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Book review time!
This book made me remember why I love kids' books so much. It's one of those really solid, fun books that you can come back to over and over. It's about Nita who, while trying to run away from a bully, finds a book in the library called So You Want to Be a Wizard. Turns out there's real magic out there and she's eligible to join the ranks of the wizards, if she's willing to take on the responsibility of taking care of the world. Of course she ends up taking the Wizard's Oath, which also means she has to overcome an Ordeal. As she learns the basics of wizardry she meets Kit, also a new wizard, and Fred the white hole who is usually worried and occasionally helpful. Their ordeal turns out to be quite a bit more than any of them were counting on as the three of them get dragged into an alternate reality Manhattan where they're pitted against vicious taxi cabs, an ancient dragon, and The Lone Power himself with nothing but a little bit of magic and their own cleverness.
This is one of those books that's perfect for that eleven or twelve year old that eats lunch with a book instead of with friends. Or just, that kid that's a bit Different. I mean, the bookworm finding a secret magical book? Come on. And Nita, Kit, and Fred make it through everything less through the use of magic and more through being smart and prepared and being willing to help. (It's sad that that sort of adventure feels old school) It has the perfect brand of magic too, mysterious and otherworldly and at the same time tied in with the science of the universe, or a pseudo-science of the universe. Everything is alive; everything can communicate using the Speech. You just have to learn how to listen right. Trees remember preparing the world for humans (one of my favorite scenes), cars talk, and stars are sentient. The side characters are brilliant. Fred is a talking white hole. He has to remember not to emit x-rays and ultra-violet rays and gamma rays when he's around people. The Lotus, which I'm pretty sure is the precursor for JKR's Ford Angelina, rubs its fender against Kits leg like an overgrown mechanical cat.
I would honestly rank Diane Duane right up there with Diana Wynne Jones, though I've only read one book by Duane and a zillion by Jones, so take that judgment with a grain of salt. It has a clear, unadorned voice, and it's still enjoyable for adults. And it's been forever since I had fits of glee over scenes or certain lines in a book and had to dog-ear pages or grab for a pen and paper.
Also, it's set in New York. This is a personal preference, but I love love love books set in a. magical cities, real or imagined b. magical New York City in particular. One of my favorite lines in the book is "with a stony roar like the sky falling, the great white lions from the steps of the Public Library leaped together and threw themselves upon the iron steed and its dark rider." The NYPL has felt magical to me since the day I first set foot inside it. If there's anything that is going to come to life and protect the city, it's going to be those lions in front of the main branch.
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*ahem*
So, um, this was one of the books that I read while eating my lunch alone in middle school. This series shaped my worldview in a more tangible way than pretty much any other books up until maybe 8th grade (just one example: this series single-handedly gave me an actual handle on my religion). I still, to this day, not only talk to subways, tape, and toasters in the language of these books, but am firmly convinced that if you can just figure out the best way to talk to things or people, you can communicate with them. I'M SO HAPPY YOU LIKE THEM OMG.
BUT REALLY, GO READ THE NEXT ONE PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE IT'S SO GOOD.
Yeah, so the next one has a shark who may be one of my favorite characters in any "children's book" ever. The one after that has Nita's little sister and a computerized wizard's manual that combines computers and magic in an absolutely perfect way. Uh, you can stop there, because it WAS originally meant to be a trilogy, and it definitely shows, but you could ALSO keep reading until the fifth one, which contains the Transcendent Pig (therein described as "a concrete expression of the universe's innate sense of humor")
So you should go read more >.>
A side note: It's really funny that you're reading this now, because I am really just now coming to realize, after talking with Suzy a lot, how much these books are a part of the way I think. Also, you should stop distracting me from my homework.
GO READ MORE OF THESE BOOKS!! *flees*
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I love books like this where the world is alive beneath the surface. In a lot of ways I am a realist. I believe in science. That rock is inanimate and if you think it's not you need help. On the other hand, probably because I think that way in the rational part of my brain, I am in love with the idea that maybe secretly we just don't get it and there's something else out there. I don't believe in toasters coming alive or in unicorns, but I believe that we perceive and interact with the world entirely in symbols that we've created and if we want we can make those symbols magical. It's sort of hard for me to explain exactly what I mean by that, so I hope it makes sense. In my head it's all bound up with ritual and storytelling. The things that we make up can still be "real" because most of the world is made up in some way or another anyway. Storytelling (and language in general), IMO, is pretty much as magical as you can get. Long digression is long.
I love that you grew up with certain books living in your brain. I don't know a lot of people who are book people in that way. :D For me it was Bordertown and Charles deLint and a bit of Gaiman and Diana Wynne Jones. And a lot of Greek myths. And fairy tales.
I DO NOT MEAN TO DISTRACT YOU FROM YOUR HOMEWORK. HONEST.
I'm going to out and buy the next book tonight I think. :D
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THIS. This is exactly the conclusion I am finally coming to. I am also trying to convince Suzy of this; she has periodic existential crises about the nature of reality and whether or not objective reality exists and she hasn't read a lot of fiction, especially not fiction she identified with and I'm convinced that those two things are related >.>
OMG so much. It was these books and the Narnia books and The Hobbit and the Alanna books by Tamora Pierce and The Enchanted Forest Chronicles (by Patricia C. Wrede) and later on The Wheel of Time and the Kusheil books and and and ackpth. And Greek myths! So much!! The Iliad was a sort of disturbingly large part of my childhood. (EARLY childhood, like first to fourth grade)
...anyway.
GO READ THE NEXT ONE IT'S SO COMPLETELY FANTASTIC I HAVE NO WORDS. It actually might be my favorite in the series. SO GOOD. I MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE A SONG FROM THAT BOOK MEMORIZED. IT'S SO GOOD.
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It's why I love this series; why I love Changeling and Valiant and really should see _The Fisher King_ again.
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It's crazy how many stories are set in New York. I love that you can walk down the street and see five different cities all layered on top of each other. I've recently gotten into the Avengers comics/storyline/whatever so now I have an entirely new mythology to apply to New York.
There's a lot of stuff set in London too(Neverwhere, The Anansi Boys), which is almost as fun. I do think you have to live in the city (or have lived in it) to fully appreciate the weird mix of magical and real.