kid & adult magic books

[timepiececlock]

So who read/ used to read L. J. Smith? I loved her "Secret Circle" books.

How about Lloyd Alexander's books: The Book of Three; The Black Cauldron; the High King?

Ursula LeGuin's Wizard of Earthsea books?

The Redwall books with the talking animals of which there's 50 million and I only got through ten?

Comments

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

Taran Wanderer and Earthsea in a big way. Earthsea remains to this day one of my favorite series.

Lloyd Alexander was a big formative part of my childhood (hell, we used to play it at lunch -- I was Henwen, to my everlasting shame), but IMO didn't wear quite as well when reread as a grownup.

Didn't read the Secret Circle, should I?

Read one Redwall and gave up. Talking animals rarely my thing.

How about Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising?

Mer

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[rashaka.livejournal.com]

How about Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising?

Never read that, myself. What's it about?

Didn't read the Secret Circle, should I?

I liked it a lot in middle school. I had some very teen-romance elements, but the witchy stuff was pretty cool. Magic battles and ceremonies. I kept trying to think of ways to cross it in fanfic with The X Files (I hadn't discovered Buffy at the time) but could never think of a good way.

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

Never read that, myself. What's it about?

Um, good and evil, mostly. And hard choices, and trust. And British holiday spots.

Its a series of 5 books, of which The Dark is Rising is technically the second. But Over Sea, Under Stone, is more of a prequel, and while it has its charms I don't think its nearly as good an introduction to the world. The next 4 books stand on its own without it perfectly well.

In Over Sea and Under Stone 3 young British holiday makers find a magic map to a magic treasure, more or less by accident, and then have to keep it safe.

In The Dark is Rising, young Will, the seventh son of a seventh son of a refreshingly functional family, discovers that he is an Old One, born to fight for the Light in the eternal battle with the Dark.

And then the complications set in. Partly in the actual battling, and partly in the juggling of his human loyalties and human relationships with this other role which is outside of time, and terribly important, and sometimes terribly harsh.

Each book corresponds roughly to a quest. The first takes place in and around Will's hometown. The second is in Cornwall, where he goes on vacation and meets the characters from Over Sea and Under Stone. The fourth and fifth are mostly set in Wales, where he goes to recouperate after an illness and then returns to.

I don't want to give away too much, because I really strongly recommend that you read them. All the characters, not just Will, are incredibly vivid. They're definitely young adult in length and size of print and lack of sex or cursing, but they're beautifully nuanced and not at all condescending.

Okay, end pimpage now.

Here's the whole< a href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?">series, and here's just the first book (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=68V50ROP1L&isbn=0689829833&itm=1userid=68V50ROP1L&isbn=0020425651&itm=5).

Mer

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

That sounds pretty cool.

Did you ever read the Everworld series, by K. A. Applegate? It's one of those series with about 20 short serial books, and is only about 3 years old. I read the first 5 of them. It's all about these 5 seniors in high school who get pulled through a portal into 'Everworld', which is like a world made up with various gods and cultures from old mythology (of all cultures), who were banished from the regular world. Except Everyworld is being invaded by aliens, so you have the mythological gods and their people at war with the aliens. And the kids realize that when they go to sleep in Everworld, they're awake in the real world. It's very strange.

I really liked the books though because it was the first "young adult" series that I felt was actually written for teenagers and above, and not for 11-12-year-olds, as most YA books are. It was a lot like Buffy in that respect. Also, it had realism in the fact that Everworld was a psychotically dangerous place, and most mythological gods were not nice people, and things they did had far-reaching effects. Like when they sell their chemistry schoolbook to one of the alien species in return for food and a pocketknife made of indestructable metal that can cut into anything. That comes back to really bite them in the butts.

Just thinking about this is making me want to go read some more... too bad I have such a nasty fine at the library right now.

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

No I never did read those but it sounds interesting. I'll keep an eye out for it. Thanks!

Mer

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[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Sure! Send me a note when if you start them, we can chat about it. :)