Conrad's Fate, by Diana Wynne Jones

[sophia_sol]

Here's the thing. I was introduced to the Chrestomanci books when I was a kid, and I adored them and reread them a lot. But this entry into the series was published years later, when enough nostalgia factor had set in that Conrad's Fate felt to me like an odd interloper into a world I loved, rather than being a fitting sequel.

It's a perfectly good book! But it feels like fanfiction in my head rather than the real thing. Like, relatively good fanfic? But the author is too interested in her OCs and there's not enough focus on the canon characters. :P

I mean, I know that's how these books work, every book in the Chrestomanci series focuses on a new main character, a new set of people, a new storyline. Christopher-as-Chrestomanci might be the running through-line but he's only the main character in one book, so he and the people he's close to just sort of weave in and out of other people's lives in the other books. And that's fine and good! And the bits of teenage Christopher and Millie one sees in this book are perfect. (I love how willing DWJ is to be like "here are all the reasons Christopher is kind of terrible despite being very likeable" because YEAH. I love him dearly but he has. Flaws.) But I still can't help feeling like this particular book isn't canon, because I didn't grow up with it in the same way. (The Pinhoe Egg isn't either, to me.)

Anyway this is definitely a me problem not a problem with the book. Sorry, Conrad, I just can't muster up the strength of feeling to care about you!

Comments

[chestnut_pod]

Awww, poor Conrad. It's hard to be the person trying to raise Christopher's class consciousness!

[sophia_sol]

Haha, so true!

[skygiants]

I have got to the point of being able to count Conrad as canon despite him being a relative latecomer - the degree of rightness that I felt about Millie's horror at the prospect of being trapped on a private island with Christopher burrowed was so profound that it really helped me to accept the work as a whole -- but unfortunately I suspect the Pinhoe Egg will never make it over the barrier.

[sophia_sol]

Yes, Millie's horror at the thought was SO TRUE omg. Alas that it was not sufficient to work the same magic on me that it did for you. I want to believe!

(glad to hear I'm not alone on Pinhoe Egg though)

[minutia_r]

Aww, I love Conrad despite meeting him for the first time as an adult, but I get you.

[sophia_sol]

Objectively I can tell that Conrad deserves to be liked so I'm glad he has his fans! :)

[thedarlingone]

I first read all the Chrestomanci books as an adult, but I took against Conrad's Fate very strongly for the specific reason that I wanted a Millie-centric book, that was the only point in the timeframe where one would have fit, and there is not nearly enough Millie in the event. :P

(I kind of liked The Pinhoe Egg better, but both Conrad's Fate and The Pinhoe Egg have a perplexing shift in tone from the older books, specifically with regard to the sheer amount of whumping on Christopher that DWJ does in them. I think that's what makes them feel the most like fanfic to me, that and the fact that Conrad's Fate feels extremely slashy -- another reason I took against it, Conrad feels like an interloper to me, pushing Millie out of her proper place entirely.)

[sophia_sol]

Hmm, you and I clearly read this book very differently. It didn't feel at all slashy to me. And the amount of Christopher-whump feels less than in The Lives Of Christopher Chant - I mean, Christopher doesn't even die in this one!