High Wizardry (Digest): The Third Book in the Young Wizards Series (Paperback)

We discover early in this book that Dairine is an incredibly power wizard; much more powerful than either Nita or her best friend Christopher (Kit) Rodriguez. Dairine's book of magic comes not in the traditional form of a book, but as a lap top computer, reflecting the improving state-of-the-art of computers in 1990 when Duane wrote this book. Of course any computer owned by a wizard would have to be strange, and Dairine's computer exhibits characteristics that are decidedly different from any computer we mere mortals have experienced.

Dairine's Ordeal matches her incredible power. She is tasked to bring an entire planet to self-realization and advancement to a higher state of consciousness, and she takes on the Lone Power with the support of her newly created and found friends. I leave the details to the reader.

This book has a different flavor from the first two books in the series. While the first two books had technology, this book exhibits a stronger science fiction or science fantasy influence. Even with that influence the fate of the Lone Power remains strongly metaphysical and just a touch incongruous with the science fiction nature of the story. The ending of the story relates, as with the previous two books, to the fate of the Lone Power, and thus must be metaphysical, and the ending confuses much of the effort Diane put into developing the science fiction aspect of the story.

Excluding the ending, this book is a captivating read and further develops the characters in the series. While the second book stands acceptably well on its own, I recommend reading at least the first book in the series, "So You Want to Be a Wizard," prior to reading this book. Knowing the principal characters is helpful in coming up to speed with the storyline.

This book is another good entry in this series, but with a different flavor. A solid four stars.

In a major shift, the hero of the story is Nita's little sister, Dairine, who has a knack for computer wizardry. The humor that was subtle in the previos novel, _Deep Wizardry_, returns in full force here for the first half-Dairine makes for a very humorous heroine. But toward the end the book bogs down in its own half-explained philosophy. This confusing finale keeps the book from obtaining the thrilling heights of the first two.