 First edition (UK) | |
| Author | Diana Wynne Jones |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Graham Townsend [1] |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's Fantasy novel |
| Publisher | Macmillan |
Publication date | 1981 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| ISBN | 9780333309797 |
| OCLC | 872671513 |
The Homeward Bounders is a fantasy novel by Diana Wynne Jones in which a vast series of parallel universes serve as the game-boards for a race of demons that delight in war-games and fantasy-games.
Twelve-year-old Jamie discovers a strange place in his hometown in which mysterious and demonic entities, known only as Them, are playing a board game with the entire world. Upon his discovering Them, They are forced to make Jamie a Homeward Bounder; this means he must constantly travel from world to world until he finds his home again. Homeward Bounders cannot die, and must not interfere with Play. If he can reach his home he may stay, and re-enter play. No-one is allowed to interfere directly with the Homeward Bounders; for example, if someone were to attempt to hurt or steal from Jamie, that person would die mysteriously.
In his travels through the many worlds, Jamie meets the Flying Dutchman, with his ship and crew, and Ahasuerus, the Wandering Jew. In addition, he meets a strange entity chained to a rock by Them. Every day, a Vulture comes to peck at him. While he is never named, the entity is Prometheus (he states that his name means "foresight" and that, according to legend, he was punished for bringing fire to humanity). Jamie becomes skilled at travelling, learning to read the signs left by other Homeward Bounders, growing fluent in many languages and proficient in many unusual skills.
So Jamie wanders through the worlds, time passing, never reaching his home, yet hardly aging at all, until he meets Helen Haras-Uquara, from the barbaric world of Uquar. She has a gift - she can change her right arm into anything at all (for instance, an elephant trunk or a snake). Helen has only recently become a Homeward Bounder, because she, like Jamie, has seen Them playing Their game with the worlds. Although she has no experience with anything much, having been shut in a temple for most of her life, she proves to be a resourceful and intelligent person; her knowledge of Them, which mainly comes from the teachings of Uquar, her god, turns out to be very useful.
Helen and Jamie travel together until they meet Joris, another new Homeward Bounder, who was a slave and apprentice demon hunter from another world, separated from his master by a demon that showed him Them. The three travel together until they come to a world in which they meet Adam and Vanessa.
This world is like our current world, and is also strongly reminiscent of Jamie's home world. He is sure that if they could just travel on one or two worlds more he would reach his Home. The Homeward Bounders convince Adam and Vanessa that They exist, when Konstam, Joris' demon-hunting-master arrives, and joins their party. Konstam is eager to fight this new kind of demon, if only because of the challenge that They present, and the six invade Their strange place and try to defeat Them. The attack goes awry, however, and all six of them are made into Homeward Bounders. This fills the Bounder circuits to their maximum capacity; in effect, this means that They cannot create any more Homeward Bounders. Even They must play by Their own rules.
Jamie awakens, alone, and realizes that Adam and Vanessa's world is his Home, only 100 years too late – he recognizes a photo of Adam and Vanessa's grandmother when she was young; it was his little sister, grown up. He realizes that although he did not age during his time on the Bounder circuits, time was still passing on his Home world, and his family and his Home world have gone forever. They are cheating; his world is gone. He has no home to go to.
His hope of ever returning home crushed, he returns to the mysterious entity chained to a rock, and inadvertently frees him, as only one without hope can free him. With his help, Jamie rallies all the Homeward Bounders, and they make a frontal assault on the main base of Them, and destroy many of Them and also Their special place, known as "The Real Place".
Everyone is returned to their respective home worlds, except for Jamie. Since his home is gone, he chooses to continue to wander through the worlds, so as to keep The Real Place in all the worlds, not just in one place, as They did. So, in the end, Jamie stops Them from returning for at least a few centuries, by giving up any hope of a normal life and having to endure watching his friends die while he stays young.
Kirkus Reviews considered it to be "elaborate and intricate" and a "chilly scenario", recommending it for "admirers of cerebral puzzle-fantasy". [2] James Nicoll lauded Jones for being able to "introduce all of her characters, outline the rules of her setting, and make her way through a complete plot in 267 pages". [3]
Dave Langford reviewed The Homeward Bounders for White Dwarf #53, and stated that "few writers can bring off this sort of thing, but Jones does. She has the trick of conviction and empathy, of larding the narrative with humour where appropriate and thus heightening the desolation and horror elsewhere. A powerful little book." [4]
Wolves of the Calla is a fantasy novel by American writer Stephen King. It is the fifth book in his The Dark Tower series. The book continues the story of Roland Deschain, Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, Jake Chambers, and Oy as they make their way toward the Dark Tower. The subtitle of this novel is Resistance. Prior to the novel's publication, two excerpts were published: "Calla Bryn Sturgis" was published in 2001 on Stephen King's official site, and "The Tale of Gray Dick" was published in 2003 in McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales. Both excerpts were incorporated in revised form into the full version of the 2003 novel. Wolves of the Calla was nominated for the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 2004.
Everville is a 1994 fantasy novel by British author Clive Barker. The second in the Books of the Art series, it follows the 1989 novel The Great and Secret Show.
Books of Blood is a series of six horror fiction anthologies collecting original stories written by British author, playwright, and filmmaker Clive Barker in 1984 and 1985. Known primarily for writing stage plays beforehand, Barker gained a wider audience and fanbase through this anthology series, leading to a successful career as a novelist. Originally presented as six volumes, the anthologies were subsequently re-published in two omnibus editions containing three volumes each. Each volume contains four, five or six stories. The Volume 1–3 omnibus contained a foreword by Barker's fellow Liverpudlian horror writer Ramsey Campbell. Author Stephen King praised Books of Blood, leading to a quote from him appearing on the first US edition of the book: "I have seen the future of horror and his name is Clive Barker."
Garfield's Feline Fantasies is a 1990 American animated television special based on the Garfield comic strip and is produced by Film Roman, United Media/Mendelson, and Paws, Inc. It once again featured Lorenzo Music as the voice of Garfield. The animated short was first broadcast on May 18, 1990 on CBS and September 10, 1991 on CITV and was nominated for Outstanding Animated Program at the 42nd Primetime Emmy Awards. The events of the special take place between the second and third seasons of Garfield and Friends. It has been released on both VHS and DVD home video.
Operation Chaos is a 1971 science fantasy fixup novel by American writer Poul Anderson. A sequel, Operation Luna, was published in 1999.
From Far Away is a Japanese shōjo manga by Kyoko Hikawa. It was published by Hakusensha in LaLa from 1993 to 2003 and collected in 14 tankōbon volumes. It is licensed in North America by Viz Media. The story follows a high schoolgirl who is sent to a medieval-like fantasy world after encountering an explosive paper bag.
The Power of Five is a series of five fantasy and suspense novels, written by English author Anthony Horowitz. Published between 2005 and 2012, it is an updated re-imagining of Horowitz's Pentagram series, which the author had left unfinished in the 1980s after he only wrote four of the five planned books in the series. The novels deal heavily in the occult and examples of things such as human sacrifice and blood rituals are major plot elements, such as in the first book, where Matthew Freeman is hunted by a Cult who want to conduct a blood sacrifice on him to blast open a portal using a combination of nuclear physics and black magic, to unlock another dimension which is holding a group of ancient evil demons captive.
Dime Store Magic is a fantasy novel by Canadian writer Kelley Armstrong. It is the third in the Women of the Otherworld series featuring Paige Winterbourne. First seen in Stolen, Paige is a witch, the only daughter of the now deceased Coven leader and expected to follow in her mother's footsteps. Guardian of young teenage witch, Savannah, following the events of Stolen, Paige finds herself confronting a telekinetic half-demon and a powerful cabal of sorcerers as she attempts to protect her ward.
Children of the Corn: Revelation is a 2001 American slasher horror film directed by Guy Magar. It is the seventh installment of the Children of the Corn film series. The plot follows a woman who travels to Omaha, Nebraska in search of her grandmother, and finds her apartment building to be overrun with mysterious children who seem to be emerging from the adjacent corn field.
Song in the Silence (1997) is the debut novel of Elizabeth Kerner, and the first book in the Kolmar series.
The Elves of Cintra is a fantasy novel by American writer Terry Brooks, the second in his epic fantasy trilogy The Genesis of Shannara. The series bridges the events of Brooks' Word & Void series with his acclaimed novel The Sword of Shannara and the subsequent trilogy. It immediately follows the novel Armageddon's Children. It details events during the Great Wars, a historical conflict referenced frequently in the Shannara books. The conclusion to the trilogy and the sequel to The Elves of Cintra is The Gypsy Morph, which was released in August 2008.
Fablehaven is a fantasy book series for children written by Brandon Mull. The book series, which includes Fablehaven, Fablehaven: Rise of the Evening Star, Fablehaven: Grip of the Shadow Plague, Fablehaven: Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary and Fablehaven: Keys to the Demon Prison, is published by Shadow Mountain in hardcover and Simon & Schuster in paperback. It is followed by the five-part sequel series Dragonwatch.
Fablehaven: Rise of the Evening Star is a fantasy novel written by Brandon Mull, released on May 31, 2007. It is the second book in the Fablehaven series. Its sequel is Fablehaven: Grip of the Shadow Plague.
Fablehaven: Keys to the Demon Prison is the fifth and final installment in the best-selling Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull.
Dial D for Demons is a 2000 Hong Kong horror film directed by Billy Tang, starring Jordan Chan, Joey Meng, Lee Ann, Terence Yin, Alice Chan, and Winnie Leung.
Scooby-Doo! and Kiss: Rock and Roll Mystery is a 2015 direct-to-DVD animated crossover comedy mystery film, and the twenty-fifth entry in the direct-to-video series of Scooby-Doo films. It was released digitally on July 10, 2015, and was released on DVD and Blu-ray on July 21, 2015. The design of the film is inspired by Jack Kirby's comics.
The Raven Cycle is a series of four contemporary fantasy novels written by American author Maggie Stiefvater. The first novel, The Raven Boys, was published by Scholastic in 2012, and the final book, The Raven King, was published on 26 April 2016.
The Hollow is a Canadian animated adventure mystery series created by Vito Viscomi. The series premiered on Netflix on June 8, 2018. Its second season aired on May 8, 2020. On August 31, 2020, the series was cancelled.
DC Showcase: Death is an American animated short superhero film directed by Sam Liu, written by J.M. DeMatteis and produced by Warner Bros. Animation and DC Entertainment based on the eponymous character created by Neil Gaiman and Mike Dringenberg. The short was included as part of the home media release of Wonder Woman: Bloodlines. The artwork for the Portrait of Death, as well as several sketch drawings seen during the end credits, were done by comic book artist Jae Lee.