advanced in turn. In the climax to the story, both plots intersect, with Quentin Sykes's words being the device that keeps the world from being run by the megalomaniac Archer--a scene that is a true delight.

Publication: Archer's Goon

This is brilliant. And to think I was nervous about reading it, after Eight Days of Luke didn't work for me! This is very much in the vein of Eight Days of Luke, actually, but whereas I found that novel derivative, this is original and surprising and densely plotted - and it feels new and somehow grounded, because of its amazing familial interactions, even in the ridiculous lengths it eventually goes to. Howard gets his own bullet because he was just awesome. I liked how he was both similar and different than Blade from Dark Lord Of Derkholm? Although that revelation at the end... yeah. More about that later. Although each wizard ruled a section of the town, he or she was a prisoner in it. Each suspected that one of them held the secret behind the words, and that secret was the key to their freedom. Which one of them was it? The Sykes family become pawns in the wizards' fight to win their freedom, wrest control from one another, and fan out to rule the world. Hints as to the identities of the seven magical siblings come from the mention of sun, moon and star, and the link of Archer with Alpha Centauri, all suggesting astrological and zodiacal significances.