The Homeward Bounders

 

The Homeward Bounders by Diana Wynne Jones

Diana Wynne Jones has been a favorite author since I was about 11, and I have been gradually collecting and reading all of her extensive catalog of books for the past decade or so. This year my partner gave me this one for my birthday.

Short version: I loved it! All the stars!

Long version: Jones is easily one of the reasons that I love portal fantasy so much because she was one of my earliest introductions to it, and she does it So. Well. In Homeward Bounders, she has created more of that parallel world magic goodness. The basic premise is that all the worlds are actually run by some demons who are playing tabletop games with the worlds themselves. (Also having finally started playing dnd last year, this aspect was fun for me to read too.) And when Jamie stumbles upon them at their game, they remove him from play as a random factor and make him a Homeward Bounder - which basically means he bounces from world to world and is given some specific rules that abide by. Part of what makes this book so fun is that Jamie is as snarky as anything, and his hot takes about a lot of the worlds he visits are so great. . . And I'll stop talking plot there to avoid getting spoiler-y. 

This book balances the light-hearted adventurous quality of world-hopping with the reality of being an 11 year old kid who's suddenly lost everything. I think it handles it well, getting neither too heavy for a kid's book or skirting over it too much so as not to be relatable. I think fans of quirky classic fantasy a la Terry Pratchett, adventure and portal fiction will really enjoy this book.

“And if you read it and don’t believe it’s real, so much the better. It will make another safeguard against Them.

But you wouldn’t believe how lonely you get.”