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Summary: If you like Harry Potter...
Review: If you don't know how you are going to pass the time during the long long long wait for the next installment of Harry Potter, pick up So You Want to be a Wizard. It's really an amazing book, full of adventures and close calls and the friendship of a budding pair of teenaged wizards, Nita and Kit. A fabulous read!
Rating:
Summary: If you like Harry Potter...
Review: If you don't know how you are going to pass the time during the long long long wait for the next installment of Harry Potter, pick up So You Want to be a Wizard. It's really an amazing book, full of adventures and close calls and the friendship of a budding pair of teenaged wizards, Nita and Kit. A fabulous read!
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Summary: So You Want...A Great Book for Your Library! Superb!
Review: So You Want to be a Wizard is a long-time favorite of mine--a classic and entertaining clash between magic and science that draws a reader so surely into its pages, you'll be unlikely to emerge until you have savored every word. This new edition has an adorable cover PLUS a new story about Kit and Nita included.Nita didn't know there was such a thing as magic--until she was hiding in the library one day and came across nothing short of a wizard's manual--and it was waiting for her! Nita takes the wizard's oath and finds herself endowed with power that she doesn't know how to control. Along with her new friend Kit, also a wizard, Nita's first spell summons the concentrated spirit of a white dwarf star and together they spiral deep into an adventure, and finally a battle with an ancient evil that invented death itself. Duane writes with a fun and inventive style that and manages to make you laugh while writing a serious adventure. This novel is truly for everyone, as the magic will simply fascinate young fans, while more advanced readers will find themselves reading in depth, wondering at the specifics of Duane's wizards and their sorcery. Buyers of this edition will find that it is very cute and childish (that doens't make it bad!)--older readers might be more interested in the normal editions which have VERY cool covers that are both realistic and magical. If you plan to collect the whole series, this cover won't match the rest of the set. For fans of the series who already own this book in another edition, I would not purchase this one but rather check it out of the library for the story in the back. The story isn't as good as the books, but its still enjoyable. Happy reading!
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Summary: So You Want A Great Read?
Review: This is THE Wizardry book -- Diane was doing Young Wizards way before JK Rowling even thought of ol' HP, and Diane does it better. Nita is a loner, an outsider, a smart, lonely bookworm who gets snagged by the Powers That Be to be a Wizard -- we're not talking cutesy punny-spells ala' HP, we're talking a real Wizard, one who vows to protect & serve Life. Nita doesn't leave the "real" world behind; she's now one of those vowed to protect it from the Lone Power (who invented Death). These books are great mind-stretching, thinking reads, without ever becoming preachy. I fell in love with this book while in high school, and now I'm 37 years old and still eagerly waiting for Diane to write more of the series.
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Summary: So You Want A Great Read?
Review: This is THE Wizardry book -- Diane was doing Young Wizards way before JK Rowling even thought of ol' HP, and Diane does it better. Nita is a loner, an outsider, a smart, lonely bookworm who gets snagged by the Powers That Be to be a Wizard -- we're not talking cutesy punny-spells ala' HP, we're talking a real Wizard, one who vows to protect & serve Life. Nita doesn't leave the "real" world behind; she's now one of those vowed to protect it from the Lone Power (who invented Death). These books are great mind-stretching, thinking reads, without ever becoming preachy. I fell in love with this book while in high school, and now I'm 37 years old and still eagerly waiting for Diane to write more of the series.
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Summary: More Magical than Harry Potter!
Review: This must be one of the original books concerning young wizards living in the real world. Diane Duane has done a wonderful job portraying every character and event, almost as if it was really happening today. This book is a must read for any fan of SF-F, as is the rest of the series.
It follows Kit and Nita, two pre-teens, who have just discovered their 'manuals', appearing as books entitled 'So You Want to be a Wizard', throughout their first assignment. Unlike Harry Potter, where it is just the world that is trying to be saved, Diane Duane has created a whole universe of characters, who are fighting to stop the death of the universe. Even non-wizards can help in this sense, just by turning lights off when they leave rooms, not leaving taps running, or just by paying bills on time. It is an all inclusive world that everyone feels a part of, because it is so real.
This book, first publised in _1983_, pre-dates all of the 'mainstream' young adult fantasy novels, such as Harry Potter, or the Dark Tower, which have been published in the past few years. Its sequels, Deep Wizardry, High Wizardry, A Wizard Abroard, The Wizard's Dilemma, A Wizard Alone, A Wizard's Holiday, and the upcoming Wizards at War, are all must-reads too.
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Summary: WHY AREN'T MORE PEOPLE READING THIS BOOK?!!?!?!?
Review: This was the first book I ever read by Diane Duane, and I must say she is one of, if not THE, most talented author I have ever read. Like everything else by her that I have read, this book is very intellectually challenging and even upon rereading it recently I didn't understand everything. But who cares?! This book (the whole series, really) is unbelievably creative and breaks the mold in every possible respect. It's just. . . wow. Words can't really describe.
Unfortunately, most people who decide to read this book are going to say "Oh, this is a total ripoff of Harry Potter," upon which I would be tempted to tear their throats out. First of all, This book was first published back in 1983, FOURTEEN YEARS before Harry Potter ever grazed the shelves. And even if HP did happen to precede this series, you have to ask yourself. . . which one is better? Would you rather read about a wizard with rudimentary skills whose ultimate task is to save himself, his closest friends, and maybe eventually a country, from a mere rogue (albeit powerful) wizard, or would you prefer to read about a wizard with the potential to manipulate the very fabric of space and time whose job is to assist in the salvation of THE WHOLE OF EXISTENCE from the very manifestation of death and evil itself?!?!!? C'mon, people, even if your minds have been narrowed and rotted by delving wholeheartedly into the HP craze, you should be able to answer that.
I would like to conclude by encouraging everyone reading this to read the entire series, as well as The Book of Night With Moon and To Visit The Queen, as fast as you possibly can. I would also like to thank Ms. Duane for sharing this wonderful story with us. Although, sadly and wrongly, it will probably never achieve the acclaim and attention that HP has managed, I still wish to congratulate and thank her for showing the lucky few of us what REAL wizardry is like.
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Summary: Stephen King without the potty mouth
Review: Yep, it is pretty much the "Dark Tower" all over again. Impossible menacing objects and cliffhangers with solutions the come out of the air at the last moment to keep from painting the hero and heroine into an inescapable corner. 13 year old Nita is being zeroed in by the neighborhood girl gang. Their intention is to beat the snot out of her. In the process of evading her fate she ducks into the Library basement. Minding her own business and pawing the books one snags her. You guessed it; the title is "So You Want To Be a Wizard." Naturally, young wizards can out wiz, out think, and out run the bad guys (maybe), in this first book of a series.
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