Hexwood by Diana Wynne Jones

Finally, I finished reading Hexwood (384 pages) by Diana Wynne Jones! Honestly, it was a difficult book to read, as it was utterly complicated. Even after I’ve finished the book, I still don’t understand some parts and I think I’ll have to read 4 or 5 more times to fully comprehend the whole story. I don’t think I can bear to read it again anyway. I’m considering selling the book off on eBay!

The story starts with a letter from Hexwood Farm to the Sector Controller Borasus, complaining about an ancient machine called the Bannus, which had been intentionally activated one of the clerks.

Then, there are 5 Reigners who control everything in the universe. Well, the present 5 Reigners are bad ones because they had cheated the Bannus many years ago. The Bannus’ job is to pick up 5 Reigners, each from different Houses, every 10 years, if I’m not mistaken.

One day, Ann, a 12-year-old girl who lives near Hexwood farm wanders into the wood. In the wood, in a weird and bizarre incident, she meets Mordion, the Reigners’ Servant. A Reigner Servant is responsible for killing people on the Reigners’ orders. However, Mordion hates the Reigners very much and wished to take revenge on them.

He creates Hume out of his and Ann’s blood. Mordion plans to train Hume so that Hume can finish off the Reigners for him. But later on, he realized how cruel it was to train Hume to do such a thing and did not want Hume to do the dirty job for him anymore.

There are more characters and even more complex events after that. This is the first book that I don’t particularly like from Diana Wynne Jones. I hope her other books would not be like this, too!