The Game

This post originally published December 14, 2009.

Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Published: 2007
Publisher: Puffin
192 pages (hardcover)
 
Summary: Hayley is an orphan, her parents disappeared around the time she was born, so she has lived all her life with her overly strict grandma and her grandpa who is always busy working and traveling. Hayley discovers, from her grandpa, about the mythosphere: a veil of strands and stars that surrounds the earth, where all the stories that have ever been invented ‘live’. Thanks to a meeting with a mysterious street musician, Hayley visits the mythosphere for the first time. When Hayley returns and attempts to tell her Grandma about the mythosphere, her Grandma becomes angry and sends Hayley away to live with her many cousins. It is there that Hayley discovers that her cousins all know about the mythosphere too, and frequently play a game involving running into the mythosphere and retrieving famous objects from stories. As Hayley participates in this game, she learns that she and her cousins have a strange connection with the mythosphere, and that none of the adults must know they are playing this game.

My Thoughts: At the back of this book, there is a note on the characters, which I wish I read first because I feel I would have understood the story better (it’s only a itsy bit spoilerish). A lot of this story is grounded in ancient Roman/Greek myths, primarily with Zeus, the Pleiades (or the Seven Sisters), the Hesperides, etc. Another thing I should have done beforehand was look at the HarperCollins cover for this book, the black and white one with a picture of a planet and strings all over it (the cover shown here is from Firebird Books). I would have gotten a better image of what the mythosphere was if I had done that first. Anyway!

The Game is, overall, a pleasant story even without having done all those optional preparations. I really love the idea of The Game, I really truly do and I am incredibly saddened that I will never be able to play it (for obvious reasons). The scene where Hayley plays The Game for the very first time and everyone’s rushing back with the items they managed to obtain, that is my favourite part of the novel. One cousin comes back with the Drink Me bottle from Alice in Wonderland, another exclaims that she has the real glass slipper from Cinderella and another brings back The One Ring and gets scolded when he tries to put it on (from Lord of the Rings, by the way). I wish I can play this Game myself, it sounds so fun despite being dangerous as well.

I’m a big fan of Diana Wynne Jones (she is just so amazing, how does she conjure up all these stories?!) and this book didn’t disappoint, though I didn’t find it as good as some of her other works. It just feels it’s missing something to make it ‘complete’, though I can’t quite put my finger on it. I wished Flute and Fiddle’s roles were explained more thoroughly. I’d explain who they are, but even after finishing, I’m not quite sure. Perhaps it has something to do with some ancient myth I’m not familiar with. I also wasn’t particularly impressed with the ending scene, it just seemed too bland. But overall, it’s a delightful read. It’s fast-paced with lots of adventure and action, and I just have to say it again, how is the author so creative?

My Rating: 3.5/5