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kareilaRevisiting my collection of unread DWJ books, I picked these two to read next because I have a thing for griffins. The main characters of Dark Lord of Derkholm are the wizard Derk and his family, which includes two human children and five griffin children, all between the ages of 12 and 18 or thereabouts. Derk is a bit of a mad scientist, constantly combining different species or making them more intelligent or giving them wings. (Yes, there are flying pigs.) His brand of magic is scorned by the high wizard Querida, who is in charge of the University where all the wizards study magic, but she mostly ignores Derk until an oracle tells her that he will be the next season's Dark Lord for the purposes of entertaining tourists who visit from another dimension to get an authentic fantasy adventure experience. This is a pretty hilarious conceit for a novel, but it comes across rather darkly in practice, since the tours have been going on for 40 years and the countryside is completely ravaged. Most of the plot is devoted to the various expeditions undertaken by Derk and his family to make preparations for the tours, which get tediously bumbled in just about every way possible. But in typical chaotic DWJ fashion, everything eventually works out to put an end to the ongoing exploitation and allow Querida and Derk to begin to restore the land.
Year of the Griffin takes place eight years later as Elda, the youngest of the griffins, enrolls at the University to study magic. Her human classmates are all related to the various rulers of the continent, and there's also a low-caste dwarf who has been tasked by his fellows with learning enough magic to be able to overthrow his government. All of the students are delightful, and all of the teachers are dreadful, since everyone who actually understood magic retired from the University after the tours came to an end. (I found myself wondering if DWJ had some lingering academic resentments to work through.) Querida, Derk, and Derk's other children all make appearances, as well as a flock of foreign griffins from another continent. Things begin to go horribly wrong due to the instructors' incompetence, but again, everything works out in the end, and most of the protagonists end up with romantic partners to boot.
Year of the Griffin takes place eight years later as Elda, the youngest of the griffins, enrolls at the University to study magic. Her human classmates are all related to the various rulers of the continent, and there's also a low-caste dwarf who has been tasked by his fellows with learning enough magic to be able to overthrow his government. All of the students are delightful, and all of the teachers are dreadful, since everyone who actually understood magic retired from the University after the tours came to an end. (I found myself wondering if DWJ had some lingering academic resentments to work through.) Querida, Derk, and Derk's other children all make appearances, as well as a flock of foreign griffins from another continent. Things begin to go horribly wrong due to the instructors' incompetence, but again, everything works out in the end, and most of the protagonists end up with romantic partners to boot.
