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New Millennium Editions

WritingYoung Wizards

A WIZARD ALONE, the New Millennium Edition

by Diane Duane

Revised and edited for its 21st-century readership, this edition features new material which does not appear in the original 2002 version.

Great power turns up in surprising places…

In A Wizard Alone, Kit and Nita join forces once more against the terrible Lone Power on an unusual battleground, as they fight for the heart and mind of a young wizard with the power to save their world.

Initially, Kit finds himself flying solo as Nita is struggling with depression after the events of The Wizard’s Dilemma. Luckily, Kit’s telepathic pooch, Ponch, is happy to fill Nita’s niche temporarily, as long as enough dog biscuits are involved.

Kit’s fighting to understand why autistic wizard-in-training Darryl McAllister has been stuck in his wizardly Ordeal for over three months.  Exploring inside Darryl’s mind as they try to assist him, Kit and the increasingly magical Ponch discover complex landscapes of weird beauty and evidence of a tremendous hidden power for good. But they also find the Lone Power there, pursuing and attacking Darryl with a relentless brutality that makes little sense even in the dangerous context of a new wizard’s initiation. What makes Darryl so important — and why can’t he escape his Ordeal?

Nita, meanwhile, is distracted from her sorrow by a series of strange dreams in which mysterious beings alternately ask for her help and warn her of a deadly danger from which they’re trying to protect the world. What do the cryptic messages mean? She has to find out quickly — because now Kit, too, has vanished. Can she find him before the peril in which he’s immersed himself becomes a trap from which he may never escape? And even if Nita does find him in time, will the two of them be able to join forces with Darryl in time to deal with the Lone Power’s newest threat before It can destroy them all?

Reviewers say:

“A wonderful fantasy that marries magic and wizardry with the natural world.” (VOYA: 5Q — highest rating)

 

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Out now: THE WIZARD’S DILEMMA, New Millennium Edition

by Diane Duane

Teenage wizards Nita Callahan and Kit Rodriguez have been working the New York suburbs for nearly thirty years now, through nine novels’ worth of adventures. As the dawn of their fourth decade in print draws near, the long-planned updating of the Young Wizards series continues with the Ebooks Direct release of the fifth novel in the series: The Wizard’s Dilemma.

Dilemma, like So You Want to Be a Wizard (book 1 of the Young Wizards series), Deep Wizardry (book 2),  High Wizardry (book 3) and A Wizard Abroad (book 4), now appears in a New Millennium Edition that’s been edited and updated for the present century.

You can find out more about the update project as a whole here. All nine books will be updated by the end of 1Q of 2013, and all brought into alignment with the new (2008-2011-based) timeline.

ETA: Dilemma is also now available at Ebooks Direct as part of the Young Wizards New Millennium Editions 9-volume box set.

A little about the story:

Sometimes even wizardry isn’t enough…

For the first time ever, friends and wizardly partners Nita and Kit seem to be having trouble communicating. They argue over a spell to clean up the pollution in part of New York’s Great South Bay, and from that point on, they can’t seem to connect on anything. Is it adolescence that’s tearing them apart or something more profound?

Nita breaks away from Kit to work on her own for a while — and then is jolted by a terrible and unexpected blow as her mother falls ill and is rushed into the hospital.

What’s even more horrifying for Nita than the mere fact of her mother’s illness is the possibility that nothing — not surgery, not even wizardry — will be able to keep her mom alive.

But Nita refuses to let her mother go down without a fight. Soon she’s on a mission to seek her mom’s cure: a journey that takes her across universes, and out of them, to the only place where she can learn the skills that may help her save her mother’s life.

What she doesn’t foresee is the terrible way in which this journey will once again bring her face-to-face with the Lone Power, the source of all death in the universe. That Power has been Nita’s worst enemy since she first started her practice of wizardry. Now, though, the Lone One and the bargain It offers her may be her mother’s only hope….

Reviewers say:

“A harrowing but triumphant affirmation of the power of the human spirit. Powerful and satisfying on many levels.” (Kirkus Reviews: starred review)

“A gripping and dynamic fantasy.” (VOYA)

To sign up for our shop’s mailing list and be informed of new releases in the New Millennnium series (and other offerings), click here.

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Now available: the New Millennium Edition of HIGH WIZARDRY

by Diane Duane
High Wizardry New Millennium Edition cover

Teenage wizards Nita Callahan and Kit Rodriguez have been working the New York suburbs for nearly thirty years now, through nine novels’ worth of adventures. As the dawn of their fourth decade in print draws near, the long-planned updating of the Young Wizards series is at last underway.

Available now at Ebooks Direct is the third novel in the series, and the one that made this whole project happen: High Wizardry.

Of the initial tranche of Young Wizards novels (published between 1981 and 1994), this was the one that had suffered most from the passage of time. Written with 1987’s computer technology in the background, it had increasingly begun to show its age.

Not any more. High Wizardry, like So You Want to Be a Wizard (book 1 of the Young Wizards series) and Deep Wizardry (book 2), now appears in a New Millennium Edition that has been extensively edited and updated for the present century.

You can find out more about the update project as a whole here. All nine books will be updated by the end of 1Q of 2013, and all brought into alignment with the new (2008-based) timeline.

If you’ve already picked up copies of the first two New Millennium Editions, you can grab High Wizardry here. Alternately, if you haven’t yet acquired any of the new editions, we’re offering a three-volume “box set” of the first three books in the series at a slightly lower price than buying all three separately.


(For those who’re interested: A Wizard Abroad, the fourth of the oldest group of Young Wizards novels, will be available next week. Please check the blog or the front page at Ebooks Direct for more news on the availability date.)

A little about the story:

Magic doesn’t stop where the atmosphere does…

Don’t take shrewd, eleven-year-old Dairine Callahan for just any bratty younger sibling. Impatient for adventure, knowledge, and recognition, maybe even a little jealous of her wizardly older sister, Dairine comes across Nita’s copy of the Wizard’s Manual and reads the Wizard’s Oath aloud….

Disappointingly, nothing seems to happen. But when her family’s new computer arrives, Dairine discovers that it’s come with a whole lot more than the usual bundled software. The computer contains a beta version of the new online edition of the Wizard’s Manual. Wrapped up  inside it is a whole world’s worth of spells, secrets and magical knowledge…and it’s all hers to play with.

Never the kind to do anything by halves, Dairine launches herself into a reckless, cross-universe, high-voltage magical conflict with the implacable enemy of all wizards and wizardry, the Lone Power. It falls to Nita and Kit to track Dairine down before she gets into trouble so deep that not even her precocious brains can save her.

But by the time they catch up with her, it’s already too late. On a bleak and empty world, Dairine has already become the wizardly godmother to a brand new life-form. And the relentless Enemy of all new life is even now hot on her trail, intent on ending the threat Dairine poses… permanently.

Reviewers say:

“The sheer effrontery of the plot — coupled with the gritty charm of the characters and the sprightly dialogue of these credible siblings — makes for enormous fun.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“Duane is tops in the high adventure business… This rollicking yarn will delight readers.” (Publishers Weekly)

“There’s a pacing that doesn’t let up from the very beginning. And even more than that, there’s a Heinleinesque affection for the characters. Duane writes about people you can really care about, with lots of quirks and endearing traits that feel real in a way most writers don’t manage. High Wizardry is… high entertainment.” (Locus)

To sign up for our shop’s mailing list and be informed of new releases in the New Millennnium series (and other offerings), click here.

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Coming Cyber Monday (November 26, 2012): "Deep Wizardry" New Millennium Edition

by Diane Duane

Next Monday is Cyber Monday, and starting at 0800 UK/Irish time that day, our Ebooks Direct store will be launching the New Millennium Edition of Book 2 of the Young Wizards series,  Deep Wizardry.

Like the NME of So You Want to Be a Wizard. this is a revised and updated version of Deep Wizardry, brought up to date for its new generation of 21st-century readers. Besides undergoing some general polishing and tidying, the novel has been revised to include modern technology more appropriate to the here and now than the original 1980s edition, and also continues the process of establishing a new, corrected timeline for the characters and events to carry the Young Wizards series forward into its new century.

There will also be a new cover for this edition by the magnificent Niko Geyer (who did the new cover for So You Want to Be a Wizard). Please note, however, that due to some temporary logistical problems at our Irish production end, that cover will not be available for the Cyber Monday launch. As soon as it is ready, purchasers will be notified so they can download copies of the book with the new cover.

The other two of the first four NMEs (High Wizardry and A Wizard Abroad) will be ready before Christmas: subscribers to the Ebooks Direct general notifications mailing list will be notified as soon as they’re ready. If you’d like to be notified when they’ll be available, please feel free to use the form below to sign up. All nine books in the Young Wizards series will be available in the New Millennium Editions by the end of the first quarter of 2013.

Also:  before Cyber Monday comes Black Friday, and the Ebooks Direct store will be celebrating that weekend as well. Subscribers to our store’s general notification mailing list will be offered special discounts for the Black Friday weekend. If you’re interested in availing yourself of these, you can use the form below to sign up: a mailing with the pertinent information will be going out within the next 48 hours.  (Just a general note about our list, by the way: we normally only send out a mailing once a month or so unless there’s a significant release. Naturally you can opt out of the list at any time. And equally naturally, we’ll never share your email address with anyone else. The very thought.)

Thanks in advance for your interest!

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Out now: the New Millennium Edition of "So You Want To Be A Wizard"

by Diane Duane

 

The New Millennium Edition of the first Young Wizards novel, So You Want to Be a Wizard, is now available in ebook format from the online Ebooks Direct store at DianeDuane.com.

This is not a rewrite of the book, but a polish and update intended to bring SYWTBAW into the new century by modernizing its setting and establishing it as the beginning of a new and much more consistent timeline, thus making it more accessible for its newest readers. It also contains exclusive new material that does not appear in the original 1983 edition. The beautiful new cover is by noted German graphic artist Niko Geyer.

For much more information about the update, read on. You can also access this new podcast interview with Ken Denmead at GeekDad, where the updating of the book is discussed in some detail toward the end of the podcast: and the “Wizards in a New Millennium” interview with Kelly Knox at GeekMom.

Some author notes:

So You Want to Be a Wizard has been in print pretty much constantly, on one or both sides of the Atlantic and in various non-English speaking countries here and there, for thirty years now. Over the last ten years or so — and particularly over the last five — I’ve become increasingly aware of how some aspects of the book have been dating…which is to say, not very well. And newer young readers have been telling me with increasing frequency that though they love the book, the early-1980’s feel of it put some of them off it to the point where it was a tossup whether they were ever going to read it at all.

To say that I felt their pain would be an understatement. While SYWTBAW suffers from this problem, other installments in the series suffer from it far more severely (High Wizardry probably the most). The difficulty isn’t just the difference between when they were written and now, but (in a way) the temporal distance or lack of it between the 80’s “then” of SYW and the now of 2012. If the difference were greater, or less, the books might be able to pass either as time capsules of a sort, or be able to slide in “under the wire” with the tech differences not being so glaring. But for the present key audience, the disconnect is really getting in the way. So updating the first four books in particular has been something I’ve been wanting to get handled for a while.

And now it’s getting handled.

I’ve taken a while about this (originally it was going to happen last year) because, especially as regarded the first book, I wanted to take care not to fix what wasn’t broken. These new editions are emphatically not rewrites. However, they do involve:

  • The most important bit: adjustment of technology and background in the book(s) to reflect what’s routinely been part of young readers’ lives, starting in 2008
  • Some minor editing of material that struck me while revising as clumsy or ineffective
  • Some additional material (not vast amounts)
  • Repair and reconstruction of what has for a long time been a very broken, inconsistent and frankly dysfunctional timeline

The third aspect is going to be most noticeable in So You Want to Be a Wizard. Some of you will have heard that the book has had several near-misses with film production over the last ten years. One of these resulted in a screenplay which, while not perfect, threw up some interesting additional scenes. A few of these were fun enough, or drove the plot in such a manner, that I decided to add them to the revision of the book. These are not massive passages or life-changing sequences: they’re just in there now along with the rest of the tidying and updating.

The fourth aspect, timeline repair and rationalization, will start becoming more obvious when Deep Wizardry and the books that follow come out later in the year. Because of the instability involved in the series starting at one publisher (Dell), being thrown overboard when the company was restructured, and then finding its way to a new home (Harcourt, now Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), the uncertainty involved with not being sure when or where the next book was coming out often resulted in editorial (not to mention auctiorial) uncertainty about how to handle character ages and the dating of events. The new editions, therefore, are starting with the events of SYW… being placed in 2008. The events in books that follow will be adjusted to fit as necessary, and new books in the series will follow the new timeline.


For clarity's sake, let me stress that the versions of the Young Wizards books presently in press at HMH will remain there for the foreseeable future. The publisher is at present not in a position to reissue the New Millennium editions as the definitive ones. Though that would be my preference, it won't be happening any time soon. Yet at the same time there's a persistent demand for something newer... so I'm putting it out there, for those who want it.

Now, as to formats:  The New Millennium Edition of SYWTBAW will be available in ebook format only for the foreseeable future. We are still (ETA: as of 2015) investigating the issues surrounding print editions, as to avoid conflicting with the Harcourt editions these must be published outside of North America. We hope to have results on this during Q1 of 2016. The ebook editions of the books remain available only from the Ebooks Direct store while we sort out various logistical issues with new distributors. As always with our own ebook releases, these editions are DRM-free and available in all the major formats.

Thanks for your interest!

 

 

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