The books, in general

[Quill]

Originally posted by marniebrown1:
Door books?

Evil will always lose.- Miep Gies

Ms. Duane's Tale of the Five quartet, of which three have been published.

The Door Into Fire
The Door Into Shadow
The Door Into Sunset

The first two have been reprinted in a one-volume set, Tale of the Five: The Sword and the Dragon, and the third and loooong-awaited fourth are to be published in another one-volume set.

Murmurings

[Agent M]

cool.

Evil will always lose.- Miep Gies

Are the Five books as good as the young wizards?

[Kathy Li]

Better? Depends on your taste in books, I suppose. They're different. There aren't any teen protagonists, and the setting is medievalish. And the wizardry is different: there are two kinds in the Door books: the blue fire which is natural, and a more artificial form. There's also more adult material, like sex, violence, court politics, rape, etc.

Personally, I enjoy the Door books the most, but they were also the first Diane Duane books I'd ever read.

If you want to get a taste of the Door books without going through an entire novel, I'd suggest finding, or borrowing from the library, a book edited by Lin Carter, called Flashing Swords #5: Demons and Daggers. It has a short story ("Parting Gifts") set in the same world, and should give you a taste.

Also, Quill's links are for out-of-print versions of the books. The only in-print version that I know of, right now, is the Meisha Merlin volume, Tale of the Five: The Sword and the Dragon, which contains the first two books, Door Into Fire and Door Into Shadow, with additional rewrites by Duane. Meisha Merlin's planning on bringing Door into Sunset and Door Into Starlight (finally!) as a single volume called Tale of the Five: The Lion and the Door whenever Diane Duane finishes writing Door Into Starlight. Given that she's going to be busy writing Young Wizard novels, it might take a while.

[Quill]

Originally posted by kli6:
Meisha Merlin's planning on bringing _Door into Sunset_ and _Door Into Starlight_ (finally!) as a single volume called _Tale of the Five: The Lion and the Door_ whenever Diane Duane finishes writing _Door Into Starlight_. Given that she's going to be busy writing Young Wizard novels, it might take a while.

*whimper*

Murmurings

[Kathy Li]

Buck up, private. We've been waiting since 1979 for the end of this particular story. We can hold our souls in patience a little while longer. I just didn't want to fool myself into thinking the tentative 2004 date that Meisha Merlin had up was real.

Besides, more Young Wizard books are never a bad thing. It took so LONG for those to start up again, too!

[Birdhead]

*sigh* I'm so glad I wasn't even BORN in '79...
T

Tuibird in Aotearoa
Conservationist, Scientist, and proud of both!
Chocolate lover extraordinaire...
Ahahahaha, ahahahahaha, ahahahaha...
My mission: Bringing Maori to the world!
ON HOLIDAY! Wooo!

[Kathy Li]

Whippersnappers!

Actually, being an oldfart has its advantages. I've been able to wait for books for a decade or more without getting too impatient. YOU, otoh, will be a victim to frustration and delay. :-)

Longest search to find a book: 10 years. Scaramouche the King-Maker.

Longest search to find a video: 20 years to trade for a copy of Flickers (1981).

Longest wait for a new volume in a series: 12 years between Door books (Door into Sunset was 1992). Wait. Maybe I've been waiting for the next Jacqueline Kirby from Elizabeth Peters for longer. Yup. That's been 13 years.

Longest wait for a new comic book: 9 years. (Alan Moore's Lost Girls). Assuming it actually gets published this year.

Really, complaining about a Harry Potter taking three years seems so very impatient to me. :-)

[Birdhead]

And I think that HP is taking a long time to come out. Wow. I don't think I could STAND 12 years. OTOH, when I get to your ripe old (emphasise... nah, that's mean ) age, I may have some more patience. Though not if I turn out anything like my mother, which I may. (Help!)
T

Tuibird in Aotearoa
Conservationist, Scientist, and proud of both!
Chocolate lover extraordinaire...
Ahahahaha, ahahahahaha, ahahahaha...
My mission: Bringing Maori to the world!
ON HOLIDAY! Wooo!

[Kathy Li]

A nice offshoot of the waiting game, though is that the really good stuff almost always comes back, if you just wait long enough. I'm tickled pink that two of my childhood faves are back in print: Eleanor Cameron's The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet, and Robert Newman's Merlin's Mistake.

Now, if only some kind editor would notice kids really really need a copy of Kin Platt's Sinbad and Me (and the sequels), I'd be in seventh heaven.

[wizFAN]

By the way, Birdhead, feel for me if you think you have a problem...I have 3 brothers, all YOUNGER!! Only one can even READ!!
The Nepturnian,
PerryTon

[Birdhead]

I have two younger brothers and a younger sister. I hate being the eldest of four... mind you, at least they can all read. (Freya turned 10 yesterday. Now that was scary!) Mine are at least old enough to take bribes... I feel for you!
Ka Kite
Tui

Tuibird in Aotearoa
Conservationist, Scientist, and proud of both!
Chocolate lover extraordinaire...
Ahahahaha, ahahahahaha, ahahahaha...
My mission: Bringing Maori to the world!
Spelling Freak and Typo Queen

[Rysade]

I have two brothers. One who's eleven doesn't like to read. The other is five and is so stupid he barely knows some of the letters of the alphabet, also another brother is on the way! UGH I'm the only girl!

[Birdhead]

Yeah, but eldest children are always more mature. By the way, there are a couple of implications there that I resent.
-I resent the implication that kids aren't always just as complicated as adults anyway..
-I resent the implication that 15 isn't plenty old enough to be an adult! *does the typical teenage thing* I wanna be treated like an adult! *pouts*
Ok, so that one isn't serious. Muahahaha! Teenagerisms!
As for words, I used "extrapolate" in English the other day. This is in a class of 15 and 16 year olds. When I said it, there was a general chorus of "what's that mean?" and laughter (nice laughter. ) I mean, IT"S NOT REALLY THAT BIG OF A WORD. *sigh* If I could change one thing abotu all my class mates, i'd change how much they read, just so I could use a word of more than 3 sylabbles from time to time!!

As for siblings' reading habits, they're all pretty good readers- probably because my mum used to be an English teacher. My sister's slightly dyslexic, but she still manages to read to and even above her age group (10); my younger brother reads a lot, almost as much as I do, but his tastes have yet to broden (he's 12, and currently going through a Redwall stage; however, at least that's fantasy!); my other brother reads a fair bit, if much less than me (but everyone reads slower that me, so... ) but he steadfastly refuses to read any fantasy save Pratchett. Fortunately I got him onto Pterry before it was too late, but he won't read ANYTHING else. Or anything with girls in it, which is frigtfully sad. Still, I think it's just a 14-year-old boy complaint. I guess, on balance, I'm pretty lucky!
Ka Kite
Tui

Tuibird in Aotearoa
Conservationist, Scientist, and proud of both!
Chocolate lover extraordinaire...
Ahahahaha, ahahahahaha, ahahahaha...
My mission: Bringing Maori to the world!
Spelling Freak and Typo Queen