Series
Derkholm
Diana Wynne Jones · 2 novels · 1998–2000
Diana Wynne Jones's two-book sequence needles the conventions of package-tour fantasy: in The Dark Lord of Derkholm, an ordinary, animal-loving wizard named Derk is conscripted to play the world's compulsory "Dark Lord" role for a businessman running exploitative guided tours of the fantasy world for outside tourists. Year of the Griffin follows one of Derk's griffin children years later, enrolled at a chronically underfunded wizards' university with a band of misfit students. Both books satirize familiar fantasy-quest tropes rather than playing them straight.
Summary by Loreful, from public sources
The order the books came out.
Map
Derkholm at the centre, its books fanned around what holds them. Pick anything for its details, and zoom out for similar series in orbit — the reading order above lists the same books as text.
Stats
By decade
- 1990s1
- 2000s1
Shape
2 novels
1 author · completed series
reads like:fantasymagic schoolssecondary worldtimeless or unspecifiedwhimsical
Mood
Bright and intense: 100% of this series' placed works, the catalog's 44%.
this series · the catalog · one dot = one book2 of 2 works carry a tone
Edges of the map
- Year of the Griffindarkest · most intense
- The Dark Lord of Derkholmbrightest · calmest