Books I've Been Reading ~ Young Millennial Wizards

[bloodyrosemccoy]

Mostly I am ambivalent about the idea of fiddling with and changing classics. On the one hand you can get something excellent, like the Star Trek reboot that clearly loves the hell out of its source material. On the other hand, well, Star Wars. And you get tradeoffs, like with ET—CG allows for more mobility, but puppets are more convincingly THERE.* So there are arguments for both sides, and I can come down on either depending on a lot of factors.

Except in the case of Diane Duane’s Young Wizards series. When she decided to update the first books in it into Millennium Editions (which are available as ebooks from the store on her site--and on sale for a few days HOLY SHIT Y’ALL 60% OFF!), there was no ambivalence. I was all like FUCK YEAH.

Because while the originals are wonderful snapshots of the time and place they were written, the first one came out in, what, 1982?, and the most recent one in 2010. In that time our heroes age about two years or so, but their technology rockets almost thirty years from vinyl to iPods. It’s a little confusing.

And also, Diane Duane has such a fine time playing with The Latest Technology that I was just DYING to see where she’d take it.**

So, protip: if you are already a fan of the series, and have read--particularly--High Wizardry and now want to try the new version, I suggest you keep a copy of the old one handy for reference. Going back and forth to see all the changes is half the fun.

I’m saying High Wizardry in particular because, while there are other changes to the series (Nita’s Walkman becomes her MP3 player, her Alan Parsons Project LP morphs into a Coldplay CD, Duane no longer has to explain the phrase “boot up” but now has to give a brief overview of what subway tokens were, and Dairine, who was now born in 1997, has understandably but unforgivably become a fan of Star Wars: The Clone Wars instead of REAL Star Wars), the book all about using Cutting-Art State-Of-The-Edge computer technology for wizardry is the one with the most fascinating changes. A lot changed since she wrote the original in 1990.*** Computers are no longer relegated to your school’s science class. (No, seriously, in the original book they explain that Dairine is familiar with computers because her science class has one.) If even regular people are watching movies, Skyping with their friends in Iceland, publishing ebooks, 3D printing replacement skulls for accident victims, checking satellite positions, looking up who that one actor was in that one show, signing up for online tap dance classes, and playing World of Warcraft ALL AT THE SAME TIME, then why the hell wouldn't WIZARDS use that shit for magic HUH, HARRY POTTER?

The book’s main story still stands, though. The books are the same crazy smoothie of man-eating helicopters, automotive ecosystems, magical talking sharks, friendly white holes, interdimensional terminals at Grand Central Station, robot wizards, and oblique cameos by Marvin the Martian and The Fifth Doctor that has always made it so damn entertaining. Just with an updated graphics card.


*I don’t know why everyone pitched a fit over the change from assault rifles to walkie-talkies, though. Sure, man, whatever.

**I realized at some point thatThe Book of Night With Moon, which I read first in junior high, might have been the first real urban fantasy I ever read. And I am now surprised that I liked it. Most urban fantasy is a little too smugly clever for me.

***Other change: the big dang climax, which was based on a scientific paradox that has since been questioned, changed without actually changing the story much. Good on ya, Duane!

Comments

[marag.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I've been wanting to read the new versions. I just went and bought them, so thanks for reminding me!

Love those books :)

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

*makes note to spend money on payday*

[ellixis.livejournal.com]

I have just gone and snapped them up, because I hadn't got around to the series yet (though I love the Feline Wizards books) and have been being told I should, and here is the perfect opportunity! Thank you for the heads-up.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

If you haven't read them before, the new editions should work just fine--she mostly just takes out the things that make the books anachronistic. (There's a long discussion about how to boot up a 1990-model computer, with operating disks and DOS programming and command prompts and whatnot, in the third book, that turns into registry and dropdown menus and such and no longer assumes that its audience Not Know Com-Pu-Tor. But the story doesn't change.)

I read the Feline Wizards books first, too! Now you'll know what those two kids who helped the cats out briefly in the first book were all about!

[dinogrrl.livejournal.com]

I read Book of Night With Moon a looooong time ago. I remember being very confused about it. It was a good story, but I remember feeling like it took itself way too seriously. o_O

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I always thought she was able to strike a pretty good balance between serious and wickedly humorous, myself. I mean, c'mon, Luciano Pavarotti gets eaten by a dinosaur! She is clearly messing with us.

[dark-phoenix54.livejournal.com]

Automotive ecosystems? The Fifth Doctor? Holy cow, I need to find this series and start reading it.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

The first book involves our heroes falling into an alternate Manhattan where the main ecosystem is composed of machines. They get attacked by a helicopter defending its nest of baby helicopters, and later they watch a pair of sportscars put on a dominance display over who gets to eat the yellow cab one of them just brought down. She uses a lot of entertaining descriptions of the sportscars as sleek predators and so forth.

It's a totally gonzo series, lots of fun and surprisingy cohesive for all the craziness. And the wizards' jargon is not to be missed.

[sofish-sasha.livejournal.com]

Aaand now I have an image of a Koenigsegg Agera and a Lamborghini Aventador circling around, flapping their doors and revving their engines to intimidate each other.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Make one of those a Lotus Esprit and that's pretty much exactly what happens.

[childthursday.livejournal.com]

I AM SO EXCITED. Thank you so much for mentioning the sale...every time I've remembered that I want to buy them, I've been broke! And now I have them!

I am very excited to read these and go through the changes. I am rather disturbed by Coldplay, though. I'm imagining that Diane Duane spent a lot of time listening to pop music trying to find something that would fit. Rather forced, perhaps.

I agree with you about Book of Night With Moon. Duane has such a very quirky sense of humor, and that saves pretty much everything.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Heh, well, Nita's got a soppy side sometimes. And she's in high school ... there were a bands that filled a need at that point that I can't listen to anymore.

Urban fantasy seems to suffer a lot from the authors' self-awareness, like they're constantly elbowing you and waggling their eyebrows while you read. And their characters are usually cookie-cutter Modern People With Attitude. But Duane seems to genuinely want to try fitting magic into modern New York, and she writes great characters, so it doesn't fall into that trap. And yes, she's got a real sense of humor, too!

[childthursday.livejournal.com]

I think part of what made the wizard-cat books so good is that Duane actually *knows* the city. Like, is familiar with it, how it looks and feels. I find it really jarring to read urban fantasy set in Chicago when it's clear that the author has only been here once or twice...even the experience of the tourist downtown areas isn't the same when you're a visitor vs. a local.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

True. Her city-nerd moments make me happy. I have no idea what she's talking about when she starts in on which street they're going down or which track they're on and how it relates to their buildings, but it's completely obvious that SHE knows, and you can tell how much she loves it.

As a kid I took my job as a writer very seriously (well, still do, but I think it's funny how early I thought about this), and thus felt it was my duty to experience all sorts of things so that I could write about them with that familiarity. I should get back to work on that a bit more.

[songfire3.livejournal.com]

dduane is one of my favorite authors! :D

I love the updated books - I only started reading the original books a few years ago, my first encounter with her writing was "The Omnibus of Five" series (still my favorite, most re-read books, ever) and her Star Trek books (and tv episodes).

You'd make her day if you showed this to her! :D

And completely OT, I also love her Sherlock fanfic and her cake receipts for Mycroft! *lol* - you can find those on her tumblr!

[childthursday.livejournal.com]

The Tale of the Five! I am still waiting for her to finish that series, dammit. She's always teasing about it. Granted the books do suffer from some of the awful conventions of the time she wrote them (sexual-assault-as-character-building being the most glaring) but I really want to know what happens to those folks.

[westrider.livejournal.com]

OMF, I have to check those out. I tried re-reading those first couple a little while ago, and was having trouble getting back into them, specifically because parts were so dated. Definitely going to have to see if I can get a hold of the updated versions.