Castle in the Air
core novel 1990 Howl's Moving Castle
Record
| First published | 1990 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.85 (70,587 ratings, collected 2026-09-14) |
| Page count | 298 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780688096861 |
| Internal chronology | 2 |
Synopsis
Castle in the Air, a 1990 sequel to Howl's Moving Castle set some time later, shifts its focus to a new protagonist, Abdullah, a poor but imaginative carpet merchant in the desert city of Zanzib who likes to daydream that he is really a stolen prince. His routine changes when a stranger sells him a magic carpet that carries him each night to a hidden garden, where he meets and falls in love with Princess Flower-in-the-Night. Their courtship is cut short when a monstrous flying djinn abducts the princess before Abdullah's eyes, and her father the Sultan has Abdullah imprisoned and threatened with execution unless she is found. Escaping with his carpet, Abdullah discovers that princesses are vanishing across the region, and sets out to uncover who, or what, is behind the disappearances.
Where it sits
- Universe: Howl's Moving Castle
- Series: Howl's Moving Castle core; position 2 of 3 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Notes
- From the series record (Howl's Moving Castle): Diana Wynne Jones's own 'Castle'/'World of Howl' trilogy, sharing the kingdom of Ingary and recurring characters (Howl, Sophie, Calcifer, Wizard Suliman) across all 3 books, though each has a largely independent plot and protagonist. Confirmed a SEPARATE continuity from Jones's Chrestomanci series (a different multiverse-hopping premise with no shared characters, setting, or crossover) -- not conflated per this admission's own scope check.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series Howl's Moving Castle: position 2 of 3: previous Howl's Moving Castle (1986) · next House of Many Ways (2008)
Sources
← Howl's Moving Castle dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.