Title: Castle in the Air
Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Series: Castle/Howl's Castle/Wizard's Castle, #2
My rating: 5 of 5
(Book read on April 9th, 2013)
Summary:
Young merchant Abdullah leads a humble life. Or he did until a stranger sold him a threadbare - and disagreeable - magic carpet. Now Abdullah is caught in the middle of his grand daydreams. Waking one night in a luxurious garden, he meets and falls instantly in love with the beautiful and clever Flower-in-the-Night. But a wicked djinn sweeps the princess away right before Abdullah's eyes, leaving the young man no choice but to follow. This is no ordinary quest, however, for Flower-in-the-Night isn't all the djinn has stolen. Abdullah will have the so-called help of the cantankerous carpet, a cranky genie in a bottle, a dishonest soldier, and a very opinionated black cat. Will this motley crew be able to find the djinn's mysterious dwelling and rescue a castle full of princesses?
My Thoughts on the Book:
As you might know, Howl's Moving Castle is one of my most fav books, but I never seemed to get around to reading Castle in the Air & House of Many Ways, but I decided it was time :) So, I re-read Howl's Moving Castle, fell in love with it all over again, and delved into this one :) And I absolutely loved it :) Castle in the Air although might not be as amazing as its predecessor (not many books are), it's still an amazing magical book that will take you on an adventure.
In Castle in the Air we meet Abdullah. He's a young carpet merchant that works in the Bazaar in the city of Zanzib, and loves to daydream. Everything changes for him when he buys a flying carpet. Suddenly all of his daydreams start to come true, and the prophecy made on Abdullah's birth starts to come true, too. He meets Flower-in-the-Night, they fall in love & before they elope, she's abducted by a djinn, but no one believes him, so Abdullah decides to save her himself.
I won't go into more details about the story, because anything more would be full of spoilers, but I'll say that he goes on quite an adventure (think Arabian Nights), and meets lots of different characters, and he ends up in Ingary (yay). I loved all of the characters, they were just so fun & hilarious, I laughed out loud so many times on what they said & did, as well as the story itself, it was highly entertaining & magical & adorable, and had lots of twists & turns, I definitely didn't saw that coming :) Also, I know I would love re-reading this, knowing now some things I didn't when reading this for the first time! And the ending was lovely & sweet & perfect :) And we got to meet again so many of my fav characters from Howl's Moving Castle, and it was so delightful to see them again & see how they are doing, although I was bummed we didn't saw Michael, too. As for the new characters, I loved Abdullah, Jamal & his dog, as well as Flower-in-the-Night.
If you've tried Diana Wynne Jones's books, then you know she's a master when it comes to her writing style, as well as her imagination. So, if you love magical fantasy fairy-tale-like books, full of adorable & hilarious characters, that will take you on an adventure, then this is a must-read for you & I can't recommend it enough! Also, I love it that it's actually suitable for all ages, I know I would've adored this when I was a little girl, and I'd definitely read this for my children, too! So, yeah, I highly recommend this book, as well as the complete trilogy!
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