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High Wizardry: The Third Book in the Young Wizards Series
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Author: Diane Duane
List Price: $6.95
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0152162445
Publisher: Magic Carpet Books (01 June, 2001)
Edition: Paperback
Sales Rank: 20,703
Average Customer Rating: 4.18 out of 5
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Customer ReviewsRating: 4 out of 5
good! but not excellent
In this book nita and kit have to save dairine from getting in to much trouble w/ the lone power you see dairine has become a wizard and kit and nita have to save her before its too late! i ebjoyed this book but not as much as the others before. it seemws to me that dairine is way to smart! and the book never fully setteled the fact that nita likes kit ? do they eventually realize their feelings for each other? wut is the definition of "like"? kit seems to light on the subject . all in all i thought the book was great and im already on the 4th one hopefully further books will answer my questions!
Rating: 3 out of 5
Not as good as the others, but still a good read
The next book in the Young Wizards series dips somewhat below the quality of the two previous novels. Duane treads far into the "rational fantasy" territory of Madeline L'Engle here; in fact, the book in places seems to be a direct homage to _A Wrinkle in Time_ with its rapid planet-hopping and planets based on philosophy. I'm tempted to call this science fiction or at least science fantasy. In a major shift, the hero of the story is Nita's little sister, Dairine, who has a knack for computer wizardry. The humor that was subtle in the previos novel, _Deep Wizardry_, returns in full force here for the first half-Dairine makes for a very humorous heroine. But toward the end the book bogs down in its own half-explained philosophy. This confusing finale keeps the book from obtaining the thrilling heights of the first two.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Odd...
A quick plot summary (note that I haven't read any of the other books): Dairine, Nita's younger sister and a child progidy, took the Oath and is now going to go to her ordeal. I feel doubtful about how the whole magic system (Ordeals etc) would ever hold together, but never mind for now.Writing style: Nothing special. Undescriptive language, and I can see that at some points Diane Duane is hooked upon confusing readers beyond hope, but pick up enough non-fiction books and you will know what is being talked about and you'll even be able to spot the nonsense when the teleport spell is being cast! (Well, it's quite easy...) To those who claim the books are educational: Quite simply, they aren't. Diane Duane talks about topics which don't come up on school syllabuses (entropy) and then oversimplifies them so that you think you understand them or just writes lots of intelligent-sounding nonsense. They have random facts, but I doubt most people will remember the name of one of Saturn's moons just because it is mentioned. The main problems with the book are that, a) that parrot - what on earth was she thinking? (to those who've already read the book) and b) Dairine is simply too intelligent. No sane human being could name all the named characters in Lord of the Rings, all 50 states and their capitals, and all the past presidents and *particularly* not somebody who isn't even smoking anything. Her only fault through the whole book, however, is a very well-chosen one and you can find her admitting it in the airport chapters. Oh, and c) throughout the whole book, there are only about 5 times I laughed, maybe less. d) Diane Duane writes sentimental scenes very badly in this book and thankfully they are at a minimum. Oh! and the ending is totally ridiculous (note the parrot comment earlier) and does absolutely stop the series dead. Nevertheless four more books have been written. Odd.
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