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    The Crown of Dalemark
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    The Crown of Dalemark
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    The Crown of Dalemark
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Crown of Dalemark

    Written by Diana Wynne Jones

    Narrated by Laura Kirman

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    The final book in the epic fantasy-adventure series from ‘the Godmother of Fantasy’, Diana Wynne Jones.

    ‘Mitt arrived at the top of the steps, panting, and pushed open the door. “Oh, there you are,” said the Countess. “We want you to kill someone.”’

    Since his arrival in the North of Dalemark Mitt has become disillusioned. The North seems no more free than the Holand he fled, a fugitive accused of attempted murder. And now he is trapped by the order to kill someone he doesn’t know or else risk the lives of his friends. Forced once more to flee, Mitt is joined by Moril, the quietly powerful musician, and Maewen – out of her time, but mysteriously fated to play a part in their quest. For the evil powers of the mage Kankredin are re-assembling, and only the Adon’s gifts – the ring, sword and cup – can once more unite Dalemark.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJan 26, 2017
    ISBN9780008170738
    Author

    Diana Wynne Jones

    In a career spanning four decades, award-winning author Diana Wynne Jones (1934‒2011) wrote more than forty books of fantasy for young readers. Characterized by magic, multiple universes, witches and wizards—and a charismatic nine-lived enchanter—her books are filled with unlimited imagination, dazzling plots, and an effervescent sense of humor that earned her legendary status in the world of fantasy.

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    Reviews for The Crown of Dalemark

    4/5

    201 ratings9 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This is an unusual quartet. The first three books seem to have little to do with the others except they take place in Dalemark. But then the fourth book ties all the loose ends together. As in many of her books there is the element of time travel.13 year old Maewyn is transported back 200 years because of her resemblance to of a young woman named Noreth who is trying to unite North & South Dalemark by gathering enough followers to become Queen. Mitt and Navis from Drowned Ammet and Moril from Cart and Cwidder meet up with her for reasons of their own and the game is on. Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
       Mitt and Moril meet up as they journey with a group of people following Noreth, apparently the daughter of one of 'the Undying', and the rightful heir to the long-absent crown. Flash-forward 200 years, to Maewen, a new heroine sent back in time to take Noreth's place on the journey to find the crown. No spoilers! Great read.
    • 4/5
      In this last book, many of the elements of ‘The Spellcoats' become more clear, as it is shown that many of the characters and gods mentioned in that story have become part of Dalemark's mythology and legends – it explains why it was decided to print it there, out of chronological order!
      Here, Maewen, a young girl from ‘modern' Dalemark is convinced/tricked to go 200 years back in time and impersonate a young woman who has disappeared – but who was convinced that gods spoke to her and that she was destined to be Queen of all Dalemark, reuniting the conflict-riven North and South. Maewen has doubts about this, as she meets characters that she was familiar with from paintings that she saw displayed of famous people from Dalemark's history – but she has never heard anything about this supposedly-important young ‘Queen.'
      Still, she feels she has very little choice but to go along with it, and as time goes on, she finds herself becoming emotionally involved in the situation she finds herself in – one that, for the reader, is yet more entertaining, because it involves characters we've met before in the other novels of the quartet.
    • 3/5
      Oh, DWJ! You started out with a girl savior and then of course it has to be the boy after all! I always enjoy DWJ's books, and this is no exception. She keeps plots humming along nicely, with lots of interesting observations. I will say this was not my FAVORITE of the Dalemark Quartet, but it was good to wrap it all up.
    • 4/5
      I liked this one better than the first three in the series. There were a few things I wasn't completely happy about, but all in all, this book made me realize why some people like this series so much. I'd like to have seen more of Biffa, Kialan and Moril and his siblings, but I'm not complaining (much).
    • 4/5
      Interesting story that also looks at the nature of mythology and how time warps the true story.Mitt is blackmailed into hunting down a young woman who claims to be the heir of the crown of Dalemark but little does he realise that she is a time-traveller who looks very much like that girl. Maewen is following a voice who is guiding her to the treasures of Dalemark and to claiming the throne, but can the voice be trusted? Is her own intuition better?It's an interesting story with some interesting characters, the end did feel a bit rushed though after ages of travel but altogether a satisfying end to the series.
    • 4/5
      Once again, DWJ skilfully delineates the route from childhood to adulthood in a clever mixing of past and present in her Dalemark universe. The world-building and plotting are solid (though it's been so long since I read the other books - the first book 14 years ago and the second and third seven years ago - the I found myself floundering a little), though the ending is slightly oblique (par for the course with a lot of her works). I enjoyed this one more than I recall liking those earlier books, which makes me think I should go back and re-appraise them.
    • 4/5
      As with so many of Jones' young adult fantasies there are a few blemishes, inconsistencies, loose ends perhaps, that mar her superb story-telling skills. Endings are so often, as here, confusing, eliciting responses along the lines of "Whoa, what just happened here?" where the final resolution involves obscure verbal logic that even several re-readings rarely make clear. She also frequently hints at things without being explicit so that you are left to fill in the gaps without ever being sure that your gut feelings ultimately are correct. This comes largely from her using familiar folk- and fairy-tale types and motifs which raise our expectations, only to have them dashed or circumvented when she subverts the conventional tropes.Having said all that, I must say I really enjoyed The Crown of Dalemark on several levels. I engaged with the main protagonists, Maewen, Mitt and Moril, all three with their very human strengths and failings, as well with most of the rest of the cast of characters, some of whom we have met previously and whose personalities have evolved (not always for the better). I loved the chance to explore the geography of Dalemark and to relate the present-day state of the region with the Late Medieval / Early Modern feel of the chronologically intermediate novels, a modern Dalemark which is both familiar and more magical compared to our own world. I savoured Jones' usual little wordgames and puns; typical of these is the entity Kankredin (wonderfully but chillingly conjured up in the novel and reminiscent of a djinn from The Arabian Nights) whose name has echoes of the Middle East (Aladdin, Saladin) combined with 'canker', a malign growth. Above all there was a strong sense of a Northern European milieu from the mix of Scandinavian- and Celtic-influenced names to the physical features of the polities and emerging industrial innovations.For me, one of the proofs of an enjoyable novel is that the answer to "Would I read this again?" is always in the affirmative; I can definitely confirm that The Crown of Dalemark very definitely falls into that category!
    • 5/5
      This is unquestionably my favorite of the quartet. Primarily this is because of Mitt and Maewen, but the book is also full of adventure, humor, and magic. There is a lot of ambiguity in this series, not all of which is resolved to my satisfaction. But in a way this makes it a better series, there are holes in the plot that make you think long after you've finished reading. I love that DWJ has invented a linguistics which explains most but not all of the inter-relation between characters.