Listened to the audiobook with Kristin Atherton – good narrator.

I’m going picked Castle in the Air to read, I was going through a very busy period at work, which meant that I had relatively little time and energy for reading/listening to books, even on my daily commute. As a result, I wanted to listen to something simple and upbeat. Castle in the Air perfectly fits that description.

Castle in the Air is – for the most part – not particularly original or ambitious, even for a children’s book. The story follows well-worn paths, leaning into classic orientalist ‘1001 nights’-tropes for the start of the story before morphing into the even more familiar quest to rescue the princess. That’s a tale we’ve all heard before, though without giving anything away, the story will offer a few surprises towards the end.

You might be raising an eyebrow now, wondering how an ‘1001 nights’-style story could be a sequel to the decidedly not Arabian Howl’s Moving Castle and you’d be right: the story will go through some twists and turns – and the reader will need some patience – before the connection with the first instalment becomes clear.

(On a side note, you will also need some patience with the characters as they continue wasting a genie’s one-wish-a-day on things that do not help move the plot along one bit… I know of at least one person who couldn’t get over their frustration and failed to finish the book.)

When the connection was finally revealed though, that brought a big smile to my face. And while the story up until that point is not particularly original, it is well executed and entertaining. I was already imagining reading it to my (hypothetical, future) kids and their smiles and giggles at Abdullah’s naïve antics. Am I that old now?

Overall, I think I liked Howl’s Moving Castle a bit better because it surprised me more and because it had more Calcifer in it, but I would happily recommend Castle in the Sky to anyone looking for something simple to get their mind of things or to read to their kids.