Product Description

When the Goon turns up demanding "Archer's two thousand", life turns upside-down. As Howard desperately tries to get to the bottom of this demand, he discovers that the town is run by seven crazy wizards (not all of whom live in the present!) and someone is trying to take over the world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1137197 in Books
• Published on: 2002-03-04
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 2
• Binding: Audio Cassette

Review
"Her hallmarks include laugh-aloud humour, plenty of magic and imaginative array of alternate worlds. Yet, at the same time, a great seriousness is present in all of her novels, a sense of urgency that links Jones's most outrageous plots to her readers' hopes and fears" Publishers Weekly

Seven wizards control various aspects of life in the town where Howard Sykes and his family live, and each wizard can tune into the Sykes household and watch their every move. When the wizards fight amongst themselves they make life unbearable for the Sykes family. A hilarious fantasy. (9-12 yrs) (Kirkus UK)

About the Author
Diana Wynne Jones spent her childhood in Essex and has been writing fantasy novels for children since 1973. With her unique combination of magic, humour and imagination, she has been enthralling children and adults with her work ever since. She won the Guardian Award in 1977 with Charmed Life, was runner-up for the Children's Book Award in 1981, and was twice runner-up for the Carnegie Medal. She is married with three sons, and lives in Bristol with her husband.

Customer Reviews

Out to take over the world - if they can leave town
"A Goon is a being who melts into the foreground and sticks there."
"All power corrupts, but we need electricity."
"It pays to increase your word power."
- from the author's note

Although Jones seems to be classified as a "children's" author, I've found her a very fine fantasy writer with a sly sense of humor ever since I took amazon.com's advice and first read HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE. While ARCHER'S GOON (a stand-alone work rather than a volume in any of Jones' series) has a young protagonist, but like Jones' other work can be enjoyed by any fantasy reader, since she doesn't talk down to her audience.

On the morning the story opens, Howard Sykes faces a typical day of school, avoiding violin practice, and the usual clashes with his little sister (nicknamed 'Awful', with a voice like an ambulance siren). Just an ordinary day in an ordinary little town, right?

Then the title character, a huge thug promptly nicknamed 'the Goon', shows up.

"What's Dad done?"
"Told her. Sykes got behind with his payment. Archer wants his two thousand. Here to collect it."
"Who *is* Archer?"
"Archer farms this part of town. Your dad pays, Archer doesn't make trouble."

In exchange for being let off his taxes - and maybe other things - Howard's father has been sending 2000 words in an envelope to City Hall every month for years. Sykes tries to laugh this off, saying it's a private joke he used to break his writer's block years ago - but now one sibling after another of the seven siblings running the town wants to get hold of the last batch of words and figure out what Archer's been up to all this time. Despite being adults, the siblings don't get on any better than Howard and Awful do; they've just got a truce by which they've divvied up the city. (One sister runs law enforcement while her twin handles crime, for example; Archer runs city power, Hathaway transportation. The brother who got last choice got waste management.) We eventually meet each sibling in turn; in some cases, the main characters must work out where that particular sibling's HQ must be, given their discipline.

The siblings settled into town about a decade before the story opens, planning to use it as a base for taking over the world - but they can't even get along with each other except for staying out of each other's way, and some seem to have changed their minds about running the world. But at least one appears to be interfering with all the others - all of them seem magically constrained to stay within the city limits, although they all deny knowing who did it, how, or why. The siblings have different personalities, and one or two really *are* efficient enough at organization to run the world if they can get free of the town.

Sitting down and asking myself why I like this book so much, I think it's basically the same reason I like some of GK Chesterton's grand conspiracy stories: on the surface we have an ordinary, apparently completely mundane and boring setting - but underneath that surface, even the most mundane activity may cover the activities of some agent of a colorful conspiracy. For instance, Hathaway doesn't get out much, which explains the town's disorganized road construction programs and why potholes don't get fixed properly. Archer has his secret lair in a bank vault and likes gadgets. The brother who runs entertainment travels with an entourage of disco dancers and the local cathedral choir when he wants to foil eavesdroppers.

The Goon himself *looks* very threatening, and refuses to leave without Archer's overdue batch of words, but he's easily bullied about little things like where he puts his feet, and can almost be overlooked like a large pet or easygoing protector - a dangerous assumption to make, perhaps.

An excellent read for older children and adults.
This is Diana Wynne Jones at the top of her form - funny, perceptive and original. The story of Howard's encounter with Archer (the one with the goon) and his brothers and sisters is unpredictable, but entrely logical (sort of!).. It was made into a very good children's serial by the BBC some years ago. It's a really good well-written tale which will be really enjoyed by anyone old enough to cope with time distortion in fiction. It's also got quite enough going for it to enthrall any adult who enjoys fiction with fantasy in it.

Finally, I understand the ending!
I always think the mark of a good children's book is that you can re-read it as an adult without wanting to chew your own hands off with the pain and Diana Wynne-Jones more than qualifies. In fact, I have enjoyed (and understood!) Archer's Goon much more as a twenty-something than as a child. Anyone who has siblings to deal with will recognise aspects of themselves and their families in this bizzare and twisted tale.