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    Deep Secret
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    Deep Secret
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    Deep Secret
    Audiobook13 hours

    Deep Secret

    Written by Diana Wynne Jones

    Narrated by Christopher Webster and Harriet Carmichael

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    A fantasy adventure about saving the universe one world at a time from Diana Wynne Jones. The companion novel to the bestselling The Merlin Conspiracy.

    Magids look after all worlds, steer them towards magic, and keep history happening. But Rupert Venables’ mentor has just died, and as the junior magid on earth he has to find a replacement while also trying to find the lost heir of a collapsing empire, worlds away. Rupert interweaves the fate lines to get all the candidates together at a sci-fi fantasy convention, and havoc ensues as they all converge on a very strange hotel, where everything is always linked, the walls keep moving, people are trying to kill him, and nothing is as it seems…a magical, epic story from the Godmother of fantasy.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateApr 25, 2013
    ISBN9780007524884
    Unavailable
    Deep Secret
    Author

    Diana Wynne Jones

    DIANA WYNNE JONES was born in August 1934 in London, where she had a chaotic and unsettled childhood against the background of World War II. The family moved around a lot, finally settling in rural Essex. As children, Diana and her two sisters were deprived of a good, steady supply of books by a father, ‘who could beat Scrooge in a meanness contest’. So, armed with a vivid imagination and an insatiable quest for good books to read, she decided that she would have to write them herself.

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    Reviews for Deep Secret

    4/5

    439 ratings26 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Diana Wynne Jones was one of my favorite authors while I was growing up; the Chrestomanci series and Eight Days of Luke were particular favorites. The last few books of hers that I had read, though, had been pretty disappointing, and so I hadn't read anything by her for rather a while when this book was recommended to me.She definitely got the hang of it back. This book's got a richly imagined fantasy world, but one that's really only a few steps removed from our own. In fact, this is probably about as much fantasy as, say, Kelley Armstrong or the like are. It's this world, but with a few bits thrown in.The lead characters, Rupert Venables and Maree Mallory, are both well written, and come off the page in a very lively way. The secondary characters fill their roles very well, as well, and good lord, the plot is so tightly put together. Points come up early and come in handy later in a very natural way, but it's still unpredictable enough that you feel like you need to tear through it to find out what's next. And it's got lots of happening: dark magic, assassination, political machinations in the background, romance, and loads of characterization all around.This book has the author at the top of her game again, and she doesn't seem to have slipped much from the late 1990s when she wrote it. If you're up for fantasy, this is a very, very good pick.
    • 4/5
      A very readable and after a measured start, absorbing multiple world fantasy. The characters are over all a bit high on the quirk scale, but there are reasons. Some of the scenes at PhatasmaCon are screamingly funny, although there is a mild fat phobia on display.
    • 5/5
      I've read this book at least a dozen times, but never entered it into GR before. So it totally counts towards my goal of 52. Sue me. :) I still return to DWJ at least once a year, and her books always hold up to rereading.
    • 5/5
      I love this book so much and its a must read if you are as in love with DWJ as I am... On a different note, whenever I read this book I get an intense and somewhat unsettling déjà vu type feeling from the final chapter, as if Ive meet the people described somehow. Clearly this is ridiculous but in any case please send me a message if you have experienced this also.Edit for 2021 reread: Maree is one of my all time favorite characters but the way I relate to her has definitely changed now that I'm a good ten years older than her. She is a feral baby and I love her.
    • 4/5
      Slow to start, but it gets madcap and delightful somewhere in the middle.
    • 4/5
      Jones was a master of dark whimsy - it was fun to visit one of her multi-verse stories taking the piss on science fiction conventions and mixing magic and technology in unexpected ways. A young magid has the task of replacing a deceased colleague and keeping an empire from crumbling with the help of colleague's ghost, his brothers, and some unsuspecting heirs to the empire. Watch out for ugly sweaters.
    • 4/5
      The senior Magid responsible for Earth and the adjacent Koryfonic Empire (which is considerably more magic-infested than Earth) has died, and his successor has to recruit a new junior Magid, while dealing with the total disaster that the Koryfonic Empire has become in the aftermath of the assassination of the Emperor, who had m ade sure that his heirs were completely safe from being located and used against him while he was alive. Careful consideration of his problems yields the useful discovery that he can deal with the problem of recruiting a new Magid by meeting all of the likely candidates at a science fiction convention (Eastercon). It's not that simple, of course, and his problems not only become intertwined, but turn out to have been intertwined since before he became aware of them. Poor Rupert Venables, just trying to do his job, has more troubles than anyone should have in any two lifetimes. Great fun.
    • 3/5
      An entertaining novel, not a young adult book per se, but not unsuitable for that audience. I was reminded more of Friesner than Pratchett in this tale of Magids, wizard-types charged with keeping various parallel worlds moving along some sort of "Intended" path. Some humor, some dark bits, but mostly just straight-ahead fantasy adventure, set in modern day England, largely at a fantasy convention, and several more magical realms. There's an interesting narrative choice to tell one key part of the story in a final "report" after the main narration has finished.Recommended.
    • 5/5
      Clearly conceived after attending a Fantasy writers conference. Hilarious and poignant.
    • 3/5
      The Magids have a problem—several problems. Earth needs a new one to keep magic in order, and also the Koryfonic empire, on another world entirely, is falling apart. Rupert Venables is assigned to both worlds, and as he tries to figure out which potential Magid to recruit he’s also dealing with appalling plots against the empire. And, as it turns out, a sci-fi/fantasy convention held on a powerful node, in a hotel that has different configurations for different times. Lots of quirkiness that probably would have appealed to me more if I had better memories of her other works.
    • 3/5
      This book is an absolute must-read for anyone who makes a habit of attending sci-fi conventions. Everyone else may find it entertaining enough, but it's really for con-goers.
      Rupert Venables is a magid - a member of a secret brotherhood of magicians assigned to to different worlds throughout the various planes of existence, who are supposed to keep things running smoothly. Unfortunately, his mentor has recently passed away (although he is still with Rupert in spirit, in an advisory sort of position), and it is now Rupert's job to find someone to step into the vacant position and start magical training. His mentor has given him a list of candidates from our Earth - people who may have some natural aptitude in that direction. Unfortunately, when Rupert starts investigating them, they all seem more hopeless than he could possibly imagine. The first candidate - a young woman that he has high hopes for (and some hopeful fantasies as well), disappoints him sorely when he finds her - and not only is she dumpy, plain and nerdy, but is holding up traffic to do a "witchy dance" in the middle of the road. The next candidates he tries to locate are even worse. Apparently people with such aptitudes also tend to be wack jobs, emotional cripples, or downright evil.
      Through a series of coincidences - and a little bit of magical help, Rupert gathers all of his candidates for easier examination at a science-fiction convention - but nothing goes as simply as he hopes, and things progress from bad to worse when the complex politics - including assassinations - of the other world he's assigned to start breaking through into this world - and soon there's a centaur running around the hotel, evil magicians wreaking havoc, and nothing is running smoothly at all.
    • 2/5
      Now that I have more free time for recreational book-reading - as well as the renewed desire to expand that reading - I've been trying to acquaint myself with Diana Wynne Jones, famed fantasy writer and favorite of one of my mentors. For some reason, as a child, I only ever came into contact with one Jones novel: Dogsbody, which I recall being quite pleasant, actually. Here recently, I've been breaking myself into her more well-known works: the excellent Archer's Goon, the Howl's Moving Castle series (if you can really call it a series), and coming up soon, the Crestomanci sequence.Deep Secret, though. Deep Secret. Hmm.I think my expectations were a little bit off from the start, because I'd read or been told (I don't remember which) that this was DWJ's "adult" novel. And yes, there are definitely a couple of elements - passing references, really - that firmly place it out of the realm of a children's story. It comes off, though, as adolescent. Almost *weirdly* adolescent, like someone who's been writing for children too long decided to try a story for grown-ups. The plot is complicated, the magical mechanics of the universe are largely presumed or half-explained, and the whole thing just feels...fractured. There were parts of the story where I really felt like I was reading a mid-series book, and that somewhere, other readers had been introduced to these characters and worlds in a more traditional manner. But no. DWJ just drops you off the cliff and lets you fend for yourself.I'm left with the impression that Deep Secret is, in many ways, supposed to be a comedy. There are certainly funny moments; for me, many of the came from DWJ's keen observation of the types of people who frequent sci-fi/fantasy conventions, and how those events are laid out. It certainly wasn't a laugh-a-minute book, though, and I often found what might have been an attempt at lightness or a P.G. Wodehouse-style comedy of errors actually rather distancing. That's not to say I'm giving up on DWJ; far from it. I would, however, probably avoid another of her books written in this particular voice.
    • 4/5
      In the book which is the first volume of a series the writer crated a great world. Maybe it's not the most unique, Zelazny's Amber cycle came into my mind several times, but it's not lessening the value of the book. Entertaining read with interesting characters and storyline.
    • 4/5
      A charming, amusing and somewhat moving fantasy novel. I hadn't read any of the DJW's adult books before, so when I came across this title (while weeding the library's science fiction/fantasy collection), I couldn't rest checking it out. Although it dragged a bit at the beginning, once it got going, I found it hard to stop reading. The characters were likable (even if it took some time) and the setting of the science fiction/fantasy convention was particularly entertaining.
    • 3/5
      Slow to start, but enjoyable overall.
    • 3/5
      This is a young adult fantasy novel which goes on the premise that the best place to consider candidates for a magically-important position may be a British science-fiction/fantasy convention. Unfortunately our hero, Rupert Venables (despite the old-fashioned name, he's 26 years old) is being distracted from this job by the hunt for the missing heir to an empire in another dimension. Jones leaves it to the reader to fill in much of the background to this story. This may either leave you feeling glad she didn't spoon-feed you everything, or frustrated if you think she didn't tell you enough. Be patient: most of it will come together by the end.
    • 4/5
      Rupert Venables is a Magid, with particular responsibility for the corrupt and unpleasant Koryfonic Empire. When his mentor dies and, soon afterward, almost the entire Koryfonic court is killed in an act of terrorism, Rupert has his hands full with trying to find a new junior Magid whilst simultaneously trying to decipher a bunch of encrypted alien files to find the Koryfonic heir. He manages to manipulate things so that all his Magid candidates will be drawn to the same hotel at the same time – only to find that the ‘book lovers convention’ that’s occupying the hotel that weekend is a science fiction con. And then an injured centaur runs through the bar …This is another of DWJ’s adult titles; it doesn’t make much difference to the plot, but there’s a bit of swearing. And there are goings-on at the con that I certainly never encountered at any I went to.A complex plot, but some less-than-engaging characters; this isn’t an especial favourite of mine, and I don’t find the convention scenes as hilarious as some people seem to. What is hilarious, though it probably shouldn’t be, is the late-90’s technology from the perspective of fifteen years on: faxes and floppy discs abound, and there’s not a mobile phone in sight
    • 4/5
      A rather scrambled story, which makes it hard to review. I like many (many) bits of it, but overall it somewhat annoys me. Too many people with different agendas - Janice, Nick, Rupert, Rupert's subconscious, the Upper Room, Knarros, Rob...bah. I like Maree, and I really wish we'd gotten to see more of her and Rupert. And I'd love to know if Nick managed his plan. I guess I'm reading the other Magid book next (as always!).
    • 3/5
      Deep Secret doesn't really classify as vintage Jones. There's nothing wrong with the book per se, but by the same token it ends up being hampered by some of her more pronounced stylistic tics. Fine enough for a weekend or a fan, but certainly not one to recommend for Jones neophytes. Rupert Venables is a Magid - a kind of wizardly world steward, responsible for several of the multiple worlds that cluster around Earth. When he's charged with finding a new apprentice and dealing with the collapse of an empire in a neighboring world, things quickly start spinning out of his control. Readers familiar to Jones will notice the similarities here to a lot of her other books: the parallel worlds, the issues of succession, and the young protagonists struggling with troubles before they are really due for them. The problem with these themes this time, is that they feel a little rote. Jones' jocular, somewhat teasing authorial voice dominates too much of the narrative; challenges are resolved quickly - almost perfunctorily - and nothing ever really feels at stake. The existential questions underpinning the best of her books like A Tale of Time City and Archer's Goon are underplayed here, and it makes it difficult to really *care* about the characters. Additionally, outside of the too-few chapters narrated by potential protege Maree, the characters are underdone, relying more on congenial cliche than real character. The book is aimed at an older audience than Jones' typical novels; as evinced by the more graphic violence and romantic subplots, but her somewhat didactic tone doesn't scale up with the violence. There is no doubt as to any character's emotional states and an awful lot of telling and not showing.The other thing that bothered me was Jones' willingness to take on some very serious subject matter like the break-up of Yugoslavia and cancer to use quite flippantly in the story. I can't lie, it bothered me when one of the characters sagely notes that cancer "is mostly in your head, you know".This hardly sounds like a recommendation, but it's important to put the book in its historical context - YA literature is prepared/permitted to go into much darker territory in 2011 than it was when this was written nearly 15 years ago, and even darker than the era most of her work was created and shaped in.Deep Secret isn't a bad book, but it's just so very very average - as writing, as YA fiction, as worldbuilding - and from a writer like Jones, average is usually the last thing you expect.
    • 5/5
      I picked this up at the Tompkins County booksale merely because I was enjoying the Chrestomanci books and it was another one by Diana Wynne Jones, and I read it expecting light fun; I ended up liking it marginally better than the Chrestomanci books, for reasons I'm still working out. I was amused to note my initial suspicion about it was on the nose: it's a book for adults, that has been repackaged with a cartoonish cover with "12 and up" put on the back, but it's still very much a book for adults. Not that I think it wouldn't work okay as YA, but there's a lot of really graphic violence in it, more than than Jones' kids' books, and as for YA, books, I think they tend to have young adult protagonists. Well, this one doesn't. The two protagonists, who alternate as first-person narrator, are an angry, melodramatically heartbroken undergraduate called Maree, and a stuffy twentysomething software designer called Rupert. Rupert is a Magid, which seems to be a job very like Chrestomanci's, except he isn't doing it by himself; he, along with a few dozen others, keep magic ticking over in the multiverse. Rupert is a bit uptight, a little unsure of himself, occasionally makes silly mistakes; he's also thoughtful and compassionate, in that fabulous three-dimensional Jones way. Rupert's mentor has just died, and he's looking for a replacement Magid. On his shortlist is Maree, who is, as she puts it, "crossed in love", broke, and tormented by her awful family. She's crass, a bit self-centered, and passionate about books, and cares a lot for her younger cousin, Nick, the third main character in the book. She calls Rupert the Prat. They don't get on. And so the plot wanders chaotically on, through an SF con that sounds like many cons I have gone to (and it's lovingly depicted - just the right balance of affection and irony), and through the canon's multiverse. It's a love story, of a sort, and a good one; an adventure story of another sort, and a good one. There is a really delightful supporting cast: Rupert's dead mentor, Stan, who haunts him by playing his Scarlatti CDs incessantly at top volume; his ex-girlfriend, Zinka, who is amazing and makes sure the novel passes the Bechdel test on lots of occasions despite having a male first-person narrator for most of it; some extremely vain centaurs (who are Asian - because, of course, their skin is the same colour all over and how many pure white horses do you see, really?), and some fabulous villains. The thing I don't like, plot-wise, is one thing that also annoys me rather about The Lives of Christopher Chant. Christopher, the narrative tells us and to some extent shows us, is not a nice child at all; he tends to be self-centred, he lacks empathy, etc. Well, maybe, but Christopher is about thirteen, and everyone in his life, including his parents and his uncle and with probably the only exception of Tacroy, has either neglected him or used him mercilessly. I dunno, I'd be self-centred too. Well, the same plot works out to some extent in Deep Secret, and it annoys me. But that said, I really enjoyed this, and I'm going to try and dig up the sequel.
    • 4/5
      When Rupert's mentor, Stan, dies, it is up to him, the junior Magid, to find a replacement. Lucky for him, Stan left a list. Not so lucky for him, interviewing each one separately could take forever. To make things easier, Rupert decides to join all their fatelines at a science fiction convention rather than hunting them down individually. Rupert's got other problems, however. The Koryfonic empire is crumbling with the death of its emperor. It is also Rupert's job to hunt down the next ruler. This is proving problematic though. Timon IX was paranoid and has hidden his heirs away.How is Rupert going to find the time to manage all this?This book was great. At times it was serious, at time it was just absolutely silly, but always it was a pleasure to read. I found the whole concept of a fantasy novel taking place at a science fiction convention absolutely hilarious and very clever. I loved the characters, though at times they were a bit over the top. Both Rupert and Maree had their sarcastic sides, which is always a plus for me. I love witty characters and these ones had wit in spades.Honestly, the only part I didn't like was the sudden change in romantic interest for Rupert. He hated Maree and then, the first time he sees her admiring another man, he realizes his hate is really just jealousy and he actually really likes her. It was just too quick and unbelievable for me.I'm excited to read the next book and discover more about Magids. I found them fascinating and I hope to learn more about the workings of the Magids as there wasn't nearly as much detail as I would have liked in this book.
    • 4/5
      After reading my way through my local library's entire collection of Diana Wynne Jones books as a young teen, I was delighted to find out from a pen-pal that there were more books out there I had missed.Deep Secret, set in a just-slightly-unbelievable alternate England, is funny, geeky, and engaging. The book is written mostly in first-person by a fairly ordinary-sounding programmer named Rupert, who also happens to be the Magid in charge of handling the diplomatic breakdown of the Korfyonic Empire, located over several alternate universes... The plot dips and spirals, sometimes clever and sometimes just a little bewildering, until the climax and satisfyingly tidy denouement in the last 60-odd pages of the book.It was great comfort reading and probably one of my favourite Diana Wynne Jones novels yet: tailored toward a less 'goofy' audience than Howl's Moving Castle or the Chrestomanci Chronicles.
    • 5/5
      I picked this book up some years ago, because I've adored Diana Wynne Jones for some time. However, when I tried reading it, I just couldn't get into it, and after trying for a bit, I laid it aside and figured that even great authors were entitled to one bad book.Several years later, I picked Deep Secret up again because I had run out of reading material. And this time, I loved it; on the reread, it's become one of my favorite of Jones' books. But I would say that it's geared toward an older reader than many of her other works.Deep Secret begins rather slowly after the initial scene; it takes a while to build the usual oddball cast of characters for Jones. It's interesting, to be sure, but it's not very action-oriented until much later in the book, when the threads of the greater plot begin to come together. But once that plot does piece itself together, the book is a lot of action, all at once, as all the characters converge for the final scenes. Everything manages to tie neatly and brilliantly up, in ways that mean you can hardly turn the pages fast enough.
    • 3/5
      I wish I could figure out how to give half stars again, because while I'd rate this above a three, I'm not sure it gets a 4 from me.At any rate, Deep Secret is a fantasy book set, not unfittingly, partially at a fantasy convention. There's a great sense of humor to it, though it does tend to be a bit darker than her books aimed more directly at young adults. The story is convoluted and can bog down, but overall interesting and ultimately resolved to the satisfaction of at least most of the parties involved. The characters themselves are lively and can carry you through some of the more obscure parts of the story. In the end, there's not much in the way of deep thought here, but I'd definitely recommend it to a teen or adult looking for a nice bit of escapism.
    • 5/5
      Diana Wynne Jones was one of my favorite authors while I was growing up; the Chrestomanci series and Eight Days of Luke were particular favorites. The last few books of hers that I had read, though, had been pretty disappointing, and so I hadn't read anything by her for rather a while when this book was recommended to me.She definitely got the hang of it back. This book's got a richly imagined fantasy world, but one that's really only a few steps removed from our own. In fact, this is probably about as much fantasy as, say, Kelley Armstrong or the like are. It's this world, but with a few bits thrown in.The lead characters, Rupert Venables and Maree Mallory, are both well written, and come off the page in a very lively way. The secondary characters fill their roles very well, as well, and good lord, the plot is so tightly put together. Points come up early and come in handy later in a very natural way, but it's still unpredictable enough that you feel like you need to tear through it to find out what's next. And it's got lots of happening: dark magic, assassination, political machinations in the background, romance, and loads of characterization all around.This book has the author at the top of her game again, and she doesn't seem to have slipped much from the late 1990s when she wrote it. If you're up for fantasy, this is a very, very good pick.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book! One would think a fantasy novel set at a fantasy convention would be trite and overdone, but it isn't. Diana Wynne Jones book's always have great character, plot and incidental details. This is no exception. Particularly interesting is her use of an old nursery rhyme, How many miles to Babylon?Three score miles and ten.Can I get there by candle-light?Yes, and back again.If your heels are nimble and light,You may get there by candle-light.Such a strange old rhyme, it seems perfectly reasonable in the context that it is a "Deep Secret!"