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The Game Firebird Diana Wynne Jones Books

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The Game Firebird Diana Wynne Jones Books

...still, I feel this story line could have been explored so much more! This was a distressingly thin book - I'd expected something along the lines of "Conrad's Fate" or "The Pinhoe Egg," but this book only took me about 45 minutes to read.

Ms. Jones' books seem to skim over things occasionally - sometimes rather mundane things, which I don't mind, but sometimes very intriguing things, like the mythosphere business in this one. We are given a brief explanation of the mythosphere and a good description of Hayley's poignant interest in it, and then suddenly the characters are all involved in the game with not much additional explanation about the mythosphere, how the new characters know about it, how they get around in it, whatever. The characters simply go there and do what they're supposed to do. (This reminds me very much of how people in the Chrestomanci books simply 'cast a spell' to accomplish the thing they're trying to do. It's just too easy, as written.) There are no side adventures while there, no real difficulties accomplishing what they set out for. This could have been a real gem, but instead, too thin, too quick and weak.

I look for more depth and involvement in Ms. Jones' future works.


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The Game Firebird Diana Wynne Jones Books Reviews

This book was very interesting. Although it was a little short, Diana Wynne Jones managed to incorporate Greek Mythology and other myths into the Game quite well. A fast paced, interesting read.
A little hard to follow, and just not as riveting as I expected, very disappointing as this is one of my favorite authors. I have really enjoyed her other offerings.
I mainly liked this story because it was huge on family. It was heartwarming!
This is a lively and engrossing take on some of the famous stories of Greek mythology with a bit of Russian and other European folktales and a great deal of originality. Ms. Jones was one of my very favorite writers, and this one of her latest efforts, is well up to standard. I generally am bored by Greek mythology, but this short novel makes it as fascinating as one would hope for it to be.
not my favorite . . . . . . but worth the read.
I am a fan of Diana Wynne Jones, so when I saw that she'd written a new novel, I was excited. Unfortunately, this book fell far short of my expectations.

I think one of the main problems was that I couldn't identify with the character. We're not told very much about Hayley (presumably because Jones was trying to keep the true identities of the characters a secret until later in the book). I couldn't figure out how old she was, or anything about her that really mattered. I assumed, though, that she was about 10. The problem with that assumption, however, was that she then went and followed strange adult men into bushes, without really questioning the situation or her own safety. A similar theme appeared in "Fire and Hemlock", but that was written decades ago when child predators weren't as much in the news as they are today (and the main character in that novel eventually grew up, rendering her friendship with a man twice her age somewhat more acceptable).

I do appreciate Jones's creation of the "mythosphere", and I thought it was an interesting idea. However, I would have liked to see more of it. So many books for children today seem to suffer from a lack of editing. If anything, this book seemed to suffer from over-editing! It seemed as if large chunks were missing. Certain things were badly or barely explained. How could a wedding photograph of Hayley's parents even exist if they were as old as they were supposed to be? Why did Hayley have no memories of the world changing around her? Surely she would have noticed that computers, cars, and airplanes were relatively new inventions. How did she pin Jupiter to the sky when the planet was already there?

There also didn't seem to be much peril. Aside from the rather gory scene with the Maenads, the characters didn't seem to be in much mortal danger. And how could they be? Half of them were immortal!

Jones has been through this territory before in "Eight Days of Luke" (though with Norse mythology, while "The Game" is Greek mythology). However, there seems to be an awful lot of metaphor and symbolism here for kids to absorb. And while I enjoyed the unique "mythosphere" aspect, I really wanted to see all parts of the story more fleshed out.
Not one of Jones' best.... the first half was quiet good, but she seemed to tire of it in the second half where she mixes Greek Mythology rather helter-skelter. This is not a knock against anyone. Jones is a great writer, absolutely, it is just, that at least for me, this particular one fell short...........I would however recommend her "Dog's Body" or "Hexwood" or numerous other of her novels that I have read and really loved.
...still, I feel this story line could have been explored so much more! This was a distressingly thin book - I'd expected something along the lines of "Conrad's Fate" or "The Pinhoe Egg," but this book only took me about 45 minutes to read.

Ms. Jones' books seem to skim over things occasionally - sometimes rather mundane things, which I don't mind, but sometimes very intriguing things, like the mythosphere business in this one. We are given a brief explanation of the mythosphere and a good description of Hayley's poignant interest in it, and then suddenly the characters are all involved in the game with not much additional explanation about the mythosphere, how the new characters know about it, how they get around in it, whatever. The characters simply go there and do what they're supposed to do. (This reminds me very much of how people in the Chrestomanci books simply 'cast a spell' to accomplish the thing they're trying to do. It's just too easy, as written.) There are no side adventures while there, no real difficulties accomplishing what they set out for. This could have been a real gem, but instead, too thin, too quick and weak.

I look for more depth and involvement in Ms. Jones' future works.