The Merlin Conspiracy

Roddy Hyde is two court wizards' daughter and hence she travel with the King's progress and help with ceremonies that occurs.The King of Blest travels throughout the land to make sure the land is healthy and he brings all his subjects that are needed in the journey which is the court's wizard and their families. Roddy's father is the weather wizard and he is in charge and making changes to the weather according to the King's preference hence he is needed. The King was meeting with the Scottish King and when the Merlin presented himself, he fell to the ground and dropped dead. The Scotland King was highly insulted and left the meeting immediately and was guarding the borders. Roddy's grandfather was a Magid and he brought the new Merlin to Blest, while trying to resolve the matter that Daniel was in suspicion of killing the old Merlin.  With Roddy's grandfather Maxell helping out, the matter with the Scotland Kind eased a bit too.

Nick Mallory lives an ordinary life on Earth with his father who is a writer. One weekend, his father decided to go on a writers' convention and brought Nick along. His father is a big fan of Maxell Hyde and when he had a chance to meet Maxell Hyde he wanted Nick to be introduced too. That was when Nick arrived in another world when he approached to shake Maxell Hyde's hand. Nick can travel to other worlds but did not know how to do it and it usually just happens to him like right now. Some people were beckoning to him and complained that he was late. What he was late for he had no idea but he just went along with these people and did what he was told to do. After many hours, the people found out he was an imposter and chased him down. Nick ran and ran and followed down a path and wandered around in the darkness until he could not hear the chasing anymore.

With the new Merlin, the King's progress traveled again to the border of Wales for a different meeting. While on the way they stopped at Sir James's castle to rest. Sir James is Sybil's new boyfriend, where Sybil is Grundo's mother which is a boy where Roddy finds that she had to act as his big sister and protect him. Roddy has been doing that since Grundo was three.There was a ceremony at the castle where Sybil was offering water to all the court's wizards. Grundo said that there was charmed magic in the water which his mother did and they wanted to avoid the ceremony. So both Roddy and Grundo travel further into the garden of the castle. While they were there, they discovered a place that was filled with a lot of magic and so they lingered awhile. Suddenly they heard voices and went to hide in the bushes nearby. The voices was actually Sybil, Sir James and the new Merlin and they were talking about their plan that have gotten everyone to drink the water and made them be obedient to them. Everyone in the King's progress drank the water except Roddy and Grundo and after listening to the conversation, they are very sure that those three are up to something no good.

The Merlin Conspiracy by Diana Wynne Jones is a book about two person's journey in a world of magic where they will eventually meet for a cause. I'm a big fan of this author's books and I enjoy all the books that I've read so far. To be frank, this book is not like the Chrestomanci series or other individual books such as Howl's moving castle or The Enchanted Glass. Magic in this book is soundless, no words uttered. Instead it's in the wizard's mind and how it really works, it's not explained. 

This book narrates between Roddy and Nick which makes it a bit hard to grasp the timeline of the book. Whether it's in the same day or same week I do not know until they have met up towards the end of the book. When they did met up, I felt that their encounter was too short and much was stress on their individual journey more. Although this story is unique on it's own, I wished more were mentioned on the antagonist of the story, more plots revealed, more dangerous things happening. I will definitely give credit that many magical worlds have been invented in the story and I loved how those places were described. This book didn't leave me with the usual feeling I have when I've finished her stories, the amazement and the gladness of an ending. This ending is not what I expect because it's too short and I wished more were written. Of course with this ending it's kinda obvious what is gonna happen but I still prefer to have read more.

In comparison with her other books, I have to say that this is my least favourite. This is because I wanted more on character development, development of relationships and also more of Roddy and Nick together instead of individuality. It's still a good read as the story is unique, where there are many travels and mystery of the lands in this book. Magic is definitely not the main thing here because you will not read how it is working. Truthfully, this book did not "Wow" me and I don't think I will pick it up to read again.