Being a young wizard is hard enough when you're battling to fight death and chaos at every turn, but when your little sister decides to sneak off to Mars you know it's the start of something bad. Will our two young heros be able to save little sister or will the Lone Power succeed in his plot to ruin everything? ( )

Although the scientific element forms a strong background to the magic in the previous two books, this one takes a large step from fantasy towards science fiction. It starts as a merry romp about a precocious kid sister, but picks up the theme of moral decision on a grand scale. The author manages to keep her light touch and creative imagination intact, even while loading spadefuls of philosophical theology into the reader's lap. Again the tale invites comparison with Philip Pullman (though not a match for The Golden Compass in style or inventiveness)... except that Duane clearly takes a positive angle on the Christian cosmological myths. Imagine if C. S. Lewis had written Perelandra not for adults, but for the young audience of his Narnia tales, and done so with the benefit of several more decades of astronomical discovery. Enjoyable and thought-provoking. MB 21-iii-2008 ( )

Summary: When Nita told her family that she was a wizard, she knew there'd be some problems. What she didn't expect was that her bratty young sister Dairine would find her wizarding manual and take the Oath as well - and become a much more powerful wizard than either Nita or Kit. Dari's Ordeal takes her far from home - on the order of several-trillion-light-years-type far - and pits her eleven-year-old brain against one of the eternal Powers... the Destroyer of Light himself.

Review: A quick read (took me about four hours), and a pretty good action/adventure type story, with some nice descriptive writing thrown in. Unfortunately, this series has yet to really grab and hold my attention, and this book's got some sci-fi elements mixed in with the fantasy that were probably pretty cool when it was first published, but 18 years later just make it seem dated to the point of being laughable. I mean... controlling wizard's magic using DOS prompts and MBASIC programs on an Apple IIIc with 800kb of storage? Really? The final conflict is interesting, and involves most of the really nice writing, but it gets a little metaphysical for all of the space travel and computer-geek stuff that came before it, and there's not enough denouement to wrap things up satisfactorily in my mind. Also, although this is clearly meant to be Dari's book, it suffers a little for pushing Kit and Nita into supporting roles - they're more sympathetic characters, and (I think) more interesting to read.

Recommendation: Not a terrible way to pass the afternoon, but it hasn't aged particularly well, and it's not something that's likely to leave more than a passing impression. ( )

Nita and Kit find wizardry handbooks (the books are only visible/available to pre-wizards). They take the oath of wizardry and embark on adventures to help others and to heal the rift caused by the Lost One/Lone Power. In Deep Wizardry Nita and Kit are called to help the undersea community in a healing song to quiet the bound power. Too late they realize that the cost of this wizardry might be more than they thought...and there is no easy way out. During the ordeal Nita must tell her parents and sister about her powers and job. In High Wizardry, Nita's little sister receives a software version of the handbook and starts out on her journey without assistance or full understanding of what the risks and responsibilities are. Her journeywoman task is not clear to her but Nita and Kit rush to help her by direct assistance or by distracting the tricky evil.

I don't really like these books but I can't say why. Meanwhile, I have three more of the series in the pile. Maybe I can figure out what I don't like by the time I finish them.

http://rivkat.livejournal.com/159647.... ( )