Chrestomanci Series

In this children’s fantasy book series, there are many different worlds and series of worlds, and in each of those different dimensions, there is a copy of every person.  People’s lives can differ dramatically between the worlds, but there is one person in each generation who has no duplicates in any of the other worlds.  This person is called the Chrestomanci.  All of the talents, abilities, and lives that would have been spread across the other dimensions are now centered on that one person, giving that person powerful magic abilities and, literally, nine lives.  Very often, these special nine-lived enchanters don’t realize that they are nine-lived enchanters until they actually die . . . and fails to die because they just used up one of their spare lives.

The title of Chrestomanci refers to a specific job that must be held by a nine-lived enchanter. It’s sort of like being head of a magical law enforcement agency, making sure that nobody misuses their magic and disrupts the delicate balance between worlds. Each Chrestomanci must also find and train their replacement because only one of the rare nine-lived enchanters have magical powers that are strong enough to fill the role and a special ability to travel between worlds.

During the course of this series, the current Chrestomanci is Christopher Chant, although he is typically just called Chrestomanci, by his title. The books in the series are somewhat framed as mystery stories as well as fantasies, with villains and sinister magical intrigues. They also have a tendency to jump around in time, and I personally recommend reading them in the order in which they were published rather than trying to read them in chronological order because there are some spoilers for earlier books in later ones.

In the first book in the series, Chrestomanci takes in two orphaned cousins of his, Eric (called Cat) and Gwendolyn Chant. This book is told from the point of view of Cat, who knows that his sister has magical abilities and that he doesn’t seem to have any himself. When Chrestomanci takes him in, Cat doesn’t quite understand their relationship or what Chrestomanci actually does, although he knows that Chrestomanci is a very important man. This is something of a spoiler, but it is revealed during the course of the book that Cat is also a nine-lived enchanter, although he doesn’t realize it until he’s lost a few lives. From there, some books in the series move back in time to cover how Christopher Chant discovered that he had nine lives and how he was trained for the position of Chrestomanci, and others move forward from Charmed Life to cover Chrestomanci’s later adventures and Cat’s training as the next Chrestomanci.

Different books in the series focus on different characters, including some in other worlds than the one where Chrestomanci lives, but Chrestomanci always appears somewhere in the story, and there are other recurring characters.

Some of the books explain the backstory of why there are different, parallel worlds and series of worlds. The explanation is that there was originally one world (they call this world and its series 1, and we don’t see it in the stories), and every time through its history that there was a major event with two equally-possible outcomes, the world split into two parallel worlds where one of each of the two options happened. From there, each of these parallel worlds split into multiple worlds whenever there were similarly diverging possibilities for different events, producing series of multiple worlds with diverging histories but also some common events. Some worlds have more in common with each other than others, and the greatest variations are between the different main series. Series 12, the series of worlds that contains both “our” world and Chrestomanci’s world, is the series that produces nine-lived enchanters because there are nine worlds in “our” series for people to have duplicates of themselves across the worlds or to be unique and have all of the possible lives and their magical talents at their disposal. Other series of worlds may not produce nine-lived enchanters because they do not have the same number of worlds, and there are instances of some individuals who are unique but are not nine-lived enchanters.

In the world where the Chrestomanci lives, magic exists and is a known and accepted profession. The time period is contemporary with when the books were written, but Chrestomanci’s world is a little old-fashioned in its style, with people dressing as if they lived in the early 20th century.

Recurring Characters:

Christopher Chant – The current Chrestomanci. He had a difficult child because his parents had a dysfunctional marriage, and neither of them paid much attention to him. He was able to travel between worlds from a young age, but it was a long time before he learned how unusual that ability was. His parents, particularly his father, realized that he was a nine-lived enchanter when he died (more than once, actually) and didn’t stay dead. All enchanters have a weakness of some kind, and he has a weakness to silver. He can’t cast spells while holding or wearing anything made of silver. It’s awkward for him to handle certain types of money and he can’t do much at meal times because of the silverware. As Chrestomanci, he is described as being a good-looking man who always dresses in a grand, elegant way. Even his dressing gown is fancy. The reason why he dresses this way, always formal, is partly due to personal vanity (he knows that he’s handsome and how to use that to good effect), but also because part of his job is that he is immediately summoned by magic whenever someone calls for him or even talks about him by title, so he feels like he always has to be ready to meet with someone with no prior notice.

Millie Chant – The wife of Christopher Chant. She originally came from a different world from Christopher, where she lived in a temple as one of the young incarnations of a goddess. The goddess is real in that particular world, but whether or not Millie is actually one of her incarnations is debatable. She is actually a powerful enchantress in her own right, and her powers almost rival Christopher’s, although she doesn’t have nine lives. When she lived in the temple, she was just called the Living One, and she took the name Millie after a character from a series of girls’ boarding school books that Christopher gave her to read. She had to leave her own world because young incarnations of the goddess become sacrifices when they get too old. Fortunately, the priestess who raised her says that she usually manages to save the girls, secretly helping them to get set up somewhere else and substituting a cat’s life as a sacrifice in their place. (All cats have nine lives there, so it’s not too bad.) The priestess approved of Millie going to Christopher’s world and becoming the ward of the previous Chrestomanci there, along with Christopher. Gabriel de Witt, the Chrestomanci who trained Christopher, arranges for Millie to go to boarding school, like the characters in the books she likes, but she lives at Chrestomanci Castle during school breaks.

Julia and Roger Chant – Christopher and Millie’s children. They are described as appearing rather plain and a bit fat, so people sometimes discount them as being ordinary, but both of them are magically powerful. Julia uses a handkerchief with knots in it when she’s casting spells. I’m not completely sure why Julia and Roger aren’t nine-lived enchanters, since there is only one of their father and there is probably also only one of each of them in any world, but it seems that there are exceptions to the rule of unique people. It might have something to do with their mother being from a completely different series of worlds or being the possible incarnation of a goddess, or it might be that there was never even a chance of either of them existing in any other world, so there were no duplicate lives of themselves for them to absorb.

Eric Chant – He is related to Christopher because he is the son of Christopher’s first cousins. (His parents were also first cousins with each other, which was a scandalous marriage and is considered the explanation behind why he and his sister are both unusual, although in different ways.) He was called Cat as a nickname by his sister Gwendolyn, who realized before anyone else that he had nine lives. Unfortunately, Gwendolyn was secretly evil and wanted to use her brother for her own purposes. When she found a way to go to another world where she could live as a young queen, she left Cat with another one of her doubles from a different world, Janet. Janet is a much nicer person than Gwendolyn ever was and resents when people think she’s the same as Gwendolyn. She genuinely cares about Cat and is really the sister he needs. She also appears in multiple books and stories.

Janet Chant – One of Gwendolyn’s doubles from “our” world, where there is no magic. When she arrives in Cat’s world, having been displaced by Gwendolyn hopping to another world, it’s a shock to her. In her world, she is a normal girl, and her parents are still alive. She says that she did have a younger brother, who died at birth, and she realizes that this is why Cat has no doubles and nine lives. Eric lost his first life dying at birth, which is what told Gwendolyn that he had nine lives, but he did survive, unlike his doubles in other worlds. When Gwendolyn permanently sealed herself in the world where she is a queen, Janet was stuck in Cat’s world, unable to return to hers. It was a terrible blow to be separated from her parents, but when Chrestomanci asks her if she will be okay and if she wants him to try to return her to her own world, she refuses the offer because she has discovered that the double who replaced her in her world is an orphan who badly needs a family. Janet learns to love her new brother and to get along with Julia and Roger, becoming the kind of girl Gwendolyn really should have been to her family. Gwendolyn was unable to feel empathy or caring for anybody, but Janet does and is capable of selfless acts when she sees a reason for them.

Gabriel de Witt – The Chrestomanci who immediately preceded Christopher Chant and who acted as his guardian and mentor while he learned to manage his powers and take over the role of Chrestomanci. Christopher and Gabriel had a difficult relationship at times because Christopher initially resented the role that he was expected to fulfill just by an accident of birth and the level of control that Gabriel had over his life. The two of them have very different and sometimes clashing personalities. Gabriel is the more cautious and not very understanding of children and other people’s emotions, while young Christopher is hot-headed, over-confident, and reckless at times. However, as Christopher matures and Gabriel learns to understand Christopher and his other young wards, their relationship improves. Gabriel genuinely cares for Christopher and his future, and part of his toughness with Christopher is because Christopher’s recklessness causes him to lose several of his extra lives quickly in his youth before he learns to be more careful. To save Christopher’s remaining lives, Gabriel tries to instill a sense of discipline in him. Christopher and the other young enchanters Gabriel educated and trained still have affection and respect for him as adults. Gabriel retires from his role as Chrestomanci and turns it over to Christopher when his training is complete and he gets married. Eventually, Gabriel passes away from old age during one of the stories in Mixed Magics. His death demonstrates that even nine-lived enchanters don’t live much beyond normal human old age. When they become old and sick, they die of natural causes repeatedly as their health deteriorates, until they use up whatever lives they have remaining.

The series is by Diana Wynne Jones, who also wrote other fantasy books and series, including the Howl series that includes Howl’s Moving Castle.

Books in the Series:

Charmed Life (1977)

After their parents’ deaths, Cat and Gwendolyn go to live with their mysterious relative, a powerful enchanter called Chrestomanci.

The Magicians of Caprona (1980)

Two feuding magical families struggle to put aside their differences to learn the identity of the evil enchanter who threatens their city.

Witch Week (1982)

In a world where witches are being burned at the stake in the 1980s, at a boarding school for troubled children and orphans, suspicions and accusations of witchcraft spread until Chrestomanci comes to set things right.

The Lives of Christopher Chant (1988)

Christopher Chant learns the hard way that he has nine lives and that is going to lead him to a special destiny.

Mixed Magics (2000)

A collection of four short stories set in the universe of Chrestomanci.

Conrad’s Fate (2005)

Young Conrad’s uncle has convinced him that he has bad karma and that his only way to cure it is to accept a job as a servant at Stallery Mansion and do what he should have done in previous life.

The Pinhoe Egg (2006)

Marianne Pinhoe gives Cat Chant an egg that he’s supposed to keep hidden – even from Chrestomanci.