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High Wizardry (Young Wizards #3)

by Diane Duane (Goodreads Author)

3.99 of 5 stars 3.99 · rating details · 4,794 ratings · 121 reviews

Young wizards Nita and Kit face their most terrifying challenge yet: Nita's little sister, Dairine. Not only is Dairine far too smart for a ten-year-old, she also has recenlty become a wizard, and worse yet, a wizard with almost limitless power. When Dairine's computerized wizard's manual glibly sends her off on her novice adventure--her Ordeal--Kit and Nita end up chasing...more

Paperback, 372 pages

Published October 1st 2003 by Sandpiper (first published March 1st 1990)

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Mar 11, 2008 Qt rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, science-fiction

This is Book 3 of Diane Duane's Wizard series, and like the first two books, it is very well written, containing serious and dramatic elements, believable descriptions of wizardry, and a spiritual or philosophical element running throughout.
I think I liked the first two a bit better, though not because they were better books--I think I just preferred the adventures the main characters, Nita and Kit, went on. Also, Nita's sister Dairine is a major character in this one, and I never liked her, so...more

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Mar 24, 2009 Amanda rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 02, 2013 Corrina rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Check out my full review at wadingthroughbooks.wordpress.com!

Dairine really becomes a fully fleshed character in this book. In the previous ones, she was the annoyingly smart little sister–here, she is still the annoyingly smart little sister, but she gets to explain why it’s so important for her to be smart. Dairine knows that knowing things can help you understand the universe, and help protect you from getting hurt. Knowledge is power, and Dairine needs to know–reading and computers are her w...more Check out my full review at wadingthroughbooks.wordpress.com!

Dairine really becomes a fully fleshed character in this book. In the previous ones, she was the annoyingly smart little sister–here, she is still the annoyingly smart little sister, but she gets to explain why it’s so important for her to be smart. Dairine knows that knowing things can help you understand the universe, and help protect you from getting hurt. Knowledge is power, and Dairine needs to know–reading and computers are her ways to help her know. Fiction, nonfiction, science, mythology, computer science, martial arts–she wants to know, and she wants to know now. And this need gives her a way to connect with the race of computer wizards that she helps to be born–they want to know too, and Dairine gives them everything she has and everything she is, because she understands that need. I think every reader knows that need–just one more chapter, because I need to know what happens next.

Maybe that was the Lone Power’s problem all along–It didn’t like the chapter It was reading, when the other Powers refused to listen to It’s ideas, so It stopped reading the book. It kept peddling It’s ideas about death and pain and loss to all of the species, and It tries to convince the computer wizards to stop all life everywhere instead of letting them change as they will. It’s not until Dairine comes along and convinces them that different life is still life that It is defeated and redeemed and begins to change. I love the Lone Power’s sister–Athena was always my favourite Olympian. She ties together various archetypes and mythologies, and makes it clear that they are the same story, and that the story has been going on for a very long time, and that now it is time for the arc to end–time for the devil to return to heaven and help unmake his work. But the story still isn’t over, because there is a lot of cleaning up to do. It’s a nice idea–that evil can always be redeemed, if good is willing to offer it a chance, and if evil is willing to take that chance.

I’ve been reading and rereading this series for more than 20 years, since I first found So You Want to Be a Wizard in my public library in elementary school. (Yes, I read the Oath out loud. No, I never became a wizard. Yes, I still read it out loud every so often and hope this time it works.) It’s still my favourite, and every time I read the books I think of something new–something I never thought of before, because I am different than the last time I read it. Duane is working on book 10 right now Games Wizards Play, according to the Young Wizards website. There’s no estimated publication date yet, but I can’t wait–but I will, because I know that it will be worth waiting for.
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Dec 25, 2012 John Kirk rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is another good installment in the series: it fits into the ongoing storyline, while still telling a complete story in its own right. It also shifts the focus to a different character (Dairine) while still keeping Nita and Kit around in supporting roles.

Diane Duane said that this book was the catalyst for the New Millennium Editions, and I can understand that. Looking back at my paper copy, it talks about Nita's parents buying an Apple IIIc+ (with a set of floppy disks) and Dairine has to t...more

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Feb 04, 2012 Julia rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is Awesome. With a capital A. Dairine is one of my favorite characters, and the adventure that she has reminds me of all of my favorite sci-fi books mixed together. I am amazed at the worlds that Duane has created. Everything is so expertly woven, and the plot is very fast paced. Although the story mainly revolves around two girls, I think that boys would enjoy this book too because of its high paced action. It is full of complex "theories" that make this immense magical domain believa...more

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May 03, 2011 Valerie added it · review of another edition

I first encountered the idea that young children are more powerful because they don't know what's impossible in Zenna Henderson's short story "Come on, Wagon".

I found the portrayal of the Computer World interesting and intriguing. I recognized from the start that Duane was setting herself up for a fall by basing her theories of future computers on what was then contemporary technology. It's not surprising that a lot of the description comes off as dated. But despite this necessary flaw, the bas...more

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May 24, 2012 Lindley is currently reading it

This is the third of a series that I really wanted to like, enough to buy the whole set in one go – and I’m so disappointed that it didn’t work out that way. On the good side, the visit to an alien airport was fun, and briefly lifted the book, and the race of little machine creatures was cute, if a little cutesy. I'm giving it three stars because, while problematic, it wasn't bad, as such - just really not the exciting, emotionally involving children's fantasy I hoped it would be.

First of all, i...more This is the third of a series that I really wanted to like, enough to buy the whole set in one go – and I’m so disappointed that it didn’t work out that way. On the good side, the visit to an alien airport was fun, and briefly lifted the book, and the race of little machine creatures was cute, if a little cutesy. I'm giving it three stars because, while problematic, it wasn't bad, as such - just really not the exciting, emotionally involving children's fantasy I hoped it would be.

First of all, it reads like a narrative strung around Apple product placement. The amount of precious page space spent talking about how amazing and wonderful Apple computers are, up to and including Dairine getting a special magical Apple, is just ridiculous. And secondly, I feel like the author is constantly standing behind me telling me “Learning is good! Reading is awesome! Computers are exciting! Cool kids go to planetariums!” Even as a geeky kid who read every moment she could, I would have resented being told that in such a heavy-handed way. As an adult, it drives me up the wall.

Part of my disappointment with these books is the muddled ethical stance – really a big problem in books so didactic about ethical issues. This is most clear in the way animals are depicted. In Deep Wizardry, sea animals and fish are speech-capable “people”, but their deaths were only tragic if they were “special” ones, and the rest were killed and eaten without negatively. This problem stretched into High Wizardry. It’s not often that I would complain that characters aren’t vegetarian, but in a book which seems to value animals above human life – it is explicitly stated that killing a dog is the ultimate evil, more evil than killing *children*, and worth dying to stop – having the characters munch unconcernedly on bologna seems a bit hypocritical. Especially when they could *talk* to the animals slaughtered for it.

The worst example of this is when Dairine murders an alien – referred to as a BEM – who grasps her arm, because it “felt evil.” She does not attempt any other resolution, deliberately selecting a killing spell, and at no point is it even implied that this is anything but a perfectly moral and clever thing to do. Certainly, the murder is something she never thinks about again, her sister and friend aren’t dismayed at all by seeing footage of her do, and most of all it is not allowed to interfere with the way the narrative keeps telling us Dairine is the most good and clever and amazing girl in the entire Universe, literally the only one in billions of years to be special enough to face down the Lone Power for good.

This signals another problem: yet again, the protagonist must die to save the situation, and yet again, they don’t. It’s a cop-out that is becoming awfully repetitive in this series.

Dairine is a problem, too – she reads like a self-insert Mary Sue. She is just too smart, too self-reliant, too all-around fabulous and special to be remotely likeable. Like most Mary sues, although the original protagonists are still present in the book, Dairine completely pulls the focus of the book around her.

Worst of all, even if you get over the inherent problems with the whole “silicon planet turns itself into a sentient supercomputer” plot, it’s just all a bit dull.

I don’t think I will be finishing this series. Which is a bit sad, as Diane Duane seems like a really nice person – and I paid for it. But I’ve given it three goes now, and life is just too short.
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Aug 04, 2011 Waterfall rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: children-young-adults, diane-duane, fantasy, ihb, sci-fi, young-wizards, contemporary

I really liked this book, and if I could I'd give it 4.5 stars. It gets a 4 and not a 5 because the end of the book got a bit confusing, and I'm not sure yet if I entirely like where Duane is going with Darine. However, she's brilliantly written; enough of the bratty kid to make me annoyed with her and yet I still love her and sympathise with her.

My favourite bit is hands down the encounter with the blonde humanoid who was obviously meant to be the Fifth Doctor (TvTropes told me this ages ago, b...more

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Mar 20, 2011 Stephanie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, adventure, fantasy, fiction, yalit

Okay, not as exciting as Deep Wizardry, unless you really like Dairine. This is the story of her Ordeal, and rather than setting it underwater with a lot of ruminating on the nature of the universe, it's a straight-up adventure story of Dairine becoming a wizard. I was not at all as impressed by this one as by Deep Wizardry. Dairine just came off as a Mary Sue: able to do everything she wanted to, which makes her not extremely likable to me. Nita and Kit in the first two books seem like people o...more

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Jan 19, 2011 Teresa rated it 4 of 5 stars

This story is about this girl, Nita found out that her sister, Dairine is a wizard. That means she has unllimited powers and she is smart. When Dairine let off an adventure about computer technology, Nita and her best friend, Kit try to rescue her or else she gets in big trouble before Dairine's brain can't catch her. Will they accomplish their goal? What I think about this book is that it gets me really bored in the middle of the story because all they talk there is about computer and technolog...more

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Jun 27, 2009 Scurra rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

As a geek, this will inevitably always be my favourite of the series, which makes my rating slightly less that useful here. (It should only merit 4 stars really...)

From the opening sequence (which brought back memories of our own first computer arriving!) through to the moment of the Choice, the story fairly rattles along, even if it is a bit too easy to see that the whole Nita/Kit storyline is rather redundant (other than for the "family" subtext.) But pretty much the whole of Darine's experien...more

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Jul 30, 2012 Dylan Tomorrow rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, favorites, friendship, magic, science-fiction, read-aloud

Pheeew! That was something else! Dairine, you bad-ass mofo!

Again, sentences so beautiful they make me cry and read them aloud. A transcendent magic in those words, otherworldly, welcome, gladly taken in ...

I am in love with this book right now. And may or may not want to marry it :D. Even though it did get boring in the middle with all that technobabble. But the end redeemed all of that thricefold. That's the kind of magic I want from my fantasy&scifi stories! The ineffable. The overwhelming...more

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Oct 23, 2010 Krysta rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: adventure, fantasy, sci-fi, series

Diane Duane continues to astound me with this series. As in the previous two books, the classic archetype of Good versus Evil is played out with such raw emotion in the climax that you'll be swept right into the wizardry. While I, like protagonists Nita and Kit, find Dairine more than a little annoying at times - she managed to redeem herself substantially in this installment. I think there is a part of all of us that approaches life with cold, calculating logic and it isn't until we acknowledge...more

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Jan 11, 2013 Mary rated it 4 of 5 stars

Another solid and enjoyable entry in the series. I have to admit that one of the reasons I didn't like it as much as, say, "Deep Wizardry" can be expressed in one word. Dairine. Oh, she's a believable character - smart, aggressive and determined, but also abrasive. In this book, the 11-year-old, frustrated that her big sister has gotten ahead of her, finds that she is also a wizard. She takes the oath and finds her manual in the family's new computer. Making a copy, she sets off for Mars, not re...more

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Jan 21, 2012 E.L. rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012-reads-and-rereads

Another well-written book by Duane. My chief complaint is that it seems a re-hashing of the first two - same enemy, same stakes, same difficulties, same sacrifices, same ending. New world (literally) and a new protagonist, but everything else seems like we've read it all before. If the rest of the Young Wizards series is more of the same, just the exact same battle fought in various places, I don't think I'll be reading many more of them - a change in location and cast of characters is hardly en...more

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Sep 03, 2012 Robert rated it 3 of 5 stars

“If you are still going through Harry Potter withdrawal Juanita "Nita" Louise Callahan and her best friend Christopher "Kit" K. Rodriguez are at it again . This is the 3rd book in the Young Wizards series. But this book focuses on Dairine, Nita's younger sister. Dairine want to be a wizzared , like her sister . So she becomes one . After becoming a wizzard , she takes off to outer space to look around and fight the Lone Power. I enjoy this book , it is the best of the Young Wizards books I have...more

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May 24, 2012 William rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The third installment of the young wizards series is in strange worlds and new life… just like the other two i've rated. The difference is that Nita and Kit aren't the ones solving the problem. Instead it's Nita's younger sister, who just recently became a wizard with extreme amounts of power. Unfortunately, that means that she is on the ordeal. The problem in that is that that means that she has to come up against the Lone Power. If she falls, then the dark side of the universe will gain a powe...more

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Feb 25, 2011 Topher rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: modernfantasy, teenybopper-lit

I remembered enjoying the first two books in this series when I was younger, though I doubt I ever read this one before as it was published when I was in high school. However, I had been fond enough of the first two in my memory to think it was worth revisiting the series when I noticed it on a shelf at the local library. As someone with a degree in computer science and the benefit of reading it 20 years in the future some of the computer issues made me cringe a little. On the other hand, it was...more

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Mar 17, 2013 Rae added it

Shelves: 2008

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Dairine has become a wizard. Dairine. Nita's ten year old sister who thinks the way to beat the world, is to know everything there is to know. What could that lead up to?

As all new wizards, Dairine must complete her ordeal and so, with her computerized manual, she sets off into space on her journey to meet the Lone Power. Not every wizard returns from the Ordeal though and many young children have gone missing on theirs and so, Nita and Kit set out after her. Having defeated the Lone...more

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Oct 15, 2012 Joan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: sci fi fans

Shelves: 5-6-fiction, adventure, fantasy, sci-fi, fiction

I didn't like this nearly as much as the first two in the series. I think partly because Dairrine never loses her brattiness and arrogance. Also because Nita and Kit seem rather unnecessary in this title. Dairrine doesn't seem to appreciate the beauty of nature and what she is doing, except for the computer part. I'll admit that the idea of a sentient computer being a pet to Dairrine is rather cute. Onto the next title, eventually. Right now I better get back to my official library shelf reading...more

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Apr 06, 2012 Lamora rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult, complete-crap, will-not-continue-series-anymore, reviewed, fantasy, own-hardcopy

A series with a good premise has been reduced to nothing but pulp action told from the POV of a whiny, bratty little girl.

Dairane is a flat and static character who is known to whinge, scream, and be, overall, an overconfident prick. I'm fed up with this series and will certainly not be going out and picking up the next installment.

(Excuse the bitterness that might resound through this review; this series is a one of my friends' current infatuations and I am just sick and tired of hearing about...more

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May 27, 2012 PaulineMRoss rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: price-full, genre-ya, 2-star

This is the third in the Young Wizards series. I quite enjoyed the first, but no more than that, and was prepared to abandon the series. However, I was persuaded to read the second, and after a mediocre first half it turned out to be wonderful - unexpectedly deep and moving for a young adult book. I bought this one at the same time, since it was about computers and therefore highly appropriate for geeky me.

Memo to all authors: technology moves on so fast that whatever current gadgets you include...more This is the third in the Young Wizards series. I quite enjoyed the first, but no more than that, and was prepared to abandon the series. However, I was persuaded to read the second, and after a mediocre first half it turned out to be wonderful - unexpectedly deep and moving for a young adult book. I bought this one at the same time, since it was about computers and therefore highly appropriate for geeky me.

Memo to all authors: technology moves on so fast that whatever current gadgets you include as part of your plot will undoubtedly be obsolete before the book hits the stores. All the references to green screens and MBasic and diskettes and ones and zeroes - they just don't age well. Much better to be vague about the details, rather than have your readers rolling on the floor in hysterical laughter only a few years later.

Rather than focus on Nita and Kit, the newbie wizards of the previous two books, this one is about younger sister Dairine, a paragon of intellect and self-taught knowledge, who becomes a wizard too, and sets off into the universe armed only with a magic computer and a frighteningly high level of self-confidence. This part of the story was quite dull, unless you like a lot of details about planets and moons and galaxies. I rather liked the inter-galactic travel terminal, though, although I rolled my eyes rather at the inexplicably helpful stranger who gets Dairine out of a jam. Even though the author explains it away with an airy handwave - sometimes people do help out strangers - it still feels like a plot cheat.

But eventually Dairine gets to somewhere more interesting, and Nita and Kit set off in pursuit and... no, honestly, this is not working for me. There a section where they're trying to think of the worst possible thing ever, and decide that, actually, burning dogs in cars is the worst, far worse than killing children or adults, and they would do absolutely anything to stop it. No, sorry, I can't subscribe to a philosophy like that. There are far worse things. Destroying entire planets, for one thing. Or stars, or galaxies, or whatever it is the Big Bad is supposed to be doing. Get a grip, people.

But then, eventually, Dairine gets to where she's going and starts doing stuff, and yes, it gets more interesting. There's a point where she's arguing logic and philosophy with a bunch of computers, essentially (not wanting to give away too much here), which is terrific and reaches the heights of 'Deep Wizardry'. But then it's back to hurling spells round, and the book lost me again. To be honest, by the time it got to the final confrontation with the Big Bad, it all got too easy. Dairine was just too powerful, and really, that's not interesting. She knows everything, she can do everything, she understands everything that's going on, and she can respond far quicker than anyone else. She didn't even have to learn how to do this stuff, she just knows, or else the computer tells her. And the whole parrot business... bleah.

I'm not really sure how this would play out for the target young adult demographic. There are some incredibly clever and imaginative ideas in here, and a lot of knowledge or research behind it. Unfortunately, I found there were just too many info-dumps explaining physics or computer theory, the magic was too easy, and the plot not interesting enough to compensate. Two stars.
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Jan 16, 2011 Vicki (The Wolf's Den) rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, own, young-adult, girl-power, the-wolfs-den-reviewed

Nita's younger sister, Dairine, can be a bit of a know-it-all brat sometimes. But at least she doesn't know about wizardry.

Well, until their summer trip (in Deep Wizardry) when she saw Nita transform from whale to human right before her eyes. Now she sees the power and she'll go mad unless she can have it too. Understandable, since I don't know anyone who wouldn't want to perform magic.

She starts poking around Nita's stuff, getting more and more intrusive (much to Nita's annoyance), and eventual...more Nita's younger sister, Dairine, can be a bit of a know-it-all brat sometimes. But at least she doesn't know about wizardry.

Well, until their summer trip (in Deep Wizardry) when she saw Nita transform from whale to human right before her eyes. Now she sees the power and she'll go mad unless she can have it too. Understandable, since I don't know anyone who wouldn't want to perform magic.

She starts poking around Nita's stuff, getting more and more intrusive (much to Nita's annoyance), and eventually finds the Wizard's Oath page in her manual. Without a second thought, she reads it aloud, but when nothing happens she's just about ready to give up.

Well, if she can't have magic, the new computer might be the next best thing. Or it might just be the answer she was looking for. Sure enough, she starts off on a journey across the galaxy and beyond, all in the hopes of fighting and beating Darth Vader. Be careful what you wish for.

The younger the wizard, the greater their power. The greater their power, the more they can do against the Lone Power. And He doesn't like that one bit.

For a third book, and a noticeably shorter installment, this sure had a LOT packed into it. It had Dairine's main story, it had Nita and Kit's story chasing after her, it had battles, it had Creation, it had 'Heaven', it had philosophy, it had space ports, it had aliens, it had...more that I won't get into... Frankly, I found the amount of material a bit daunting for one book.

I have to admit, I did not like Dairine at all during my first time reading this. I was intensely loyal to Nita and felt Dairine was a huge threat to Nita's continuing to be a/the main character. Perhaps it was because I'm an older sister, myself. Sure, younger wizards are stronger, but that's no reason to throw Nita aside! I was honestly getting really anxious about it, even to the point I thought Nita might get killed off to make room for Dairine!

Um...okay, SPOILER ALERT...Nita hangs around for a long, long time... END SPOILER.

With my fears on that subject since resolved, I found Dairine a very likable character. She's strong, independent, smart, and snarky. She's only 10, maybe 11, but she's far from childish. In fact, I keep picturing her as a mouthy 15 or 16-year-old (though this may be interference from recalling later books—ah, the joys of re-reading). She also plays off Nita extremely well, creating a believable, and at time touching, sisterly relationship.

My largest problem with this book was its vast technical or abstract descriptions. Other worlds, space ports, galaxy views, and other astrological events play a huge part here, and some of the descriptions are simply too much to picture. This book is the most tempting for me to want a movie to be made, just so I can see what the heck we're supposed to be picturing. Thankfully, these aren't too central to the plot, so you can sorta skim along with minimal knowledge, but it might be nice to see an illustrated edition one day. (If you're really hung up on the space port, don't worry, it gets visited again in later books.)

Same thing goes for the 'aftermath' of the 'final battle'. There are some references made to historical/mythological figures, a lot of whom might not be known to MG readers. Sure, it's a good opportunity for research, but I'd almost give this over solely to the YA crowd. MG readers will like it for the action and the excitement of other worlds, but I think YA readers will be able to understand more of the techno-babble, mythology and spiritual references, and some budding 'feelings' between Kit and Nita.

Approximate Reading Time: 3.5 Hours (less)

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Jul 06, 2009 Victoria rated it 5 of 5 stars

Nita is just starting to become comfortable with her wizardly abilities. She and her best friend Kit work carefully around their community, getting the feel for being wizards.

But Nita's canny little sister Dairine can't leave the idea of wizardry alone. Now that she knows her sister's secret, Dairine wants the power herself. Smart, abrasive, tough, and with big dreams of adventure, Dairine sneaks into Nita's room one night and reads the Oath. The next day, via the women's restroom at the space m...more

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Jan 16, 2009 Daniella rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Fans of the Young Wizards series and sci-fi/fantasy

Shelves: young-adult, book-challenge-2009, contemporary-fantasy, rereadable, science-fiction, to-buy, favorites, series, 2009

High Wizardry is probably my least favorite of the Young Wizards series. It was a fun, fast read, but much of the story seemed rather extraneous. Large portions of the narrative are taken up with unnecessary descriptions of an outdated OS, most of which I could have done without, and overall it simply lacks the same quality of layering as in So You Want to Be a Wizard and Deep Wizardry . As a result, it didn't even seem like anything important started happening until around the latter third of...more High Wizardry is probably my least favorite of the Young Wizards series. It was a fun, fast read, but much of the story seemed rather extraneous. Large portions of the narrative are taken up with unnecessary descriptions of an outdated OS, most of which I could have done without, and overall it simply lacks the same quality of layering as in So You Want to Be a Wizard and Deep Wizardry . As a result, it didn't even seem like anything important started happening until around the latter third of the book, and I came away feeling like there could have been a lot more to the story than there was.

Also, the majority of the book centers around Dairine. I actually kind of like her (except for her name, which sounds like some kind of low-fat dairy product or something), so this wouldn't really have bothered me if not for the fact that Nita and Kit got so little screen time. I love their dynamic, and I really enjoy watching them come into their own both in their wizardry and as individuals in that coming-of-age sort of way that's just right and not too clichéd or cheesy. But more than that, I've become so invested in their ongoing adventures through the first two books, and in their struggles against the Big Bad, that I felt rather cheated by Duane making them little more than a sideshow in Dairine's Ordeal circus, especially considering that this appeared to be such a critical turning point in the fight against the Lone Power.

That being said, I actually loved the latter fourth of the book. Not just because Dairine takes about ten levels in badass and lays the smack-down on the Lone Baddie--although that is pretty awesome--but largely because it's such a powerful story of change and redemption. It has always bothered me how many writers (and people in general regarding real life) seem to operate on the principle that, once a person crosses a certain moral event horizon, they can never turn back. You can't change; you're damned forever. But here's the thing: people change all the time. They don't always change for the better, and oftentimes it might not be very noticeable, but they do change. And I adore Diane Duane for straying from the well-laid path and instead conveying the idea that, even if you're the biggest, baddest motherfucker in the whole of time, space, and the entire freaking multiverse, you can change. It won't be easy, and it won't undo the damage you've done, but you can still make that choice and work to redeem yourself.

Whatever my other issues with this book, there's an important story here that needed to be told. Kudos to Ms. Duane for having the vision to tell it, and for doing it beautifully.(less)

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Dec 20, 2012 Echo rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Like the other books in this series, I really enjoyed it. At first I wasn't very fond of Dairine, but as she continued along in her journey I grew more and more fond of her. Also, Gigo just sounds adorable. However, the logic towards the end started to confuse me which is why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5. Still, it was a very good book and I definitely suggest giving it a read! I love the more scientific wizardry Duane has developed in this series, and I can't wait to read more.

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Mar 23, 2011 Mike Aragona rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: all

I have to say that the introduction of Nita's sister into the Wizardy world was partially expected, but still highly entertaining. Talk about how much someone can be capable of doing if they don't know they shouldn't be able to do it! [return][return]I must admit that it was a little strange to be almost at the end of the book and not remember that Dairine is the youngest wizard in the series. She certainly acted/ spoke like a much more mature person but perhaps that had to do with her above-ave...more

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Mar 15, 2012 Sbuchler rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-books, re-read, read-in-2012, scifi-fantasy

Genre: Young Adult Urban Fantasy

Poor Nita, as foretold in the previous book, Deep Wizardry now she has to deal with her much-too-competent younger sister Dairine becoming a wizard. The younger the wizard, the more powerful they are. Dairine is very young for a wizard and so her ordeal is extremely challenging – and is a lovely cap on the evolution of the conflict with the Lone Power that has been developing though the first two books.

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Jun 15, 2012 Indigo rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: girl-power, magic, nookbook, new-york, reading-for-kids, urban-fantasy, young-adult

This one was a hard read for me.

I never finished it on the first go, and it was a slog to finish this one.

I really read these books for Kit and Nita, and I don't much care for Dairine (from the weird name that doesn't really have a pronunciation guide) to the fact that she's an 11 year old genius.

So it was tough to get through this one, even if I did fall in love with Gigo and the silicon babies.

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Oct 15, 2010 Ben Olsen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Fantasy

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Fantasy > Magic

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Fantasy > Urban Fantasy

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About Diane Duane

Diane Duane has been a writer of science fiction, fantasy, TV and film for more than thirty years.
Besides the 1980's creation of the Young Wizards fantasy series for which she's best known, the "Middle Kingdoms" epic fantasy series, and numerous stand-alone fantasy or science fiction novels, her career has included extensive work in the Star Trek TM universe, and many scripts for live-action and a...more

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Books by Diane Duane

So You Want to Be a Wizard (Young Wizards, #1)

The Wizard's Dilemma (Young Wizards, #5)

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Quotes from High Wizardry

“Something always happens. You still have to promise stuff anyway. If you have to work to make the promises true... it's like a spell. You have to say the words every time you want the results.” — 28 people liked it

“Power," Nita heard her father say behind her. "Creation. Forces from before time. This is--this business is for saints, not children!"
Even saints have to start somewhere," Carl said softly. "And it's always been the children who have saved the universe from the previous generation and remade the universe in their own image.” — 24 people liked it

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High Wizardry (Young Wizards #3)

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