Year of the Griffin
core novel 2000 The Derkholm Series
Record
| First published | 2000 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.12 (9,780 ratings, collected 2026-09-14) |
| Page count | 404 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780064473354 |
| Internal chronology | 2 |
Synopsis
Year of the Griffin picks up some years after Dark Lord of Derkholm, following six new first-year students at Wizards' University, which is struggling financially and academically as it shifts from training tour guides back toward producing real wizards. Among the students is Elda, a young griffin and daughter of the wizard Derk, alongside an escaped dwarf slave, a prince attending against his father's wishes, and others whose families carry status but little money. The university's head, hoping to boost its finances, had assumed his chosen pupils came from wealthy backgrounds, and their arrival instead draws feuding relatives, political rivals and other complications to the school. The students, taught largely by an indifferent staff, are pushed to rely on each other and on independent study as family emergencies and outside threats intrude on their first year.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Derkholm Series
- Series: The Derkholm Series core; position 2 of 2 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Notes
- From the series record (The Derkholm Series): A completed two-book secondary-world fantasy duology satirizing package-tour fantasy fiction (a direct companion piece to Jones's own nonfiction The Tough Guide to Fantasyland), distinct from her other admitted universes (Chrestomanci, the Dalemark Quartet, Howl's Moving Castle, the Magids duology, Fire and Hemlock).
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 The Derkholm Series: position 2 of 2: previous Dark Lord of Derkholm (1998)
Sources
← The Derkholm Series dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.