The Merlin Conspiracy Collins (HarperCollins) April 2003 £12.99 hardback ISBN 0-00-715141-1

This is Diana Wynne Jones' first children's book for over a decade, but the wait was worth it. This is a totally absorbing book, beautifully written, full of imaginative settings, and so enjoyable to read that you never want it to end.

The book is set in the same universe – or set of universes – as Deep Secret (DS), which is where teenager Nick Mallory, one of the central characters of The Merlin Conspiracy (TMC), is first introduced. There are references in TMC to Nick's real father and to magids, which to fans is like nodding to old friends. If you already know about magids and their job, you will certainly get a deeper appreciation of the bits about them in TMC, but it's not absolutely essential to read DS first. It's pretty easy to pick up from the story that magids are powerful magicians who are supposed to regulate magic. If a reader can't manage that, then they will probably miss many of the subtleties of Diana's books anyway.

Nick was left at the end of Deep Secret with a longing to become a magic-user himself and go visit other worlds. But when, in The Merlin Conspiracy, he unexpectedly finds himself plummeted into another world, it's not all the fun and games he was probably hoping for. Instead he is pitchforked into opposing a murderous, multi-world conspiracy to take over the land of Blest. What the conspirators don't realise is that the magic of Blest underpins that of other worlds, too. What happens there will have a serious ripple-effect that they didn't anticipate.

The story is told in two first person accounts – one by Nick and one by a young girl, Roddy from Blest – and is related as if they are writing it down in a diary or for a report. This is a technique Diana has made her own in books such as The Spellcoats and Black Maria. It adds another whole dimension to the story, for Nick or Roddy not only describe how they felt at the time the events happened. They can also comment on how they feel now at the time they are writing their accounts, when they have the benefit of hindsight and perhaps a bit more understanding of what happened and why.

The only problem with a story split between two separate accounts is that one person's narrative is necessarily interrupted to allow the other's story to contine. In this book, however, the interruptions simply make you want to read even more quickly. And Diana's style is so smooth and seemingly effortless that it is easy to forget you're reading a book, and not actually listening to Nick and Roddy telling you all about it.

Being a DWJ story, you can expect a whirlwind of events, places (see Notes) and characters, few of which turn out in ways the reader can easily predict. It's a breakneck pace and the story rockets along. I picked up crowds of vivid, colourful images that speed past, and sometimes get revisted later in the book. I particularly liked the image of the powerful and feared magician Romanov sick in bed. And Mini the elephant is a character I'd love to see come back in another book.

There are comic touches, not least those provided by Mini. And as ever with Diana Wynne Jones, her young people are utterly convincing, both in themselves and in the hectic relationships and societies they form with each other. Each of the varied characters is fully believable, flaws and all. Their behaviour and interractions amongst themselves can be either self-absorbed or selfless, or even, sometimes, both at the same time.

As Diana often shows in her books, children and young people make their own "families", especially when adults can't be relied upon. And in The Merlin Conspiracy, Nick, Roddy and other children end up being the only ones able to defend Blest. For one reason or another, most of the time the adults are helpless or too immersed in their ignorance to see the danger coming.

That's not to say that in Diana's worlds children are always noble little people. They're not. One young boy carries out a cold-blooded murder.

A far as magic goes, it is clear that Diana is concerned not with hocus pocus and gentle wand-waving, but with the issues of power, trust, reponsibility and commitment which underlie magical abilities. It is in recognising and dealing with those issues that her children grow.

In a recent interview on this site, Diana also made it clear that issues of balance are important to her. To a large extent, the troubles in Blest are to do with balance, or the lack of it. Blest itself, in some mysterious way, provides equilibrium for magic in other worlds. But even before the Merlin Conspiracy, magic in Blest has become unbalanced. There is too much selfish use of elemental creatures and of other people. Many magic-users in Blest need a good shake-up. Adults are too greedy or too blind to see it, but the deep, elemental powers of the land – the dragon and the people in the wood – call out instinctively to the children to set things right.

Finally, a major part of Diana's own wizardry is how she can give a sense of mystery and wonder either when describing her own imaginary lands or introducing mythological characters like King Arthur and Gwyn ap Nudd. She brings out different types of magic clearly enough that we can see how they have their own rules and logic, but are not necessarily human. The Merlin Conspiracy is a triumphant example of Diana's abilities to weave magic and fantasy into a gripping tale.

An audio version is also available, read by Emelia Fox (from the film The Pianist) and stage actor David Tennant. The tape is abridged, but even so lasts 6 hours of listening.

Notes
Here are some background notes on a few things and places mentioned in The Merlin Conspiracy

Reviewed by Meredith. Elephant detail from Collins cover.

Another review of this book can be seen on the Greenman site.

This book is available now from:

Amazon.co.uk DWJ list	Amazon.com DWJ list