All this supplies the story with powerful tropes which has been often consciously or unconsciously copied (most obviously in the Harry Potter series), not least in the motif that proposes that powerful enchanters have nine lives (rather as cats are popularly imagined to have).Having two siblings take centre stage in the story allows Jones to point out their different responses to wearing the mantles of awareness and responsibility.
Appealing to a younger age group are the two main protagonists of a young boy and his sister, orphans both, who find themselves imbued with powerful but uncontrolled magic which they then need to learn to use responsibly. In addition, the idea of a powerful mage acting as a steward or even ombudsman of the use of magic in those worlds is enhanced by Chrestomanci's all-too-obvious but endearing idiosyncracies such as his obsession with fine clothes (especially embroidered dressing gowns), absentminded demeanour and apparent aloofness. It is to Diana Wynne Jones' credit that she manages to avoid many of the pitfalls while retaining a charm that still manages to enchant new readers more than thirty years on.There is no doubting the originality of her conception of the Related Series of Worlds linked by magic, and Charmed Life must have been one of the first, if not the first, of her many titles that made use of this conceit as a plot device.
The first of the Chrestomanci books to be published but the third in order of chronology, Charmed Life exhibits many of the possible strengths and weaknesses of a book destined to be part of a series but perhaps conceived originally as a standalone: strengths such as freshness and vitality, weaknesses such as plot holes and inconsistencies.
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