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Castle in the Air (Howl's Moving Castle, #2)

Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Charmingly improbable sorta sequel to Howl's Moving Castle. Young carpet merchant daydreams of a princess and adventure, right up until he acquires a magic carpet and a genie in a bottle. A sincere, if not terribly deep, meditation on the way our desires can bend the world around us, often making it more difficult to keep hold of the things we have. But it doesn't have to be deep to do what it's doing. I, incidentally, would be great at having a genie. Wish-making strategy, I could bring it, unlike these poor suckers stuck in fantasy allegories.

Honestly, though, I was most interested in just how casually this book has to saunter in order to pull off a protagonist of color. Pretty sure when I read this as a child I never clocked that at all and just mentally default white-washed him. Easy to do, given how very few clues we get. I wonder if she had to do it that way for publishing reasons? If she knew she was doing it at all? Am quite curious what could be made of an examination of the range of covers put out over the years on this one. This originally came out long long before Justine Larbalestier had to throw an internet fit to get the racist cover of Liar changed – I don't know how often authors were winning these fights before that. Or having them, even.

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