Islands of Chaldea by Dianna Wynne Jones: also Ursuala Jones

The Islands of Chaldea 

by Dianna Wynne Jones (and technically Ursuala Jones)

The book I wanted was the Chronicles of Chrestmanci but, as usual, my library did not have them. So I found this book instead. I didn’t really know much about it seeing as how I had only the admittedly vague blurb to go off. As opposed to everything that Goodreads provides. Still I knew that there was magic, strange prophecies, and a giant (mostly) invisible cat.

 Well this wasn’t actually what I was looking for. Not to say it was bad by any means! In fact it was really very enjoyable! But I picked up this book because it was on a list of ‘books like Dealing with Dragons’. I’ve been doing ‘research’ because that’s exactly the book I’d like to write someday. 

While The Islands of Chaldea didn’t add anything to my research it was still perfectly enjoyable.

Characters

Aileen: She was kind of a run of the mill middle-grade protagonist. I certainly liked her! But if I had to imagine a protagonist to fit into a story like this, she’s exactly what I would have come up with. There just wasn’t anything about her that surprised me. 

She was strong, capable, and perfectly funny at times. But reading as many books as I have means that you see A LOT of characters that are really very similar.

Aunt Beck: ‘you must go out and save the world!’, ‘but what about my chickens?’ For once the responsible adult on the quest was actually responsible! At least until a failed spell to turn her into a donkey made her think she was a kid again.

Ogo: Poor gawky thing. But he had the best character development so . . . who’s the real winner here. So the story is that there are four islands in this one area. At some point a magical wall went up between one of the islands and the other three. 

Ogo here was left behind by his family who fled back home before the wall went up. So now he’s stuck here.

Ivar: prince heir to one of the kingdoms and utter prat. He was basically there to be a big pain in the rear and I’m not entirey sure if he had any other purpose. Yes, yes there was a prophecy requiring somebody from each island but could they have picked somebody any more annoying?

Plug-Ugly: (said mostly invisible cat) Well I thought he was adorable.

 Likes

               The description was so pretty: Middle grade books tend to shorten descriptions as if they’re afraid that kids will get bored if they go on for too long. Which I suppose is accurate. But this time around was different and it was lovely.

               A+ world building: It was just interesting to me. There were very few info dumps but I still felt like understood the world at the end. Again world building is usually the first to get dumped in middle grade novels which is really kind of sad.

Each Island had a distinct feel with their own magic, myths, legends and enemies which was fascinating to learn about.

               There were many nods to Greek myths: I’m a Greek myth buff. So I always get at least a little pleased when authors express their own love of them.

               Those Characters were really quite funny: Each one was unique and usually a bit strange like most fairytale characters. There was a priest who was convinced that his bright green parrot was a messenger from his goddess. A girl who used her voice to create magic. A giant cat that stayed invisible unless he liked someone

(oh my gosh my cat would so do that)

and so many others. Which leads me to my complaints.

Dislikes

               There were too many characters: I know that part of the plot was centered on collecting people from every island . . . but they just kept pouring in. I read this book only a few days ago and I couldn’t tell you most of their names off the top of my head at the moment.

I like my novels character driven (it’s a preference) so I’d prefer one or two really well done characters as opposed to five or six ‘alright’ characters.

               Plot twist was obvious: but so is every plot twist ever apparently so . . . eh.

In the end, I liked the Islands of Chaldea. Is it one of those books that I will adore to the ends of the earth and throw at anyone who hasn’t read it? But I enjoyed reading it, reviewing it and looking at it. (The cover is really quite gorgeous)