Outstanding fantasy books, fresh approach to magic and well written.
I found this book listed on the internet in a blog about books to read if you were suffering from Harry Potter withdrawals.
Well, I wasn't - but I was still interested in good fantasy fiction. So I gave this one a try and was very pleasantly surprised.
A couple of warnings for those of you who are [..........]about reading in order - the second book in this two book compilation actually takes place before the first one. It doesn't hurt to read them out of order, and in some cases may actually read better as you learn about Christopher Chant and how he became the person he is in Charmed Life. If you are really uptight about it, then read the second story first. But I think you are better off reading them in the order they appear in the book.
The Chrestomanchi series focuses on special people who have 9 lives and strong magical powers. They take the title Chrestomanchi and their job is to use their 9 lives and the special magical powers to make sure that people in their world do not abuse magic.
There are many worlds and some people that can travel among the different worlds and bring powerful (and illegal) things like dragon's blood back with them - these things must be regulated and policed to make sure that people with magical powers who mean ill are not able to run roughshod over the world.
Unlike Harry Potter, which is one book after another of Harry being pursued by Voldemort and no one believing him or Dumbledore and the same plot lines one after another, the Chrestomanchi series is inventive and different from book to book. I highly recommend it - and as you can see from the other reviewers, I am not alone.
My favorite children's book/s
I sell children's books in a bookstore, and these two books are my favorites to recommend, especially for kids who aren't quite ready for the length and detail of the Potter books. I was therefore very unhappy when Jones's American publisher, in their infinite wisdom, let the books go out of print in the intermediate format. Now they're only available in this mass market 2-to-a-book edition, a format off-putting to the very readers I would most like to read these wonderful novels. As Janet might say, jiminy purple creepers! How dumb can you get?
Grown-ups can enjoy these books too, though. I first read them as an adult, and I re-read them about once a year. More elegant and streamlined than the Potter books, and more genuinely witty, the situations, dialogue, and characters are so delightful that they more than make up for occasional deficiencies in plotting and world-building. And where else can you find a wizard like Christopher Chant, who seems inspired more by Georgette Heyer novels than by the usual Tolkienish fare?
Inventive, if not always interesting.
I read "charmed life" but decided to wait on "lives of christopher chant" because Garth Nix's "Sabriel" seemed more interesting. "Charmed Life" was admittedly creative with a clever plot and interesting imaginary world, but it was dense and difficult to understand in places and didn't hold my interest as much as I would have liked. As I expected, "Sabriel" proved to be more interesting. I might come back to Jones' series later, because they weren't bad, but I have read better books. Oh and btw I imagined Cat looking like Freddie Highmore from August Rush and Gwendolen/Janet looking like whoever plays Sam on iCarly (a Nickelodeon show), but that's just me.
Inventive and Fun
I first was introduced to the Chrestomanci chronicles after reading Howl's Moving Castle. I must say though, I instantly liked this series from the beginning. Although the book goes pretty slow in the beginning, which I agree with many of the reviewers- it really picks up. The long introduction to what happens really sets up the world of Chrestomanci and is important to understand the general characters of Gwen and Cat. But, besides it being slow paced in the beginning, it really picked up and I was intrigued chapter by chapter just to see what Gwen would come up with next. Furthermore, The Lives of Chrestomanci is better than Charmed Life. I really enjoyed that one much better, and I believe if you read that one first, you can appreciate Charmed Life more since you understand the context of the world and perhaps have an attachment to Chrestomanci himself. Really good overall. I give it 5/5 for inventiveness and none of that same old fantasy that just seems to be reproduced in masses. Jones is a genius.
Boring, mean, and not very well written
It was such an awful, illogical read that I had to give up half way through this book. And the part where one of the characters makes a face by pulling her eyes "long and Chinese"? What's next, references to minstrel shows? Who edits this stuff?
(68 reviews)
