Originally posted here at Random Musings of a Bibliophile.I am still making my way through Diana Wynne Jones's backlist. I probably wouldn't have read The Homeward Bounders for a long time to come as it's currently out of print in the the US (except as an e-book) if it weren't for a conversation on Twitter I had with Sage Blackwood in which she said she heard some consider it to be a metaphor for life as a military kid. My interest level rose exponentially and she was kind enough to send me an old used library copy to read. (Much thanks for that.)This book, like all of Jones's books, has had many covers. I'm using the latest UK cover because I really like these covers for her books.The Homeward Bounders unfolds slowly. For the first part of the novel Jamie is all alone simply telling his story about how he came to be a Homeward Bounder and the way the worlds work. As he tells his tale little things about Them (the players) are revealed, and what is revealed is rather chilling. They have no regard for lives. They are ruthless in pursuit of the game they are playing. The game they are playing is us and our lives. And the lives of countless other beings in countless other worlds. We are all pieces on a giant board game helped along by computers and players (the identity of who is a brilliant reveal). Who hasn't wondered about that at some point in their life? This is the sheer genius of Diana Wynne Jones, taking the things everyone ponders and expanding on them and turning them into a brilliant story. Jamie is thrust out of his world after discovering the game. A "discard", he is forced to wander the worlds in search of home. He is alone for a great deal of his search and that loneliness comes off the page and affects the reader. Finally Jamie is able to find some companions. Helen is special in her world, but has been exiled because she also discovered too much. Joris is a demon hunter apprentice, a slave with so much devotion he was dragged into life as a Homeard Bounder by a demon he refused to let go. These three are misfits and they form a strong if somewhat squabble team. A team that doubles when they are able to convince some actual non-Bounders of what is going on. But of course, this can't last forever. They are not going to allow them to remain together without a fight. I really enjoyed Jamie as a character all alone, a wander traveling the worlds. And I loved his interactions with the family he cobbles together from the people he meets. Helen and Adam are particularly fun to watch him with.The Homeward Bounders is tragic, far more so than a lot of Jones's books are. It is a sort of tragic that is full of purpose though. The trials are not for nothing and the people suffering them learn to adjust, though it leaves scars and yearnings they will never shake. Yes, I can see why some people have likened it to life as a military brat. There were some sentences that made me cry because, yes, they do describe the feelings you have, the feeling that home is a place out there somewhere if you could only just find it, but deep down you know you never will because you missed that chance. That your life is out of your control. That you form attachments only to have them ripped away from you so why bother forming them at all anymore. There is something utterly profound in the conclusion of the book that relates as well. The lack of choice the Bounders have about how long they stay in one place (but they do know approximately how long it will be) and their lack of choice in where they end up next speaks to it as well. Whether Jones did this intentionally or not, I can't help but wish I had this book growing up.The Homeward Bounders is not a book everyone is going to like, but it is perfect for me. I think it is one of Jones's best actually. It doesn't have the charm and quirk of Chrestomanci, Howl, or Derkholm, but it still has a sly and ironic humor that keeps it from being too tragic. And in the end it really is a beautiful story that is brilliantly crafted.
The Homeward Bounders is the sort of book that I can't stop thinking about, even years after reading it. DWJ's real gift was for making mythology into reality, and for putting the ineffable and inexplicable into a context in which it could be understood. This book is pure fantasy, in the sense that the plot could never happen to anyone you or I know, but at the same time she makes you see exactly how it COULD. But I digress. The Homeward Bounders is about a twelve year old boy named Jamie who, while going about his typical preteen shenanigans--breaking and entering at an abandoned fort, in this case--stumbles across an uncomfortable truth about his world (and the thousands of other worlds that he learns exist alongside it, like the thousands of reflections of yourself that you see when you hold two mirrors up to face one another). You see, it turns out that everyone in every world, himself included, is a figure in a tabletop war game being played by a cruel and sinister race of demons. Needless to say, They (as Jamie comes to call them) do not welcome the intrusion or the discovery, and punish Jamie before he can give them away; he is exiled and forced to walk "the bounds" between the worlds until he can make his way Home and, as They so charmingly put it, "re-enter play." Thus, he becomes a Homeward Bounder. As he makes his way across hundreds of worlds, he meets others like him--some known entities, like the captain and crew of the Flying Dutchman, others new and delightful as only DWJ can write them, like Helen Haras-Uquar, who loves creepy crawlies and whose curtain of hair obscures her face at all times, or Joris the friendly (and terribly posh) demon hunter trainee--and every one of them is just trying to get Home. In the end, Jamie and others learn more about the worlds, and what is Real, and Home, and they have choices to make... and as with so many of her stories, DWJ doesn't make it easy on them (or us). When I read this book for the first time I said the ending made me think of the Dalemark quartet and it's true; there is a lot of Mitt's reluctant responsibility and star-crossed optimism in Jamie. But ultimately what makes this book memorable (perhaps more so than Dalemark for me) is that it gives us a somewhat terrifying glimpse at the darker side of immortality, and explores at length the feeling of helplessness when you're presented with a choice that isn't, for many reasons, a choice at all. -------------------Original review in August 2013: Up past my bedtime to finish this one, but it was worth it! It had everything you'd expect from DWJ -- parallel words, a colorful cast of incredibly realistic characters, and a delicious splash of mythology thrown in to make you think you know what's going on until she turns you on your ear at the last second. It reminded me a LOT of the Dalemark Quartet, actually. Perhaps it was the ending. I couldn't help but remember Mitt.At any rate, I know I sound like a broken record sometimes when I talk about DWJ, but this really was a beautiful piece of work. I'm still more partial to her more lighthearted offerings, like Howl's Moving Castle, but I love how deeply she can make you think.
What do You think about The Homeward Bounders (1990)?
The last major Diana Wynne Jones book I haven't read. When my book club announced they'd be reading this, I actually got around to finding it. The magical librarians found it for me, and I feel pretty proud of myself. All of her major works! I had a very hard time getting into this novel. The character's voice was a little difficult to read at first, which was really surprising. I think that this was because of all the summarizing in the beginning, both the character and I recognized that I needed certain information and the rest simply wasn't important. The voice ended up fitting the character, but it was hard to read at first.Once the story got going however, it was really good. It was complex, and so interesting. All of the adventures were amazing and I was really amazed. Once all of the Homeward Bounders met, the interaction and where they were etc, made the story really good.I did not see that plot twist coming. At all. Surprise galore!And the plot twist was easy to figure out, once it was revealed. I understood everything, and it all made sense. The plot twist did not make me second guess the ending at all.The unique thinking in the characters, and the way that everything works is just beautiful.
—Me
Haven't read this one in years either, but thinking tonight about how much I love Diana Wynne Jones and remember this being another one of my favorites (not as good as Fire & Hemlock, though). This Diana Wynne Jones woman is a frikkin' GENIUS. IMO these are the greatest kids' books EVER WRITTEN. This one starts out when this kid who lives in some sort of strange time and place that never actually existed stumbles upon a group of Them (Them being hooded, sinister gamers who are possibly among
—Jessica
Fascinating remix of mythology and fantasy. This book contained vivid characters whom I immediately fell in love with, delicate foreshadowing, and all the storycraft and artistry of a Diana Wynne Jones tale. Because of the more unusual ending and slightly darker tones influence I'd recommend it to returning DWJ readers, but it's a wonderful, if less whimsical than usual, story. SPOILER .....I looked at some other reviews, and one was glorying in the fact that the story says that "hope is an anchor" which ends up deceiving and devastating us and in the end we just have to abandon it. That is a fundamentally flawed proposition. Hope can be deceiving IF its placed in the wrong thing,but this is by no means grounds for rejecting hope. This is a troubling statement if taken in without reflection. In conclusion, enjoy the wonderful story, evaluate in what your hope is placed, but don't abandon hope completely.
—Lydia
