My favorite book

"Must I acept this barren gift?
-learn death and loose my Mastery?
Then let them know whose blood and breath
Will take the gift and set them free!-

Not old enough to love as yet,
but old enough to die, indeed-
the death-fear bites my throat and heart,
fanged cousin to the Pale One's breed-

But past the fear lies life for them
-perhaps for me; and, past me dread,
past loss of Mastery and life,
the Sea shall yet give up Her dead!

Lone Power, I accept your Gift!
But take my Gift of equal worth:
I take Death with me, out of time,
and make of it a path, a birth!

Let the teeth come! As they tear me,
they tear your ancient hate for aye-
so rage, proud Power! Fail again,
and see my blood teach Death to die!"

~Audreen, little cat

[Caledonian]

Of my friends who have read all the books in the series, Deep Wizardry is widely consider to be the best.

Why? I'm not exactly sure. Perhaps because it has the greatest depth of feeling (no pun intended). It deals with honor, and pain, and death, in a way that few other books have ever managed.

Maybe it's the cetacean poetry. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

(Actually, it occurs to me that it may be the effect of publishing the last part of the Silent Lord's song in its entirety, unlike the reading from The Book of Night with Moon in So You Want to be a Wizard. I'm surprised Diane put it all in -- and I suspect it shouldn't be read aloud.)

All the books are wonderful, but Deep Wizardry is possibly the most powerful.

Logic is a poor servant, but an excellent master.
-- The Book of Forgotten Things

[Kaatje]

I have to say, this one is my favorite, too. So You Want To Be A Wizard was fantastic in its pacing and inventiveness--Kit and Nita's breathless rush through the alternate New York is what always stands out, for me--but Deep Wizardry is where we really get inside the characters. It's the strength of their friendship that really drives the book--and almost all of it is unspoken.

Plus, yes, the cetacean poetry rocks.

I like poetry! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] I'm wokring on a few poems myself. So far there decent.
"Skin of silk tells truths untold,
Breath of rubys, bones of gold.
The glitter of the starry skies,
Is only matched by dragon eyes"
-Audreen(me)

~Audreen, little cat

[Rysade]

I, too love this book, and it is in fact the only one that brought me to tears. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img]

I ought to own a copy...

Actually, I liked High Wizardry a bit better (but that's probably because it's set in space).

-- Dai Stih�

[Virgo Fenwick]

It too, brought me to tears. The frustration is almost tangible, in my opinion. The choice Nita has is almost Christ-like... one of the reasons I balked when I was going to be asked to hide my Wizardry books from my zealot grandparents. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img]

I don't know if it's my favorite, though. They all have good reasons to like them... I'm terrible about choosing favorites. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

Through every rift of discovery some seeming anomaly drops out of the darkness, and falls, as a golden link into the great chain of order. -- Edwin Hubbel Chapin

[Space Cadet]

I am currently at University, and I recently did a paper on ecology (a second year paper, as they are termed here). One of the three topics of the paper was marine ecology. I had a really boring lecturer so paid no attention in lectures, and then when it came time to study I was too lazy to study either. But when I went into the exam, I found I could answer the questions, thanks due to 'Deep Wizardry'. What I learned by reading this book when I was twelve helped me write a University essay. How cool is that?

Don't try this at home, boys and girls! This was an utter fluke, I am sure (no pun intended).

[thatdarncat]

Deep Wizardry was the first book I read of Mrs. Duane's. I pulled it off the shelf in my local library along with the 60 or so other books I was taking on a family trip to Florida. Of all those books, the only one that I still remember is Deep Wizardry. I'm sure if you checked the library records, you would find that I had more late fines on Deep Wizardry than any other book (and I hated to bring books back!)

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It was the first book of hers I read, too...no wonder I went back to find others.

[Garrett Fitzgerald]

Originally posted by Audreen(little cat):
"Must I acept this barren gift?
-learn death and loose my Mastery?
Then let them know whose blood and breath
Will take the gift and set them free!-

This book is required reading for anyone who reads her ST:TNG book _Intellivore_. :-)

Which reminds me: anybody else know which of her characters wrote SYWtBaW? :-)

[Virgo Fenwick]

Originally posted by Garrett Fitzgerald:
Which reminds me: anybody else know which of her characters wrote SYWtBaW? :-)

What do you mean? I'm curious..7

Through every rift of discovery some seeming anomaly drops out of the darkness, and falls, as a golden link into the great chain of order. -- Edwin Hubbel Chapin

[Alia Elena]

Originally posted by Space Cadet:
What I learned by reading this book when I was twelve helped me write a University essay. How cool is that?

Don't try this at home, boys and girls! This was an utter fluke, I am sure (no pun intended).

Not quite as dramatic, but I nailed a question on an AP US History practice test because of an off-the-cuff remark in a David Weber novel.

I'm a stickler for reading series in order, so DW was my second Wizards book. It was great fun. The increasing friction with Nita's parents, Dairine's discovery of what they were doing, Ed, the trip to the Moon, the Song... and it all gelled wonderfully, working as a harmonious whole. (Now I'm getting an impulse to run off and reread. Oh dear.)

-a

[Garrett Fitzgerald]

Originally posted by Virgo Fenwick:

Originally posted by Garrett Fitzgerald:
Which reminds me: anybody else know which of her characters wrote SYWtBaW? :-)

What do you mean? I'm curious..7

In Diane's SYWtBaW, the library copy of SYWtBaW (which turns out to be the Manual) was written by "Hearnssen". In The Door Into Summer (and later) there is a character named Herewiss who is a noteable sorceror (I forget the term she used, since I haven't read the book in a while). His father's name is Hearn.

[Ferrica]

"A pause! Lost ground!
-yet not availing, for soon shall be found
what took three ages to subdue.
The hunters, on their guard,
give sparingly and greatly, east and west:
yet how shall only faithfulness prevail
against the peril of the overarching deep?"

Trigram 63/Chi Chi
Water over Fire

This poem is in the DW book, right before the start of the story. Any thoughts on what this poem is talking about and how it relates to DW?

[Kaatje]

Well, I always thought it was a piece of song or saga describing the journey to the underwater mountain where they sang the Song.

To look at each line: If you pause while swimming, you lose ground as the water sweeps you along. But it's not wasted, because you'll soon end up finding the Lone Power ("what took three ages to subdue"). Whales come together from all around ("east and west") to work the ritual to bind the power. But how can just a group of believers manage against such a force as the Lone One ("the peril of the overarching deep")?

That's my take on it. But that's just me. And anyway, it's wonderful--I think it captures the tone of hope and fear that runs through the book.