This Throw-Back Thursday goes out to the series that satisfied me between Harry Potter releases.
Graphic found through Google and attributed to abottomlessbookbag
The Young Wizards series by Diane Duane was what kept me from pulling myself apart during the spaces between Harry Potter booms (or at least from rereading HP more than I already did). It's not really a fair comparison. The books are nothing alike. Their common similarities is simply that they both deal with magic, and that's about it.
So You Want to be a Wizard is the first in the series. It finds young Nita -- hounded by bullies from school--discovering a book in the library. Set up like the typical series book "so you want to be a", this one, Nita is astonished to discover, finishes the sentence with wizard. And Nita is willing to try anything at this point. After taking the Wizard's Oath, she meets up with fellow young wizard Kit and together they must make it through their Ordeal--a battle against the Lone Power.
While I loved the first book in this series, I also thought it got a lot better as it continued. I loved the characters, and I wanted to find out what happened to them. I actually caught up to A Wizard's Holiday and then didn't read the last two books.
I recommend this series constantly. Everyone who enjoys magical fantasy should give this one a try.
I read a couple of these as a child, but never managed to love them as much as I wanted to. I think I just felt they weren't as magical as I wanted them to be, whatever that meant!
ReplyDelete