Archer's Goon

Rating:
Summary: So impossibly wacky, it's almost believable!
Review: Archer's Goon is the story of a boy named Howard who discovers himself to be more important than he would have ever imagined. Who is really in control of Howard's town? Why are the seven wizard's unable to go beyond the town's boundaries? Where is the seventh wizard hiding? And how does Howard's dad's writing figure into it all? When Howard's family becomes caught up in the mad power struggle between the rivaling family of wizards they realize that they must find out; their lives, or at the very least their sanity is at risk. This book manages to blend every day living with fantasy to come out with something so impossibly wacky, it's almost believable. I'm 14 and love this book. This is the book for anyone, adult or kid, who ever wished that the world had a little less science and a bit more magic

Rating:
Summary: Get that Goon out of my kitchen!
Review: Before I tell you anything about this book, I think you should know that this book is kind of hard and a bit confusing. You will need a good vocabulary and a smart head to understand Archer's Goon.

Imagine coming home one day and meeting a gigantic Goon taking up all the room in your kitchen. This is what twelve-year-old Howard Skykes comes home to after a long, tiring day of school. This Goon claims that Howard's dad, Quentin Skykes, has to give two thousand words to Archer or, he promises very, very bad things will happen. Soon the treat begins to come true: The power goes out, marching bands play outside their house, a big ditch being dug outside their house, even their car won`t start.

Soon Howard and his little sister, Awful, find out that seven crazy wizards are really running his little English town. Also the other six wizards have decided that they want their share of Quentin words. Puzzled, Howard tries to visit each wizard and find out why they want the words, what the words do and how the words work!

I liked this book because it had the perfect combination of down-to-earth stuff and witchcraft and wizardry. The main idea of the story is riveting and anybody who really likes to read and enjoys wizarding stories will be whisked away in Howard's adventures. Howard is very adventurous and exciting, the perfect character for this well written novel. In this book, all the characters play all sorts of very important roles. Like Howard's dad, for example: he is the one who writes the words in the first place. The mysterious words. What do they do? How do they work?

I would give Archer's Goon four out of five stars because the ending was a bit confusing and hard to understand. My recommended age category for this book is ten to thirty years old because it has a little bit of foul language and uses a few big words. Hope you enjoy reading Archer's Goon!

Rating:
Summary: Delightfully inventive tale by Diana Wynne Jones
Review: Howard is a thirteen year old in a small English city. He comes home from school one day to find an extremely large Goon in his kitchen, announcing that he's come from Archer for the two thousand (words, as it turns out) that Howard's father owes him. The situation quickly develops into deadlock, which Howard hopes to break when he learns that the town is run by seven sibling wizards. Howard meets one after the other, only to find that almost all of them are interested in the missing "two thousand", which apparently has the power to bind them to the city when they'd rather be ruling the world. The ending is surprising (although there are some hints for you throughout), logical, and delightful.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best book I have read!!!
Review: I first picked this book up 3 years ago, and not a month has gone by when I have not reread this book. Its characters are delightful and funny, that combined with a plot with great twists, forms a story that anyone would love. I have made everyone in my family read this book, and all have enjoyed it as much as I have. I would really recommend this book!!!!

Rating:
Summary: young, and not so young readers delight
Review: I first read this book as a teenager, and loved it. It is modern, and wierd, and it made me laugh so hard sometimes, my parents thought I was having fits. As an adult I reread it for nostalgia, and still found it as amusing.

In a suburb of England lives the Sykes family, father Quentin a professor at the Poly-tech, mother a music teacher, Howard the eldest child, Aweful the baby sister, and Fifi the student who lives with them. A basic family until one day a Goon shows up, won't tell them really why he is there, and refuses to leave. According to Goon, Mr. Sykes is late on his payments to Archer, one of several, incredibly spoiled, sorcerous siblings, who run the city. The family isn't sure what to make of this simple statement and go round and round the city trying to clear things up. In the meantime Goon has settled into the Sykes home and is making life for the Sykes family very complicated, and often unpleasant. It is left to Howard to resolve this fantastically wierd situation, as he tracks down and meets with the various siblings of Archer, in an attempt to find the one responsible for disrupting his family. There are some very interesting and unusual discoveries that Howard makes with the help of Goon, and all the characters are just wonderful. I would recommend this book to a wide variety of fantasy readers.

Rating:
Summary: young, and not so young readers delight
Review: I first read this book as a teenager, and loved it. It is modern, and wierd, and it made me laugh so hard sometimes, my parents thought I was having fits. As an adult I reread it for nostalgia, and still found it as amusing.

In a suburb of England lives the Sykes family, father Quentin a professor at the Poly-tech, mother a music teacher, Howard the eldest child, Aweful the baby sister, and Fifi the student who lives with them. A basic family until one day a Goon shows up, won't tell them really why he is there, and refuses to leave. According to Goon, Mr. Sykes is late on his payments to Archer, one of several, incredibly spoiled, sorcerous siblings, who run the city. The family isn't sure what to make of this simple statement and go round and round the city trying to clear things up. In the meantime Goon has settled into the Sykes home and is making life for the Sykes family very complicated, and often unpleasant. It is left to Howard to resolve this fantastically wierd situation, as he tracks down and meets with the various siblings of Archer, in an attempt to find the one responsible for disrupting his family. There are some very interesting and unusual discoveries that Howard makes with the help of Goon, and all the characters are just wonderful. I would recommend this book to a wide variety of fantasy readers.

Rating:
Summary: Get that Goon out of my kitchen!
Review: I first read this book when I was around 14 or so. I still love it, and would recommend it to anyone of any age. The plot mixes everyday elements (construction workers tearing up a street, irritating everyone) and magic (why are the construction workers there? Who sent them? What are they trying to accomplish?) in a blend so believable that you will start wondering who's watching you through your appliances. The characters are eccentric but totally believable in this context. The plot is superb and the ending was a shock to me at least. There's not a boring part in any of it. You will remember this book.

Rating:
Summary: The best of Diana Wynne Jones' work!
Review: I first read this book when I was around 14 or so. I still love it, and would recommend it to anyone of any age. The plot mixes everyday elements (construction workers tearing up a street, irritating everyone) and magic (why are the construction workers there? Who sent them? What are they trying to accomplish?) in a blend so believable that you will start wondering who's watching you through your appliances. The characters are eccentric but totally believable in this context. The plot is superb and the ending was a shock to me at least. There's not a boring part in any of it. You will remember this book.

Rating:
Summary: A clever story filled with magic and realism
Review: I had been wanting to read Archer's Goon for quite some time, following my discovery of Jones' Chrestomanci series and generally feeling that she was my type of writer, something that hadn't been dispelled by the enjoyment of a couple of her other novels like Eight Days of Luke and Howl's Moving Castle (which, I believe, is soon to be a motion picture). But Archer's Goon had been originally published in 1984 and no one had seen fit to bring it back into print. I searched in vain at used book stores while at the same time refusing to pay for overpriced copies over the Internet.

Then J.K. Rowling happened (the analogy to a force of nature is intended), and young adult novels with magic in them have returned to the bestseller lists and the bookshelves. HarperCollins likely combed through their backlist to find this, and I'm glad they did, for it finally gave me an affordable chance to read this novel.

The anticipation was well worth it, too. The book starts immediately with the introduction of the Goon of the title (an oversized ogre of a man) crowding the Sykes household, which consists of the protagonist Howard, aged 13; his little sister Awful; their live-in sitter Fifi; their father Quentin, a writer; and their mother Catriona, a music teacher. Archer sent the Goon there to collect 2,000 words from Quentin, something that Archer...and Archer's brothers and sisters...believe is keeping them from ruling the world. Wait? What was that again?

Yes, Archer is a wizard, and so is the rest of his family. But none of them trust the others, although they've divided the town up into different areas that each of them "farm": for example, Shine controls crime, Torquil music, Dillian law and order, Erskine the sewers, and Archer controls electricity and gas. But one of them is keeping the others from branching out and controlling the world, and it has something to do with those 2,000 words that Howard's father Quentin provides every month. Unfortunately, Quentin refuses to write those words for any of those people--not wanting to help them take over the world--and the wizards begin causing all sorts of problems for the Sykes family very quickly.

The pleasure of Jones' books is how the magic is integrated as a natural part of her worlds. While the characters who aren't magicians still see the magic as surprising, they quickly come to accept and even understand it. In the context of a children's book, such ready acceptance of the irrational mirrors the arbitrary world around young people, which oftentimes seems, if not actually is, illogical: Why can't I stay out late? Why don't we ever see dad's brothers for holidays? Why don't we always let the answering machine answer the phone, even when we are here?

Archer's Goon has plenty of twists in it, as Howard and Awful learn more about the world around them, including how their parents react to each other and the two of them, not to mention the secret of the Goon. I recommend this one highly.

Rating:
Summary: I'm so shocked it's out of print!
Review: I have recently read Archer's Goon, and it is one of the best books by Diana Wynne Jones you will EVER read! It's sadly out of print, which amazes me because I doubt it ever got the publicity it deserves. It truly is an amazing book, it's lively, readable and unpredictable. I would say it's for readers of 11 and upwards.