Conrad's Fate
core novel 2005 Chrestomanci
Record
| First published | 2005 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.09 (11,281 ratings, collected 2026-09-14) |
| Page count | 400 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780060747435 |
| Internal chronology | 2 |
Synopsis
Set in the small Alpine town of Stallery and the grand mountain estate of Stallery Mansion, in a parallel world where the British Isles remain joined to the European mainland, this novel follows twelve-year-old Conrad Tesdinic, who lives above his uncle's bookshop before taking a secret job at the mansion under the alias Conrad Grant. He has been magically tasked with identifying and stopping whoever at Stallery is "pulling the possibilities," subtly altering the details of reality itself, and is warned that an unrelated curse tied to the culprit threatens to kill him within a year if he fails. Also working undercover at the mansion, under the name Christopher Smith, is fifteen-year-old Christopher Chant, searching for his friend Millie, who has become trapped inside one of the mansion's shifting possibilities.
Where it sits
- Universe: Chrestomanci
- Series: Chrestomanci core; position 6 of 7 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Notes
- From the series record (Chrestomanci): Listed in PUBLICATION order (1977-2006); internal chronology records the settled internal/story order instead (1. The Lives of Christopher Chant, 2. Conrad's Fate, 3. Charmed Life, 4. The Pinhoe Egg, 5. Witch Week, 6. The Magicians of Caprona), per HarperCollins' own 'Chronicles of Chrestomanci' recommended-reading-order reissues -- left null for Mixed Magics, a 4-story collection whose individual stories span multiple points in the internal timeline rather than occupying one slot. This is the first universe in this canon to actually populate `internal chronology` for a publication-vs-internal divergence (distinct from other cases in this canon with a genuinely *disputed* chronology -- here the order is well-documented and author-sanctioned, not contested) -- a usable precedent for Valdemar's own still-open equivalent.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series Chrestomanci: position 6 of 7: previous Mixed Magics (2000) · next The Pinhoe Egg (2006)
- Internal chronology, within Chrestomanci: position 2 of 6: previous The Lives of Christopher Chant (1988) · next Charmed Life (1977)
Sources
← Chrestomanci dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.