Of all the Miyazaki films I have loved before, Howl’s Moving Castle is not one of them. However, upon discovering that the original source material was a young adult fantasy novel by Diana Wynne Jones, I decided to give it a shot, as it is filled with the things my younger heart would have loved. Witches? Wizards? Magic? A minimal romantic subplot? Yes, please!
Read the rest of the review here.
I love books like this where young ladies approach the ridiculousness of magic with plain common sense. And there is a sequel! http://www.amazon.com/Castle-Air-Diana-Wynne-Jones/dp/0061478776/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1424470910&sr=8-1&keywords=castle+in+the+air
Absolutely! I’ll have to read those next for sure.
Two sequels!
Oooh, I did not know that!
The second sequel is called House of Many Ways and is one of my favorite DWJ books of all time.
See, I think I’m in a solid minority, because I much prefer the Miyazaki movie (which I love, especially in the English dub with Christian Bale as Howl) to the book, which I was frankly quite underwhelmed by. I find the romance works so much better in the film. In the book, it’s as if Wynne Jones suddenly decides about two pages from the end that “Oh, I guess they love each other now”. I did quite like Castle in the Sky though, but have never got round to reading the third one.
I actually quite liked the way she gradually built their relationship. I felt that everything happened too quickly in the movie, and a lot of Sophie’s awesomeness was passed over to make room for their romance. Granted it is still Miyazaki, even if it’s not his best it’s still worth a watch, and I probably would have enjoyed it more if I hadn’t watched it immediately after finishing the book.