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This is the seventh book in a series about teenage wizards. The first two books, SO YOU WANT TO BE A WIZARD and DEEP WIZARDRY, are brilliant by any standard-- touching, funny, filled with that sense of wonder, populated with interesting and likable characters, and dealing seriously with serious issues. The nature of wizardry is carefully thought-out, internally consistent, and appealing.
The second book, much of which takes place underwater, is the best in the series, but the first, which mostly takes place in a weird and creepy alternate Manhattan, is also wonderful and a prime example of how to create a memorable, sympathetic, but unsentimentalized non-human character who does not talk, in this case a carnivorous sports car.
The subsequent books are more variable. HIGH WIZARDRY suffers from an over-powered main character, Dairine, who isn't as interesting a person as Kit and Nita from the previous books, and a plot which involves computers. That may be a personal problem. I find computers boring. But it has some good bits.
A WIZARD ABROAD, which takes place in Ireland, is an incoherent mess.
THE WIZARD'S DILEMMA has a powerful theme dealt with well and returns the focus to Nita, but the plot is somewhat meandery.
A WIZARD ALONE reads well, does not dodge the issues brought up in the previous book, and has a good premise: what if there was an autistic wizard? However, the premise isn't pursued to the extent it could be.
Now for WIZARD'S HOLIDAY. Kit and Nita do a wizard's exchange: they go for a vacation on a far-off and seemingly perfect planet, and three young wizards from other planets come to Earth and stay with Nita's family. Needless to say, there are complications. The visiting wizards-- a tree, a centipede, and a snob-- are fun chracters, and the Lotus Eater Planet is well-evoked and atmospheric. I was really enjoying this up until...
It's impossible to discuss this book at any length without huge spoilers for it and everything in the entire series after the end of WIZARD'S DILEMMA. So I hope I'm correctly using the cut tag.
( Read more... )
Enjoyable book, highly questionable ending, more on philosophical than artistic grounds though. Oh, and the last line is dumb.
The second book, much of which takes place underwater, is the best in the series, but the first, which mostly takes place in a weird and creepy alternate Manhattan, is also wonderful and a prime example of how to create a memorable, sympathetic, but unsentimentalized non-human character who does not talk, in this case a carnivorous sports car.
The subsequent books are more variable. HIGH WIZARDRY suffers from an over-powered main character, Dairine, who isn't as interesting a person as Kit and Nita from the previous books, and a plot which involves computers. That may be a personal problem. I find computers boring. But it has some good bits.
A WIZARD ABROAD, which takes place in Ireland, is an incoherent mess.
THE WIZARD'S DILEMMA has a powerful theme dealt with well and returns the focus to Nita, but the plot is somewhat meandery.
A WIZARD ALONE reads well, does not dodge the issues brought up in the previous book, and has a good premise: what if there was an autistic wizard? However, the premise isn't pursued to the extent it could be.
Now for WIZARD'S HOLIDAY. Kit and Nita do a wizard's exchange: they go for a vacation on a far-off and seemingly perfect planet, and three young wizards from other planets come to Earth and stay with Nita's family. Needless to say, there are complications. The visiting wizards-- a tree, a centipede, and a snob-- are fun chracters, and the Lotus Eater Planet is well-evoked and atmospheric. I was really enjoying this up until...
It's impossible to discuss this book at any length without huge spoilers for it and everything in the entire series after the end of WIZARD'S DILEMMA. So I hope I'm correctly using the cut tag.
( Read more... )
Enjoyable book, highly questionable ending, more on philosophical than artistic grounds though. Oh, and the last line is dumb.