Clarion So You Want to Be a Wizard: The First Book in the Young Wizards Series

When I was a boy, the Young Wizards series first taught me what it felt like to be so thoroughly caught up in a story that I could feel the energy in every word, and I forgot to breathe when turning the pages. Years later I'm nearing my thirties, and a sense of nostalgia prompted me to hunt these books down again. I was expecting to find them simplistic and dull; instead I found myself just as enraptured, and admiring the effervescent yet clean writing style, and the flawlessly paced storytelling.Duane creates sympathetic characters who are smart, snappy, yet wonderfully flawed in believable and understandable ways; her young protagonists are mature and deal with very adult problems while retaining a sense of innocence and wonder that is sometimes lost in newer, grittier YA tales (although there's nothing wrong with those less innocent tales, either; each has its place).Nita and Kit are great role models for younger readers without being trite, dull, or overly vanilla--and the story offers some pretty heavy life lessons without beating you about the head with them. For an older reader, it's a great trip back to the excitement of youth, and a wonderful escape from the banality of everyday life. For just a little while, Duane's books can give you magic.

出だしはとても面白そうで期待感にあふれているものの、子供向けの本なのに説明書きが多いせいか、今ひとつ入り込めなかった。あまりにも字が大きくて、いかにも子供向け、という感じだからだろうか。英語は読みやすい。

I am writing this as a review of the whole series of Young Wizards stories - I am currently reading Book Nine in the series. The fact that I'm still reading them indicates that they're pretty good!They are aimed at the Young Adult audience, written by an American, with a suburban New York-ish setting (though actually the young wizards travel throughout the universe). The central characters are Nita Callahan (who I believe is about thirteen in the first book, possibly younger) and her best friend Kit Rodriguez, both of whom discover they are wizards. Just so you know the basic idea of each book, as far as I've read, here is a summary:The first book is about Nita and Kit's 'ordeal', the test wizards must pass in order to become wizards.In the second book, which is actually my favourite in many ways, Nita and Kit are at the coast and their adventure takes place underwater, in the sea, with whales and sharks! In this book, Nita's parents find out she is a wizard and her younger sister, the clever, feisty Dairine, also finds out.In Book 3, Dairine herself becomes a wizard and goes through her ordeal - quite different from the one Nita and Kit went through, involving technology (computers).Book 4 focuses on Nita who goes on holiday to stay with relatives in Ireland, during which she meets the good-looking Irish teenage wizard, Ronan. This draws on Celtic mythology.In Book 5, Nita and Dairine's mother becomes life-threateningly ill and Nita has to learn how to find and manipulate world kernels.In Book 6, Nita and Kit help an autistic boy, Darryl, to fight the Lone Power and complete his ordeal.In Book 7, Nita and Kit go on an exchange trip to the world of Alaahu, while three off-world wizards - the tree-like Fillif, the centipede-like Skerret and the snobby humanoid prince Roshaun - visit Dairine and stay with her and her father on earth.In Book 8, earth and the universe in general is threatened by a creepy dark matter called the Pullulus which is gradually taking over: with Ronan, Roshaun, Fillif, Skerret, Darryl and Kit's non-wizardly but very formidable sister Carmela, Nita, Kut and Dairine play a crucial role in saving us all.In Book 9, the focus is on the planet Mars. That's as far as I've read.Though Duane takes pains to sidestep the Christian-allegory stuff so beloved of C.S.Lewis and his ilk, the basic wizardly structure of the world in which the stories are set is clearly based on the most well-known tenets of the major monotheistic religions. The One is clearly God, the Lone Power clearly Lucifer, and the various other Powers clearly angels. However, don't let this put you off - the books are never preachy and you don't have to be religious to enjoy them. I'm a confirmed atheist and I've enjoyed reading them. They do propound the moral framework of such religions, however, in that it is a bad idea to lie in The Speech, and it is easy to do the Lone One's work indirectly (by making selfish decisions, for instance). The wizards take an oath which is pretty stringent. I liked this in one way as it provides a necessary element of conflict and limitation in the magical power, though it does sometimes feel as if wizardry is worthy but a bit dull! The books suffer from the same problems that religions suffer from - the logical absurdity of a supposedly omnipotent, omniscient and benevolent deity (the One) who doesn't just make everything right. Duane has to keep explaining about free will and how the Lone Power, despite being apparently defeated repeatedly, always pops up again in another form. There are some brilliant ideas here however such as the fact that the younger the wizard is the more power they have, except for a few exceptions such as Darryl who is an abdal (read the books!) and Mamvish who is an immensely powerful alien wizard (begs the question of what she was doing when the pullulus was threatening the universe). Duane negotiates the logical obstacles in her tales effectively, however.The only thing I find tedious is the way these under-age wizards have to keep stopping doing supposedly important work in order to maintain their ordinary mundane lives. When the entire universe is threatened, they have to come up with an excuse to miss a few days of school! They are always having to think of the feelings of parents and non-magical siblings and teachers. The ordinary everyday world is a strong presence in these stories. This is great in one way - Duane explores the realities of keeping the magic a secret and maintaining family and friendship bonds. How do you manage if you have incredibly strong magical powers and serious 'grown-up' duties and responsibilities, but you still need to be in lessons and home in time for dinner? However, I still find it a bit irritating and implausible and I feel that this aspect was done much better in Buffy The Vampire Slayer. There could be more humour (though there is some - the books aren't solemn).The wizards are slightly implausibly 'old' for their years - I am in my fifties, but I do remember being a young teenager very clearly and I know that 'children' are often underestimated, BUT sometimes the young wizards are so mature, particularly Nita, that it doesn't ring true. They are also phenomenally intelligent, learning the Speech in what seems like only days and being able to work out complex ideas very rapidly - they all seem like astrophysicists, computer whizzkids and graduate linguists, even Carmela who seems a bit dippy but isn't really. This is a lovely idea, but I've worked with teenagers all my adult life and I've rarely come across any who are as super-intelligent as Nita and her friends! Or maybe they just hide it well.Despite these niggles, I'd recommend the books. There are slow patches, and there are plot twist opportunities that I think are missed, but nevertheless Duane has an original take on the fantasy genre and she is very good at describing the actual magic. Her writing is often quite lyrical, particularly when magic is happening. So overall, these are intelligent, unusual books, well worth reading.

My 12 year old bookworm enjoyed this

Before writing this, I read some of the 1-star reviews, and it's clear that there are vary different types of preferences in books. As for me, this book and the entire series of Young Wizard books by Ms. Duane are some of the best and most inventive ideas I've read (and re-read and re-read). I did not read these when I was young - too old for that - yet I find these as enjoyable as any "adult-age" books. I've long been of the opinion that these books are far better than the Harry Potter series, despite the mass appeal of the others (and not to run them down, I've enjoyed those as well, for a one-time read-through). The thing is that these books deal very much with themes of growing up and accepting responsibility, and learning to accept that the fight against evil must go on despite the personal sacrifices and risks involved. In my opinion the treatment of these topics is superb, especially in that they are not to any real extent watered down despite the intended audience of younger adults.