This is yet another wonderful book by (the late) Diana Wynne Jones! It's one of her earlier books but I only just got a chance to read it because it was so hard to find. If you liked the Harry Potter books and the Discworld series, chances are, you'll like this too.
It starts off in the thick of a meeting between various people which throws a lot of info at you in a short period of time. It takes quite a few pages before you understand what is actually going on and who's who but once you get there, the story sucks you in completely. So even if you find the beginning rather confusing, don't give up! The story that follows is worth it.
As always with her books, the setting is amazingly fantastic but because you can relate to the characters, the story feels real... despite the fact that four of them are griffins :P. I loved her characters so much, was dying to read more. Lucky for me, she had written a sequel called Year of the Griffin which is even better.
The first book reminded me a lot of Terry Pratchett at first because of the guilds and wizard university but her style is very different. The second book is set in the wizard university quite a long time after the first so you find out how all the characters end up.
After I finished though I was really sad about the fact that there'd never be anymore :-(
Diana Wynne Jones was such an amazing and gifted fantasy writer, I'm really going to feel her loss. All her books on my shelf are little gems of humour, imagination, intelligence and heart. I hope one day I can be as good a writer as she was.
