[JYO]⇒ Download Gratis Cart and Cwidder The Dalemark Quartet Diana Wynne Jones 9780192752796 Books

Cart and Cwidder The Dalemark Quartet Diana Wynne Jones 9780192752796 Books

Download As PDF : Cart and Cwidder The Dalemark Quartet Diana Wynne Jones 9780192752796 Books

Cart and Cwidder The Dalemark Quartet Diana Wynne Jones 9780192752796 Books

I wish this series would be reissued. It's so hard to find now that I wound up buying used copies to reread the series. This is a classic fantasy series from one of the best authors in the genre.


Tags : Cart and Cwidder (The Dalemark Quartet) [Diana Wynne Jones] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Cart and Cwidder is the first in the best-selling Dalemark Quartet of books and tells the story of Moril and his brother and sister who are travelling musicians journeying through Dalemark,Diana Wynne Jones,Cart and Cwidder (The Dalemark Quartet),Oxford Univ Pr,0192752790,Children: Grades 3-4

Cart and Cwidder The Dalemark Quartet Diana Wynne Jones 9780192752796 Books Reviews

In the Dalemark Quartet, of which this is the first volume, Diana Wynne Jones is attempting something fresh and ambitious. Unlike the standard fantasy series, in which each volume follows the continuing adventures of a single cast of characters - a series of tunes played on the same set of instruments - this one really is designed as a "quartet". Each of the first three books is all but independent of the rest, told in its own distinct voice. They interlock in many ways, but in subtle ones - common geography, a set of family names that link with the long history of Dalemark and its peculiar "gods", known in Dalemark as the Undying. Only halfway through the third book does the depth of the historical and the very original mythological patterns begin to come into focus. The "quartet" of voices - the travelling singer Moril in this book, the sailor's apprentice Mitt in the second, the weaver Cennoreth in the third, and the time travelling teen Maewen in the last - are neatly balanced. The two boys are from the Dalemark's "present," an age of political intrigues with a three musketeers flavor, and the girls are from the far past and the not so far future. One of each gender is from the North, the other from the South, and the ultimate task facing them all is to reunite the torn land under a single monarch.
Each of the first three volumes on its own comprises a satisfying story, if a bit open-ended. Cart and Cwidder is the most successful as a stand-alone story. The lute-like cwidder that Moril's father plays for a living as the family's gipsy cart wends through Dalemark's towns gradually discloses its magical powers, but it's the play of personalities that will keep you turning the pages.
There's the daydreaming Moril, his father Clennen, the jovial showman, his older brother Dagner, brimming with talent but painfully shy, his perceptive and sharp-tongued sister Brid, their mysteriously quiet high-born mother Lenina, and an elusive paying passenger whose humility seems like mockery. All these vivid first impressions are real, but they all turn out to be just surface manifestations of the deeper waters running through every member of the troupe.
You'll want to hear more about Moril's adventures when you finish Cart and Cwidder. Be advised that you'll have to lay your eagerness aside. All the members of the quartet will be brought together again in the long fourth volume, where Moril's voice will carry only a little of the melody; and there are three solos to be played in full before the final harmonizing.
Diana Wynne Jones is best known for her quirky books that combine magic with realistic, everyday people dealing with the problems that magic creates. Though some take place in parallel worlds, the general atmosphere of these books are contemporary and firmly grounded in reality. However, "Cart and Cwidder" is the first book in the Dalemark quartet that follows the more generic pattern of fantasy (war in a created world) - making it unique in Wynne Jones's canon of books, but a typical inclusion to the range of fantasy novels.

Due to the conflict between north and south countries in the land of Dalemark, very few travellers move between them, with the exception of licensed musicians in their horse-drawn carts, entertaining the crowds wherever they stop. Dagner, Moril and Brid are the children of the singer Clennen and Lenina who are perfectly content to travel the lands, singing and passing on news across the lands. But then Moril's parents take on a new passenger named Kialan whom immediately rubs Moril up the wrong way. Between constant bickering, the three siblings, their parents and Kialan make their way northwards, but soon tragedy strikes and the four children are thrown into a series of chaotic and dangerous events. Inheriting the largest, oldest cwidder in the cart, Moril soon learns that it contains immense power, and with hostile forces closing in around them and Kialan's hidden identity revealed, Moril must learn to use this power in order to save him and the north.

No book by Diana Wynne Jones could ever be truly bad, but "Cart and Cwidder" is certainly not the top of her game. Though it contains the same thoughtful commentary on human behaviour and clever twists, but it lacks the sparkle and wit of her many other books. The characters are not quite as vivid and interesting as the likes of Chrestomanci and Howl, and the story not quite as intriguing as those found in "The Power of Three" and "Black Maria".

Yet for all of this, "Cart and Cwidder" is a worthwhile read if you have the next three volumes on hand, for the way in which Wynne Jones has created this series is immensely interesting (each one has a different situation and set of characters, yet are intricately connected).
Excellent book for teen readers who love fantasy. Some great life lessons too. My 14year old granddaughter recommended it to me.
It started out slow, but then picked up momentum. I think it'd be ideal for 10 to 16 year olds.
Excellent writing by Diana Wynn Jones (author of Howls Moving Castle), I just finished fourth of the series & my head is full of wonderful ideas and images.
Like most Diana Wynne Jones books, this is published for children and probably most appreciated by adults. Having read it as both, I see a lot more in it now. The theme of finding your own voice, shown through the main character's struggle to control a powerful magic cwidder (which seems to be something of a cross between a dulcimer and a kettle drum), resonates like a mountain-moving spell through every scene in the book.
Music seems to be a metaphor for writing, or for expression and discovery, as it is in many of Jones's books.
I woke up at four in the morning with my head ringing, full of the half-remembered echoes of this story. There was nothing for it but to purchase it and begin reading it right away....

It isn’t often that a thing liked in childhood carries value when revisited as an adult. I am pleased that this story has remained as charming and surprisingly textured as it was when read to me at bedtime. Diana Wynn Jones has a rare and potent gift.
I wish this series would be reissued. It's so hard to find now that I wound up buying used copies to reread the series. This is a classic fantasy series from one of the best authors in the genre.