So You Want to Be a Wizard

By Diane Duane

Book One of the Young Wizards Series

Fifty or sixty eons ago, when life brought itself about, it also brought about to accompany it many Powers and Potentialities to manage the business of creation. One of the greatest of these Powers held aloof for a long time, watching its companions work, not wishing to enter into Creation until it could contribute something unlike anything the other Powers had made, something completely new and original. Finally the Lone Power found what it was looking for. Others had invented planets, light, gravity, space. The Lone Power invented death, and bound it irrevocably into the worlds. Shortly thereafter the other Powers joined forces and cast the Lone One out.
Many versions of this story are related among the many worlds, assigning blame or praise to one party or another. However, none of the stories change the fact that entropy and its symptom, death, are here now. To attempt to halt or remove them is as futile as attempting to ignore them.
Therefore there are wizards--to handle them. 

                                                     ---- The Manual, exerpt

When thirteen year-old Nita Callahan finds a book titled So You Want to Be a Wizard at the library, she thinks it's a joke--or is it? The book is actually a manual--for wizardry, and it says that Nita herself could be a wizard if she wants. She takes the Oath, and begins her Ordeal. All new wizards, once they take the Oath, embark on an ordeal, a test of aptidude. If they survive, they become full-fledged wizards. Nita soon meets Kit, another new wizard on Ordeal, and they become friends. When they are accidentaly thrown into an alternate Manhattan, they must work together to survive, find a way home, and save the Universe. I (of course) loved this book, this series, and this author. Nita and Kit are awesome, the Lone Power is a great villain, and Peach is hilarious. As always, great writing, great chrarcters, great plot. LOVED IT! The writing is fairly simple, rather than the somewhat complex books I sometimes read, but sophisticated enough that IT IS A GREAT BOOK! It was funny, interesting, and engrossing, with a great take on magic, fun characters, and AWESOME epic battles. The quote at the top is from Nita's Manual in the prologue of So You Want to Be a Wizard. I don't usually put quotes in my posts, but I thought it was the best way to explain why there are wizards in this book. This is a nice long series, with about nine books already out and more to come. YAY!