I first read these books about 20 years ago when I was in junior high or thereabouts, and I loved them. It didn't bother me that they felt somewhat dated even then. Some years later I stumbled upon A Wizard Abroad and was thrilled that the series was extending beyond a trilogy, and I've kept up with them more or less as they were released since. So I was quite interested to read that the earlier books were being revised to bring them up to date. I picked up the first three in December just after HW was released, and read them through without going back to the originals trying to get a fresh feel for them.
My overall impression: I enjoyed the little additional scenes, and I like most of the changes, in HW in particular (which now feels quite contemporary and polished and man I'd forgotten how GOOD it was!). But in addition to a sprinkling of typos which I will dutifully report to the e-bookstore as it requests, I still found some inconsistencies or things that still don't work (YMMV of course, some of these are probably a matter of personal taste). So I thought I would share these thoughts here. Warning: wall of text incoming.
So You Want To Be A Wizard
Anachronism: The librarian mentions stamping the book. I don't think I've seen a library actually use physical stamps since sometime in the 90s... would kids these days even know what she was talking about?
Nita gets her knee "stomped on" returning home from the library. Knees are pretty fragile - an injury like that is the kind of thing likely to result in significant and possibly permanent damage. Yet after hobbling home that evening she seems just fine and is running around a few days later.
Dairine's Kindle. I love that detail, introducing the idea of her being technology-oriented. But a Kindle cost around $350 in 2008, more than the fancy bike Nita wanted so much. With such a big deal being made of the family's financial difficulties at the beginning of the book, it seems odd not to mention how she got such a fancy luxury gadget. Did she sell all her toys on eBay? Use her saved-up allowance/Christmas/birthday/whatever money? Win it in a contest? Get it as a gift from another relative?
Why aren't Nita's broken glasses a bigger deal? I don't know exactly how bad her eyes are, but the mention of how she can't wear contacts implies a fairly strong astigmatism, which means she probably feels as naked without them as I do without mine and reading without them is probably fairly difficult. It does note that the paragraph containing the Oath is strangely in focus compared to everything else - what about the rest of the text in the Manual? If I spent a whole morning reading blurry text without my glasses as Nita did, I'd have a blinding headache by noon. Yet she seems far more concerned about her stolen pen than about not being able to see properly for the whole rest of the book.
(Warning: rant) Kids these days go to schools with "safe schools" policies, no tolerance for schoolyard violence, teachers trained to spot abuse, anti-bullying legislation, etc. Even when I was Nita's age in the mid-90s I was taught that bullying was a serious issue and that if we are being bullied we should not put up with it but rather talk to an adult we trust. Bullying still happens, of course, but it tends to be more subtle. In contrast: Nita flees to the library in fear for her physical safety, being chased by six other kids intent on beating her up. The kindly librarian, rather than calling security or the police to round up or at least scare off the hooligans, just kind of promises to run interference. She gets ambushed on her way home, her eye blackened, her knee stomped on, her glasses broken, her favourite pen stolen. I've seen stories in the news where teenage girl "swarming" beatings like this happened and the victim actually died. And her dad's reaction? Basically that kids will be kids, she needs to toughen up and deal with it, stop provoking them, what's wrong with her anyway? On Monday she shows up to school. Again she is threatened with violence. She's got a fresh black eye to go with her existing one. Not a single teacher or other staff member takes her aside to ask her about why she keeps showing up to school with obvious physical injuries consistent with fighting or physical abuse.
I know the standard children's book bullying plot: kid has trouble with bullies, kid develops kung-fu/magic/confidence/whatever, kid stands up to bullies, bully problem ends. There's a reason this is a common thing. But there has to be a reason for the adults not to be able to intervene. They might suspect a problem, but the kid won't open up for whatever reason: they think they won't be believed, they are afraid of reprisals against themselves or the smaller/weaker kids they are trying to protect, or the bullies are perceived to be too rich/powerful. The bullies always make sure they act only when the authority figures are conspicuously absent and usually do things that don't leave marks or leave ones that could be explained away. Frankly, Nita's dad comes across as one of the top nominees for Terrible Father of the Year. He knows his kid just got attacked by six assailants, but he pretty much blames her for her own situation (no, verbal snark is not sufficient provocation for that kind of response), and doesn't take any steps to try to ensure her safety ("Do you want me to talk to her dad?" doesn't really count). This is 2008, and these aren't little scuffles between two evenly-matched kids - if the problem has escalated to this level of violence and her parents know about it why on earth have they not called the police? I'm sorry to rant about this but it reallyDeep Wizardrythat bitter.
Chronological weirdness: the first two books are seriously set that close together? Maybe it's always been that way and I just didn't notice, but with time stamps at the front of each book it's hard to ignore now. I'd always thought there was a break of at least a few months between SYWTBAW and DW for the kids to get closer, work on their wizardry, business to pick up, etc. But according to the dates on the the Moebius spell entry at the end of DW, Nita and Kit make their trip to alternate New York on May 25, and perform the Song of the Twelve on July 15 of the same year - which means that the family talk about their improved finances a month before the opening of the book happens in early June. This makes "business is great, let's go on vacation and bring along your new best friend that you just met!" literally just three weeks or so after "sorry honey, money is really tight, we won't be able to afford to fix your broken glasses just yet."
More chronological nitpicks (probably personal taste): Nita has had time in the roughly six weeks she's been a wizard to become a healing expert? And should she really be amazed during the battle that she is looking for a killing spell "for the first time in her life" at this point? Just about every wizardry she is doing, she is doing for the first time in her life. You'd think she'd be more amazed that she was already needing such a thing so early in her career.
Inconsistency: When, late in the book, Kit's whalesark starts to fail, he starts to use "pure whale" rather than the Speech or "human flavored whale" like previously, and it is this warning sign that panics Nita into action. But the warning sign they were told to watch for was for him to lose whalesong, not lose everything but whalesong. I remembered this from older editions and was watching to see if it had been fixed, but it wasn't.
High Wizardry
Much is made about how young Dairine is. But when I thought about it, the age difference isn't really that big. As I understand it, she's a couple of months shy of twelve, which is only one year younger than Kit is at the start of the first book (a couple of months shy of thirteen). Yes one year is a bigger slice of lifetime when you're twelve than when you're thirty, but she's not really thatawfullyvery impressive that growth spurt has been, too, if in a single month he's grown from shorter enough than her to look down on to two inches taller!
Again relating to the puberty and chronology issues, Tom makes a comment about how their "hormonal surge" will make their wizardry stronger "for a while than it has [been] since you got started." They only got started three months ago! How do they have any idea of what power levels they should be used to? Especially since that hormone surge has been going on for a while now.
Another thing that seems a bit strange is the conversation Nita and Kit have with Tom and Carl about the software version of the manual and how it could help kids on Ordeal. Tom says that a lot of kids fail their Ordeals because they don't have time to become good at the Speech... but in the first book, Nita pretty much learns the Speech in a single morning. In DW and in later books when we meet more and more different species of wizards, it becomes apparent that wizardry provides itself to any given wizard in its own way, and the book or software or whatever is just the interface the wizard uses to access it. Kids may fail their Ordeals because they can't sort out how to use that interface effectively or aren't careful enough or don't make the right friends or whatever, but given the speed with which Nita learns the basics of wizardry and does some pretty heavy duty stuff a week after starting out, it's clear that learning wizardry doesn't work the same way as learning other things, and the Powers That Be make give new wizards the tools they need when they start out so they can do crazy things during their Ordeals when they are at or near the peak of their raw power. The computer version of the Manual may be just what the Powers ordered for Dairine's personality and those other kids who insist on their newfangled gadgets, but to say it would be a life-saving crutch for those poor baby wizards who are bad at the Speech seems to contradict how we've seen wizardry operating.
Another slight anachronism. I know that the exact nature of Tom and Carl's relationship is left deliberately vague, and my non-conjugal roommate of 8+ years and I certainly know that two non-related adults can live together without being romantically involved. But while 1980s Nita, when thinking about her partnership with Kit and its parallel with that of Tom and Carl, can easily get away with telling herself that Tom and Carl are "just buddies," it seems just a little odd that 2008 Nita would tell herself the same thing.
My overall impression: I enjoyed the little additional scenes, and I like most of the changes, in HW in particular (which now feels quite contemporary and polished and man I'd forgotten how GOOD it was!). But in addition to a sprinkling of typos which I will dutifully report to the e-bookstore as it requests, I still found some inconsistencies or things that still don't work (YMMV of course, some of these are probably a matter of personal taste). So I thought I would share these thoughts here. Warning: wall of text incoming.
So You Want To Be A Wizard
Anachronism: The librarian mentions stamping the book. I don't think I've seen a library actually use physical stamps since sometime in the 90s... would kids these days even know what she was talking about?
Nita gets her knee "stomped on" returning home from the library. Knees are pretty fragile - an injury like that is the kind of thing likely to result in significant and possibly permanent damage. Yet after hobbling home that evening she seems just fine and is running around a few days later.
Dairine's Kindle. I love that detail, introducing the idea of her being technology-oriented. But a Kindle cost around $350 in 2008, more than the fancy bike Nita wanted so much. With such a big deal being made of the family's financial difficulties at the beginning of the book, it seems odd not to mention how she got such a fancy luxury gadget. Did she sell all her toys on eBay? Use her saved-up allowance/Christmas/birthday/whatever money? Win it in a contest? Get it as a gift from another relative?
Why aren't Nita's broken glasses a bigger deal? I don't know exactly how bad her eyes are, but the mention of how she can't wear contacts implies a fairly strong astigmatism, which means she probably feels as naked without them as I do without mine and reading without them is probably fairly difficult. It does note that the paragraph containing the Oath is strangely in focus compared to everything else - what about the rest of the text in the Manual? If I spent a whole morning reading blurry text without my glasses as Nita did, I'd have a blinding headache by noon. Yet she seems far more concerned about her stolen pen than about not being able to see properly for the whole rest of the book.
(Warning: rant) Kids these days go to schools with "safe schools" policies, no tolerance for schoolyard violence, teachers trained to spot abuse, anti-bullying legislation, etc. Even when I was Nita's age in the mid-90s I was taught that bullying was a serious issue and that if we are being bullied we should not put up with it but rather talk to an adult we trust. Bullying still happens, of course, but it tends to be more subtle. In contrast: Nita flees to the library in fear for her physical safety, being chased by six other kids intent on beating her up. The kindly librarian, rather than calling security or the police to round up or at least scare off the hooligans, just kind of promises to run interference. She gets ambushed on her way home, her eye blackened, her knee stomped on, her glasses broken, her favourite pen stolen. I've seen stories in the news where teenage girl "swarming" beatings like this happened and the victim actually died. And her dad's reaction? Basically that kids will be kids, she needs to toughen up and deal with it, stop provoking them, what's wrong with her anyway? On Monday she shows up to school. Again she is threatened with violence. She's got a fresh black eye to go with her existing one. Not a single teacher or other staff member takes her aside to ask her about why she keeps showing up to school with obvious physical injuries consistent with fighting or physical abuse.
I know the standard children's book bullying plot: kid has trouble with bullies, kid develops kung-fu/magic/confidence/whatever, kid stands up to bullies, bully problem ends. There's a reason this is a common thing. But there has to be a reason for the adults not to be able to intervene. They might suspect a problem, but the kid won't open up for whatever reason: they think they won't be believed, they are afraid of reprisals against themselves or the smaller/weaker kids they are trying to protect, or the bullies are perceived to be too rich/powerful. The bullies always make sure they act only when the authority figures are conspicuously absent and usually do things that don't leave marks or leave ones that could be explained away. Frankly, Nita's dad comes across as one of the top nominees for Terrible Father of the Year. He knows his kid just got attacked by six assailants, but he pretty much blames her for her own situation (no, verbal snark is not sufficient provocation for that kind of response), and doesn't take any steps to try to ensure her safety ("Do you want me to talk to her dad?" doesn't really count). This is 2008, and these aren't little scuffles between two evenly-matched kids - if the problem has escalated to this level of violence and her parents know about it why on earth have they not called the police? I'm sorry to rant about this but it reallyDeep Wizardrythat bitter.
Chronological weirdness: the first two books are seriously set that close together? Maybe it's always been that way and I just didn't notice, but with time stamps at the front of each book it's hard to ignore now. I'd always thought there was a break of at least a few months between SYWTBAW and DW for the kids to get closer, work on their wizardry, business to pick up, etc. But according to the dates on the the Moebius spell entry at the end of DW, Nita and Kit make their trip to alternate New York on May 25, and perform the Song of the Twelve on July 15 of the same year - which means that the family talk about their improved finances a month before the opening of the book happens in early June. This makes "business is great, let's go on vacation and bring along your new best friend that you just met!" literally just three weeks or so after "sorry honey, money is really tight, we won't be able to afford to fix your broken glasses just yet."
More chronological nitpicks (probably personal taste): Nita has had time in the roughly six weeks she's been a wizard to become a healing expert? And should she really be amazed during the battle that she is looking for a killing spell "for the first time in her life" at this point? Just about every wizardry she is doing, she is doing for the first time in her life. You'd think she'd be more amazed that she was already needing such a thing so early in her career.
Inconsistency: When, late in the book, Kit's whalesark starts to fail, he starts to use "pure whale" rather than the Speech or "human flavored whale" like previously, and it is this warning sign that panics Nita into action. But the warning sign they were told to watch for was for him to lose whalesong, not lose everything but whalesong. I remembered this from older editions and was watching to see if it had been fixed, but it wasn't.
High Wizardry
Much is made about how young Dairine is. But when I thought about it, the age difference isn't really that big. As I understand it, she's a couple of months shy of twelve, which is only one year younger than Kit is at the start of the first book (a couple of months shy of thirteen). Yes one year is a bigger slice of lifetime when you're twelve than when you're thirty, but she's not really thatawfullyvery impressive that growth spurt has been, too, if in a single month he's grown from shorter enough than her to look down on to two inches taller!
Again relating to the puberty and chronology issues, Tom makes a comment about how their "hormonal surge" will make their wizardry stronger "for a while than it has [been] since you got started." They only got started three months ago! How do they have any idea of what power levels they should be used to? Especially since that hormone surge has been going on for a while now.
Another thing that seems a bit strange is the conversation Nita and Kit have with Tom and Carl about the software version of the manual and how it could help kids on Ordeal. Tom says that a lot of kids fail their Ordeals because they don't have time to become good at the Speech... but in the first book, Nita pretty much learns the Speech in a single morning. In DW and in later books when we meet more and more different species of wizards, it becomes apparent that wizardry provides itself to any given wizard in its own way, and the book or software or whatever is just the interface the wizard uses to access it. Kids may fail their Ordeals because they can't sort out how to use that interface effectively or aren't careful enough or don't make the right friends or whatever, but given the speed with which Nita learns the basics of wizardry and does some pretty heavy duty stuff a week after starting out, it's clear that learning wizardry doesn't work the same way as learning other things, and the Powers That Be make give new wizards the tools they need when they start out so they can do crazy things during their Ordeals when they are at or near the peak of their raw power. The computer version of the Manual may be just what the Powers ordered for Dairine's personality and those other kids who insist on their newfangled gadgets, but to say it would be a life-saving crutch for those poor baby wizards who are bad at the Speech seems to contradict how we've seen wizardry operating.
Another slight anachronism. I know that the exact nature of Tom and Carl's relationship is left deliberately vague, and my non-conjugal roommate of 8+ years and I certainly know that two non-related adults can live together without being romantically involved. But while 1980s Nita, when thinking about her partnership with Kit and its parallel with that of Tom and Carl, can easily get away with telling herself that Tom and Carl are "just buddies," it seems just a little odd that 2008 Nita would tell herself the same thing.
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